Carrefour has had an excellent quarter, with sales in many countries increasing strongly. Even its Belgian branch has rebounded in recent months, after years of decreasing sales.
New strategic plan
Carrefour’s group level sales grew by almost a fifth to 23.5 billion euros. In its French home market, comparable growth was 6.6 % as its market share grew. The company saw strong sales of its private labels, which now account for 33 % of all sales. The budget brand Simpl was expanded to more than a thousand references. Hypermarkets are showing improvement, thanks to their competitive price image.
The positive results were repeated elsewhere too: Italy (+ 7.1 % comparable growth) saw sales growth for the fifth consecutive quarter, in Spain (+ 8.7 %) the retailer is gaining market share, in Poland (+ 18.5 %) Carrefour is significantly outperforming the market and the performance in Romania (+ 8.8 %) was also solid. In Brazil, sales grew by as much as 64.8 % thanks to the integration of Grupo BIG, which is going well. Comparable sales growth was 11.5 %.
“In an environment marked by numerous uncertainties and the inflation that is taking hold in Europe, Carrefour is demonstrating its ability to adapt and the robustness of its model”, CEO Alexandre Bompard said ahead of the presentation of a new strategic plan on 8 November.
Signs of improvement
The Belgian branch, for so long the ugly duckling of the company, finally managed to return to growth after falling 7 % in the first quarter and 4.8 % in the second quarter. With a comparable sales increase of 5.2 % in the third quarter, sales now reached 1.05 billion euros. “In a highly competitive market, characterised by a difficult economic situation and high inflation, the first measures of the new management team that took office in July are bearing fruit. Operational indicators, such as trends in market share, show signs of improvement”, a jubilant press release states.
The new managing director for Belgium, Geoffroy Gersdorff (the first Belgian to head the company since Carrefour started operating here), was given the tough task of getting the retailer back on the growth path. The food retailer struggled with severe logistics problems in recent quarters, lost its biggest franchise partner Mestdagh to Intermarché and has to deal with major malfunctions in its webshop.
Back in September, the new CEO had already signalled the first signs of a turnaround. In recent months, Carrefour has focused more strongly than ever on purchasing power promotions and strengthening its own brands. The fourth quarter will reveal whether this has started a sustainable recovery.
