Carrefour Earnings: Another Solid Quarter With Strong Profitability Gains in France

Carrefour reported another solid quarter in its first-half 2023 results, with group like-for-like sales up 10.3%. Within this, France reported 7.3% like-for-like growth in the second quarter, supported by resilient like-for-like growth across formats. Hypermarkets were up 6.6% and supermarkets 7.6%, while trends for convenience stores continued to be strong, up 8.2% on a like-for-like basis. Carrefour France reported another notable performance, coupled with volume market share and new customer gains during the first half (567,000 new customers, according to the company). Carrefour has come a long way in France. Recent trends in the region confirm that execution and positioning of the business have yielded tangible results in a key market (France) and channel (hypermarkets), driven by solid like-for-like sales growth in food (up 8.5%, while nonfood was down 3.1%). Profitability improved by 36 basis points versus last year with recurring operating income at 1.4% in the first half.