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PARIS (Reuters) -Carrefour, Europe’s largest food retailer, said on Wednesday that it looked to the end of the year with confidence, and kept its 2023 financial goals even though sales growth slowed in the third quarter.
Third-quarter sales reached 23.63 billion euros ($25 billion), marking like-for-like growth of 9% which was less than 10.3% growth in the second quarter, Carrefour (EPA:CARR) said, adding it confirmed a cost savings target of 1 billion euros for the year.
The sales growth moderation reflected a slowdown in food inflation in Carrefour’s core markets of France and Brazil.
In France, hypermarket sales rose 4.2% in the third quarter of 2023 compared with a 6.6% rise in the second quarter of 2023.
Against a backdrop of continued pressure on purchasing power consumer behaviour was unchanged with a continued trading down and food and non-food volumes still contracting in the third quarter, the company said.
In Brazil, the group’s second-largest market, sales fell 3.7% on a like-for-like basis, reflecting the country’s turn to food deflation in the quarter an amid pressure on consumption.
Carrefour said it was expecting a continuation of current trends and reiterated its financial targets for 2023, which are for further growth across its main three indicators – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, recurring operating income and net free cash flow.
The company said it had achieved 664 million euros out of its 800 million euros buyback programme for 2023.
($1 = 0.9450 euros)
