Carrefour does not need the Belgian national football team

WC football raises comparison base

The strong second quarter in 2014 is mostly the reason for the lower turnover growth in 2015’s second quarter. Back then, the supermarket group managed a strong 3.8 % like-for-like turnover growth thanks to the Belgian national football team at the World Championships in Brazil.

These numbers come from Carrefour’s overview report on its worldwide financial results in the first 6 months of 2015, with an overall 42.3 billion euro turnover, up 5 % compared to 2014. For the second quarter alone, the French company managed a 4.2 % turnover increase to 21.4 billion euro.

Part of that growth is thanks to the store network expansion as it added 225 stores in the second quarter, bringing the total to 11,910 stores by the end of June. Excluding that expansion, there would have been a 2.9 % turnover growth.

Carrefour performed best in Brazil, where its like-for-like turnover growth was 7.8 % in the first six months of 2015, excluding gas sales and the calendar effect. Considering its European performance, Spain stands out as it managed a 2.8 % turnover increase in the second quarter. Chinese sales under-performed, with a 13.3  % turnover drop in the first semester. Italian turnover also dropped 3.1 %.