Carrefour announces result of race to supermarkets by coronavirus

Included among the few sectors of the economy that tend to see sales and profit rising amid the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the supermarket scan sbegins today to release the results of the first quarter of 2020 by the local subsidiary of the French group Carrefour.
Carrefour's balance sheet figures should show the result of the race to buy groceries and hygiene and cleaning products early in the outbreak of covid-19 respiratory infection infection in Brazil in mid-March.
According to previous indicators of economic activity, the supermarket sector has fared better until that of pharmacies, another type of trade essential in a crisis like the current one. While markets saw revenues grow 6% in the week of March 22-28 compared to the historical average, according to data from payment processor Cielo, drugstores and pharmacies fell 16% and apparel retailers fell 92%.
In the accounts of the stock broker Agora, Carrefour's revenue should have risen 11% in the period from January to March this year compared to the same period of 2019, to 14.4 billion reais. Profit should have advanced 12.4%, to 470 million reais. The performance of internet sales is the main focus of investors' attention.
With stores in major cities, Carrefour probably benefited from the first movement of consumers when the pandemic landed in the country, that of filling the carts in physical supermarkets. Then, with the enactment of quarantine in several regions, a good part of the customers headed to the sites – and those who had the most sour online operation will continue to gain as the social distancing lasts.
Due to the greater capillarity, which also favors internet sales, grupo Pão de Açúcar must have had an even better result than Carrefour. Revenue swelled 15% in the first quarter to R$ 14.6 billion, up 95.4% in profit to 428 million reais, according to Agora's calculations. Pão de Açúcar publishes its balance sheet on May 13, after the stock exchange closed.