Carrefour sees French recovery
First quarter sales show signs of hope
Carrefour has seen sales growth on its home territory across the first quarter of 2005, as measures to compete more strongly on price pay off.
Having struggled against competition from rivals, particularly discounters, for much of last year, the world’s number two retailer said that sales in France increased 0.9 per cent across the quarter, led by hypermarkets which grew sales by 1.7 per cent. Sales outside France were up 8.7 per cent.
In France, strong volume growth in non-food compensated for significant deflation, and the value of the average basket increased by 0.2 per cent.
[img r]carrefourchinainstore.jpg[/img]Sales in Europe grew 5.4 per cent, with like-for-like growth of 1.5 per cent. Spain and Italy grew sales, while Belgium, Greece and Poland saw declines. Sales in Latin America increased 11.5 per cent at constant currency rates, while Asia saw like- for-like increase of 7.9 per cent.
Carrefour opened or acquired 263 new stores across the quarter, including 20 hypermarkets, 37 supermarkets, 79 hard discount stores and 124 convenience stores, bringing the total to 11,261 worldwide.
