Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer, recorded an increase in full-year sales today (15 January), despite the “difficult” trading environment.
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The French retailer said it would achieve its 2009 profit targets after reporting a 1% rise in sales in the last three months of the year, driven by stronger than expected growth in Latin America.
In August, Carrefour admitted full-year earnings were likely to fall by 18% in 2009 after its first-half earnings slumped.
Full-year sales in France dropped 2.8% to EUR41.3bn (US$59.4bn) in the year to December. On a like-for-like basis, sales in the country fell 2.9%.
Carrefour’s French hypermarket sales fell 5.3% on a like-for-like basis, excluding fuel, to EUR21.66bn. Amid rising unemployment, French consumers have been cutting back on discretionary spending, hitting non-food sales at hypermarkets.
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By GlobalDataHowever, Carrefour said it had gained market share in France in the fourth quarter, and had gained 0.3 percentage points in the first 11 months of the year.
Overseas, like-for-like sales in Latin America increased 4.4% to EUR12.6bn. However, in Asia, like-for-like sales fell 0.4% to EUR8.6bn.
CEO Lars Olofsson said: “In spite of a very difficult environment, Carrefour posted higher sales both for the full year and in Q4 (excluding petrol and at constant exchange rates), driven notably by Brazil and China.”
He added: “The resilience of our sales thanks to the intensification of our commercial dynamics, combined with our unprecedented efforts to reduce costs, allowed us to attain our objective for the year and post an ‘activity contribution’ at the top end of the range we announced.”
