Carrefour has ended the financial year in Belgium with a profit, despite a small drop in sales. At group level, profitability was under pressure, prompting the retailer to undertake a strategic review of its operations.
Strategic review
Carrefour’s group sales achieved a comparable growth of 7.1 % to 25.7 billion euros in the fourth quarter, and for the full year even only was a 9.9 % growth to 94.55 billion euros – although this was only + 0.4 % in actual growth. However, operating profit fell 2.2 % to 2.2 billion euros and net profit went down from 1.7 billion to 723 million euros. The retailer points to changing buying behaviour due to the declining purchasing power of consumers, who resort to downtrading and smaller average shopping baskets.
In its home market, the retailer experienced a particularly difficult fourth quarter, with sales down 2.1 %. Sales were also under pressure in Italy and Poland, while Latin America posted comparable growth of 25.6%. The group is now announcing a thorough strategic review of its operations. A first step in this is the recent bid to take full ownership of the Brazilian branch.
Encouraging Belgium
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Carrefour Belgium posted sales of 1.22 billion euros. This was a comparable sales decline of 0.3 % from a year earlier, but November (+ 0.4 %) and December (+ 1.1 %) showed some improvement. For the full year, the food retailer posted sales of 4.53 billion in Belgium, down 1.6 % compared to the strong 2023, when Carrefour posted a 9 % growth as it was able to benefit from the social unrest at Delhaize.
In a press release, Carrefour pointed to “record levels of customer satisfaction”, but the retailer is also satisfied itself as results in Belgium return to profitability. Its recurring operating result is positive again, which was CEO Geoffroy Gersdorff’s big target. The retailer speaks of encouraging results stemming from the ambitious strategic plan implemented over the past two years.
