Food retailer Carrefour started cutting prices this week – by around 10% on average – on some 500 products, to help French shoppers cope with high cost of living, a company spokesperson has said.
The price cuts cover food and hygiene products from 400 brands and 100 private labels.
Brand Reductions
Targeted products from brands range include Suntory's Orangina, Heineken beer, Danone's Badoit mineral water, Unilever's Dove deodorant and Colgate toothpaste, according to a list seen by Reuters.
The round of price reductions comes as the biggest food companies in France pledged to cut prices on hundreds of products from July, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last week, threatening financial sanctions if they fail to make good on the promise.
Cost Of Living
In April, Carrefour said it was confident of more profit and cash flow growth this year despite high inflation, after sales growth accelerated in the first quarter.
Sales reached €22.071 billion, marking like-for-like growth of 12.3% and an acceleration from 10.9% sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2022.
This was driven by a solid performance in France, where Carrefour hypermarkets' low-cost offering attracted buyers grappling with the cost of living.
Targets
In the same month, Carrefour confirmed its financial targets for 2023, which are for further growth across its main three indicators – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), recurring operating income and net free cash flow.
"In a context of very high food inflation in most of its markets, Carrefour is staying the course and maintaining strong commercial momentum, with steady market share performance in all its key countries," chairman and CEO Alexandre Bompard said in a statement.
Read More: 5 Key Takeaways From Carrefour’s 2022 Full-Year Results
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