Paris, 29 August - Carrefour announced sustained sales growth of 8.5% inits 1H 2008 results today.
Highlights• Sustained sales growth: +8.5% at constant exchange rates (+8.0% at current exchange rates)
• Strongest First Half growth since 2005: Activity Contribution up 5.5% to €1,404m
• Net income from recurring operations, Group share, up 1.2% to €750m
• A sound financial structure to support growth: cash flow to net debt ratio of 16.7% versus 16% in H1 2007
Our First Half performance underscores:
- The group’s resilience, as demonstrated in the challenging economic and consumer environment in France and Western Europe
- The relevance of our multi format and single brand strategy
- The excellent performance in Carrefour’s growth markets*
We confirm our 2008 objectives:
- Sales growth at constant exchange rates of 7%
- Growth in Activity Contribution broadly in line with sales
- Operating free cash flow of €1.5bn
Commenting on these results, José Luis Durán, Carrefour’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “These are Carrefour’s best first half results since 2005. This strong performance attests to the relevance of our multi format single brand strategy on an international scale. The Group has robust fundamentals, with a business model focused primarily on food, a balanced portfolio of formats, leading positions in the countries where it operates, and a sound balance sheet.
"These strengths, along with our competitive advantages such as the power of our brand and our real estate potential, give us the means to forge ahead and create greater value. In an uncertain and challenging environment, the implementation of the operational action plan we announced in July makes me confident that we will achieve our 2008 objectives.”
Our results in H1 2008 demonstrate that our international multi‐format, single‐brand strategy is paying off
�� Sales rose 8.0% in H1 (8.5% at constant exchange rates) to €41,948m:
�� All regions contributed to sales growth, with growth markets recording a strong performance.
�� In France, our multi‐format approach, with good like‐for‐like performance at supermarkets (+5.9%), hard discount (+2.5%) and convenience stores (+2.7%), enabled us to offset lower hypermarket sales (‐0.9%)
�� Sales in the rest of Europe grew faster than in H1 2007, thanks to strong dynamics in Spain (8.3% of total growth), stable performance in Italy (+1.4%) and a significant contribution from European growth markets (+21.7% at constant exchange rates).
�� Sales in Latin America grew strongly once again (+41.8%), supported by the integration of Atacadao.
�� In Asia, sales at constant exchange rates showed the same vigorous growth as in H1 2007, despite the impact in China of the April and May events.
�� Overall, sales in our growth markets increased by 25.5%.