Carrefour posts 80% slower organic growth in Q4

The expansion of the hypermarket network and the integration of the Artima supermarkets brought Carrefour’s sales in Romania to 1.19 billion euros, up 37% against 2007, but the French retailer reported its lowest local organic growth rate in the fourth quarter, of 1.9%. The advance in RON amounted to 52%, according to the latest financial report of the French group. Like-for-like sales – which do not consider the expansion of the sales area -saw a much lower growth rate in Q4, down to 1.9% (against Q4 of 2007), almost three times lower than the rate reported in Q3 of 2008 against Q3 of 2007. This is the lowest quarterly rate of organic growth reported by Carrefour since its entry on the Romanian market in 2001. Carrefour Romania representatives did not wish to comment on these results, however, the French group’s financial report specifies that, difficulties in the global economy affected the sales volume and sales mix, as well as the retailer’s margins throughout 2008 and in Q4 in particular.