Carrefour Romania reports first decline in over one year-old stores

Carrefour Romania retailer reported its first year-on-year sales decline for over one-year old stores, by 5% against the first three months of 2008. If the network’s new hypermarkets are included, this amounts to an almost 7% advance in the first quarter against the same time last year, to 250 million euros. The sales growth rate in RON was of 23.5% in the same interval. Carrefour is the largest hypermarket operator in Romania, with a 23-store network. The company also operates 20 supermarkets on the Romanian market. Last year, the retailer posted business worth 1.19 billion euros, up 37% on 2007. The advance in RON amounted to 52% and came in the wake of a doubling in the number of functioning hypermarkets and after integrating the Artima supermarket network in February.