French retail giant Carrefour today (19 February) posted a 74.2% slide in 2009 net profit as earnings were dented by writedowns and a decline in sales.
Net profit dropped to EUR385m (US$519.8m), down from EUR1.27bn last year.
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During the past 12 months, Carrefour took EUR1.1bn of charges, including EUR766m in impairment charges, primarily related to its Finiper business in Italy.
Net sales fell 1.2% to EUR86bn.
Carrefour has invested heavily in cutting prices, especially in its domestic market and western Europe. The company emphasised that it was able to slightly increase its market share in France as a result of its pricing initiatives.
However, sales dropped in both of these key regions – French sales declined 2.7% to EUR36.9bn while sales in the rest of Europe fell 5.4% to EUR30.7bn.
Chief executive Lars Olofsson, who took the helm at Carrefour in January last year, emphasised that the company had made progress in its “transformational” cost-cutting initiative, which is designed to make savings of EUR4.5bn by 2012.
“In 2010, in an environment that is likely to remain challenging, we will consolidate these gains through flawless execution of the transformation plan and strengthened sales dynamics in our key markets,” Olofsson said.
For the full press release click here, or check back later for just-food’s in-depth look at Carrefour’s full year.
