Robust sales in Brazil helps network Carrefou

The French connection Carrefour, the second largest retailer in Europe, announced the sales slowdown in the third quarter, while growth in Brazil, its main market after France, has shown robust performance during the period.
Sales in the third quarter of Carrefour, however, were to 21.077 billion euros, the equivalent of $ 27.01 billion, in line with the average forecast of 21 billion euros in a survey conducted by Reuters, with analysts. The result had the help of organic sales in Brazil, where the expansion of operations is in the plans of Chief Executive Georges Plassat. Domestically, sales rose by 12.8% in the quarter, said the network, pointing out that the breakthrough came on an already strong base in the same period of the previous year, 2013.
"All formats recorded a solid performance," said the company concerning the results in Brazil. The brand further added that sales on the same basis in stores open for at least a year grew 7.7 percent in the period, thereby accelerating the pace of expansion compared to 7.2% in the second quarter.
Third quarter
Despite this, the overall results of the company were impacted by slowed growth performance in Spain and Italy, regions stricken by economic austerity measures. The volume of 21.077 billion euros represented an increase of 2.8% after discounted the effect of fuels and coins-deceleration compared to 4.9% advance established by the retailer in the second quarter.
In France, sales in hypermarkets showed resilience and fell less than expected. Business conditions remained weak in China, where the Government is cracking down on excessive consumption, especially about alcohol.
Investments
In Brazil, the French supermarket chain, which came to close his virtual store, now started to operate two new flags: Carrefour Express, in São Paulo, and Supeco, in Sorocaba (SP). The first experiment involved the entry of French connection in the proximity. The second was the expansion of Carrefour's performance in the segment of ' atacarejo ', which serves both the final consumer as entrepreneurs in the field of power supply.
With the new operations, Brazil now has the same number of marks the retailer operates in other countries. During the inauguration of the Supeco, this month, the CEO of Carrefour in Brazil, Charles Desmartis, reaffirmed the potential of the domestic market. "It's the second best market in Carrefour," he said. And emphasized that the online sale is also in the plans of the network.
Competitors
In contrast, the rival Casino unveiled earlier this week sales slowdown in Brazil, its largest market. Grupo Pão de Açúcar controller (GPA), the country's largest retailer, the Casino had a quarterly growth of sales on the same basis, excluding fuel and calendar effects, of 6.7%, compared with 9.8% in the second quarter, when sales of non-food products in hypermarkets of the Group had been boosted by the football World Cup, which took place between June and July.
Conclusions
Overall, Carrefour said it was about to reach the expectations of a higher operating profit this year. The company's financial Vice President, Pierre-Jean Sivignon said the analysts ' consensus of a 6.3% increase in operating profit in the year to 2.38 billion euros, was "reasonable".
In the region of southern Europe, Carrefour's sales suffered from low consumer confidence, with a bad summer and a fall in the prices of fruits and vegetables on site.