Supermarkets help Carrefour keep its sales stable

Carrefour, the biggest hypermarket operator on the market, reported a 0.7% sales decline domestically for the first nine months against a year ago, to 804m euros (VAT included).
In like-for-like terms, the French retailer's sales in Romania dropped by 5.3% in the same interval, against a 4.9% decline in the first half.
Thus, overall sales stabilisation in the first three quarters can be accounted for by Carrefour's finalised expansion investments, with the supermarket network getting to 29 stores, from 24 operational stores in late September 2009. In 2009, the first year when it coped with consumption declines in Romania, the French retailer reported the first annual sales decrease, of 4.6%, but RON turnover kept rising owing to the two hypermarkets and six supermarkets that were added.
Starting 2010, the company focused its expansion plans on the supermarket segment, with ten stores due to be opened this year, through investments ZF puts at 1m euros per store.