Carrefour announces mixed Q1 results | Progresiv

France-based Carrefour has said that total sales rose 6.2%, or 1.0% at constant exchange rates and excluding petrol, to 21.3 billion euros. The retailer saw, at a group level, like-for-like sales, excluding petrol and calendar effects, rise 1.4%. It also highlighted how it had enjoyed strong food sales during the quarter, rising by 5.9%. Despite the positive headline figures, Carrefour's overall performance was affected by weakness at its hypermarkets in France and continuing challenges in China.

Carrefour said its performance in its home market had been affected by 'an unfavorable calendar effect and a very competitive environment'. It noted that consumption in France had contracted in the first two months of the year, but had turned positive in March. It noted that the challenging consumer environment was accentuated by intense promotional activity by a number of competitors, especially in March, with this being led by Leclerc.

Despite the testing market environment, it said that total sales, including petrol, had risen 0.8%, to 9.4 billion euros, with the results driven by its supermarkets, where total sales rose 1.1%, and its convenience/other formats, 5.5%. In like-for-like terms sales excluding petrol rose 0.5% at a country level, by 2.2% at its supermarkets and by 4.4% at the convenience/other formats. Carrefour said that its convenience and other formats had continued to benefit from its focus on its multichannel strategy, the growth of ecommerce more widely, with it saying that sales through Rueducommerce rose by 'double digits' during the quarter, and the conversion to the Carrefour brand of the DIA stores it acquired.

However, Carrefour said that its overall performance had been affected by a contraction in sales at its hypermarkets. It said that total sales through the channel fell 0.8%, while in like-for-like terms they were down by 1.6%. The retailer did say that it had enjoyed a rise in sales at its renovated hypermarkets, but that the overall effect had not been strong enough. At a channel level Carrefour said that its average basket size was up, but that footfall had dropped, offsetting this positive effect.

In its operations in Europe, outside France, Carrefour said total sales rose 3.6%, to 5.4 billion euros, with its topline performance driven by Spain. Across the region the retailer said that like-for-like sales rose 0.9%, with dynamic growth in Italy, where like-for-like sales rose 1.6%, supported by 'strong like-for-like sales growth in Poland and Romania' and a positive performance in Spain. This encouraging performance was offset by its operations in Belgium, where total sales fell by 2.7% and like-for-like sales contracted by 1.8%. The weak performance in Belgium, it said, was due to its decision not to repeat a successful promotional campaign that it ran in Q1 2016.

Following the results, Carrefour's management confirmed it remained confident and focused on driving sales growth, at constant exchange rates, of between 3% and 5% in 2017 overall. (www.igd.com)