Carrefour, Europe’s largest food retailer, saw its sales growth accelerate in the third quarter, especially in its core French market.
Total group sales increased 19.0% to €23.7bn with like-for-like (LFL) growth of 11.3%, reflecting market share gains in all its key operating countries. This marked an acceleration from 7.3% LFL growth in the second quarter of 2022.
In France, Carrefour’s sales rose 6.6%, with the company noting that its hypermarkets (+5%) benefited from their “discount” profile and “attractive” low-price offers as consumers grappled with surging inflation. Its own-label products were also said to have continued outperforming the market.
In the rest of Europe, the group’s LFL sales were up 8.6%, with an increase in all countries. In Latin America, sales surged up 24.6%, driven by Argentina which saw LFLs jumping 91.3%.
Carrefour stated that it now expected free cash flow to come in “comfortably above” €1bn at the end of 2022, up from a previous forecast of “at least” €1bn. The group added that it still planned to save €1bn in costs this year.
Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO, commented: “In an environment marked by many uncertainties and inflation that is taking hold in Europe, Carrefour is demonstrating its ability to adapt and the robustness of its model.
“The group is continuing its strong momentum of market share gains in all its key geographies, starting with France. We are demonstrating agility as consumers increasingly adapt their purchasing behaviour to the new inflationary environment. In Brazil, the integration of Grupo BIG is progressing at a very swift pace, and we are accelerating store conversions. Carrefour is thus continuing to move ahead with confidence and is raising its cash generation target for 2022.”
