FRANCE: Louis Delhaize suffers falling sales in France | Progresiv

Belgium-based Louis Delhaize has announced falling sales in France for 2014, continuing the pattern seen by the retailer for the last three years. Investment in prices at both its Cora hypermarket and Match supermarket chains hurt the retailer’s performance during the year, while continued price cutting in 2015 is likely to prolong the pain being felt by the retailer.

Louis Delhaize said that sales at its Cora hypermarkets fell by 6.3% to €4.57 billion despite no change in the number of stores that it operates. The pace of decrease in sales means that since 2011, when it last recorded a rise in sales, Cora has seen a fall in sales of 11% in total. The investment in price by Cora also hurt its EBIT performance, which declined by 17.3% 126 million euros.

At its Match supermarkets sales fell by 6.2% to 1.15 billion euros, while it fell to an EBIT loss of 7 million euros. The fall in sales at Match was affected by the closure of net three stores (four were closed and one opened), but again the investment in prices by the retailer was the main driving force behind the decrease. In its 2015 results Match will see a further fall in performance with the price cuts being accentuated by the closure of 11 further stores.

Louis Delhaize and Carrefour signed an agreement to partner for purchasing negotiations for national and international brands, food products and general merchandise, excluding private label products and fresh produce in late 2014, which has helped Louis Delhaize continue to invest in price during 2015. (www.igd.com)