French retail giant Carrefour has booked a decline in first-quarter sales after foreign exchange offset growth in emerging markets and a “resilient” domestic performance.
First-quarter sales totalled EUR20.8bn (US$27.1bn), down 1.3% at current exchange rates. Carrefour emphasised currency exchange trimmed 2.6% off the result and excluding FX sales were up 1.3% in the period. Organic sales rose 1.9%, the group added. Like-for-like sales excluding fuel and at constant exchange rates were up 0.2%.
Internationally, Carrefour said its operations in Latin America “continued to perform well”, while sales in Asia were “stable”. In Europe, with the exception of Belgium, sales were dampened by weak economic sentiment. In total, international sales were up 3%, excluding currency movements, while organic sales were up 3.5%.
Domestically, Carrefour said it saw a “resilient” performance across all formats. The company said sales dropped 0.7% in France, but emphasised this included a negative calendar effect of 1.1%. Like-for-like sales excluding fuel were down 1.4%.
Shares in Carrefour were up 0.65% at EUR20.76 at 11:39 CET.
