Mixed feelings for Walmart: the world’s largest supermarket chain saw its worldwide profit and turnover rise, but its American sales went down – for the ninth quarter in a row.
International sales went up 16.2% to 30.1 billion dollar, but in home market USA like-for-like sales went down 0.9%. Walmart’s total turnover went up 5.5% to 108.6 billion dollar (75.6 billion euro).
US economy poses problems
The US are still accounting for 62% of worldwide turnover, but the economy in the States poses a serious problem: unemployment figures are high and consumer confidence is low, meaning that consumers watch their expenses. A recent survey showed that Americans no longer see Walmart as the cheapest supermarket in the US – a perception change that is very unwelcome for the market leader in these times of crisis.
Walmart did realise a profit growth of 2.1% in the US through cost cuts and improved efficiency, but its international profit growth was a lot higher – peaking at +5.7% or 3.8 billion dollar. Profit per share was 1.09 dollar – 12 cents higher than the year before and 1 cent higher than what analysts had expected. For the whole financial year, Walmart raised its profit forecasts to 4.51 euro per share, significantly more than the 4.18 of last year.
