Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer today posted full year financial results for 2013 which showed a rise in profits, with major investment over the past 12 months helping to boost sales in France.
On the back of this, the French retailer has said that it aims to further invest between €2.4 billion and €2.5 billion in 2014 to open, revamp and expand stores.
The group said the extra money would help speed up its store revamps and will also help it relaunch multi-format expansion. Carrefour said it would focus on markets such as China and Brazil, but will also look at other key emerging markets such as Argentina, where it will work on expanding its Carrefour Express convenience store banner.
On the back of a €2.2 billion investment in 2013, sales at Carrefour rose 2.5% to €66.9 billion, with operating profit up 9.8% to €2.2 billion.
Sales in its home market rose 1% to €35.4 billion. Asian sales rose 2.2% to €6.4 billion, while Latin American sales rose 12.3% to €13.8 billion.
The company said its recurring operating income rose 5.3% to €2.24 billion, slightly higher than the consensus forecast of analysts, including Bernstein's Bruno Monteyne.
"The results were solid, beating consensus expectations of recurring operating income by 0.8%," said Monteyne.
"Overall, the France recovery continues, but it is notable that the pace has slowed. Sales growth in Q4 was below Q3 (the core Hypermarket division slowed from 3.0% growth in Q3 to 1.4% in Q4 exc fuel)," he said.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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