Carrefour, 508m-euro sales in H1

Carrefour reported sales worth 508m euros in the first half of this year on the Romanian market, up 40.3% against the same period in 2007. Not taking into account exchange rate variations, the retailer’s turnover surged by 54.8% in the above-mentioned period. At the beginning of this year, Carrefour integrated Artima’s network of 21 supermarkets, which it took over last year from Polish Enterprise Fund V for 55m euros. Thus, H1 turnover also includes the sales of the supermarket unit in the February-June period, according to the company representatives. In the past 12 months, Carrefour has doubled its number of hypermarkets in Romania, from 7 at the end of H1, 2007, to 14 in late June. This is the fastest annual expansion Carrefour has registered since it entered the domestic market in 2001. At present, the network includes 15 hypermarkets.