Carrefour Brasil's adjusted profit soars 75% in q2

The local unit of the French retail group Carrefour announced on Monday (27) that it earned R$ 713 million from April to June, compared to R$ 408 million in the same period of 2019, according to the balance sheet.
Operating performance measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) adjusted advanced 27.5% year-on-year to R$ 1.42 billion, after efficiency gains even in a more challenging scenario, with adjusted Ebitda margin rising to 9% from 8.1% a year earlier.
Gross sales, excluding gasoline, increased 18.3% in the quarter to R$ 17.3 billion, with R$ 11.8 billion coming from the Atacadão and R$ 5.5 billion from the Carrefour flag. In the same stores format, discounting the calendar effect and gasoline sales, the consolidated result grew 14.9% compared to the previous year.
"And July sales are following the same trend as in the second quarter, so we expect the third quarter to also show strong growth," Carrefour Brasil's vice president of finance, Sébastien Durchon, told reporters.
Like rival GPA, controlled by the also French Casino, Carrefour Brasil have invested heavily in recent years in the atacarejo format. Excluding gasoline and calendar effect, Atacadão posted an 8.6% increase in same-store sales in the quarter, marking the largest quarterly advance since the company went public in 2017. The gross margin of the division rose 0.5 percentage points compared to the same period in 2019, to 15.7%.
In the Carrefour division, the same stores growth was 30.3%, while gross margin went from 25.6% to 26.8%. Total e-commerce skyrocketed 94% year-on-year to R$ 918 million. Online food sales alone jumped 377% between April and June, as social isolation measures boosted internet purchases.
"Our food ecommerce operation approached a breakeven point in June," Durchon said. "Online penetration in food sales was less than 1% before the crisis and rose to almost 8% in June... It's a change without turning back", explained the executive.
Carrefour Brasil's shares rose just over 8% in July, outperforming rival GPA, which advanced about 6% in the same period.