Strong turnover growth for Carrefour in first quarter

Latin American growth, Chinese drop

Over the first three months of the year, Carrefour managed a 21 billion euro turnover, which is a 6.2 % increase compared to the same period last year. French like-for-like sales grew 2.5 %, but Carrefour’s Latin American sales were the real eye-catcher: like-for-like sales grew 12.5 % over there. Belgium managed a 2.1 like-for-like turnover increase, which helped European sales (excluding its home territory France) grow 0.9 % in total.

Its Asian performance was in stark contrast with the positive performances elsewhere: like-for-like sales dropped 11.3 % in the region, with China experiencing the biggest drop (- 14 %). That was even worse than what analysts had expected, at – 10 %.

Carrefour had already confirmed it would invest 2.6 billion euro into store updates and the addition of French pick-up points, but it remains to be seen whether the group will also devise a new Chinese strategy.