Belgian only European country with growth
Carrefour only managed a 0.2 % organic turnover growth on its French home market (excluding calendar effects and fuel prices), but strong international sales (+ 5 %) helped push the overall turnover. Growth came from convenience stores (+ 5.1 %), as hypermarkets (- 0.2 %) and supermarkets (- 1.1 %) lost ground. The board points to the unstable summer months and the considerable price drop for fruit and vegetables.
Particularly the excellent performance of Latin America is easy to see: up 18.5 %, compared to – 3.3 % for Asia and – 1.6 % in Europe. In the Old World only Belgium managed to grow, up 1.3 % on a like-for-like base. Poland and Romania have remained level, while Spain (- 1.2 %) and Italy (- 4.8 %) have lost some ground.
Carrefour added 197 new stores and 51,000 sqm store space in the past quarter. With 121 new convenience stores and 76 supermarkets, it now has 10,608 stores in total. The board has upheld its forecast that Carrefour will get a 2.38 billion euro operating profit for 2014, based on the current exchange rates.
