Carrefour sales, down again in Q1, after frail winter recovery

Carrefour French retailer, the biggest hypermarket network domestically, in the first three months of this year registered 267m euros in sales, down 0.6% (2m euros) from the same period of last year, considering that toward the end of 2010 the retailer’s revenues had posted a slight rally.

Thus, in October-December 2010 period, the French retailer’s Romanian sales hit 327m euros, up 0.2% from 2009. A 4.3% decline could be seen at that time in comparable terms, though. The fourth quarter is usually the best for retailers, with sales being spurred by consumers’ rising appetite during the winter holidays period.

In the first part of this year, domestic sales slid by 4.1% from the first quarter of 2010, if like-for-like results are analysed. The French group’s expansion in Romania boosted sales by 6.1%, while the forex rate had a 2.6% negative impact.

The Romanian decline comes as European sales also dropped, by 3.7%, with Turkey (1.2% growth) and France (1.8% growth) as the only countries where increases were posted.