Halfway through its transformation plan launched two years ago, Carrefour is smiling again. After accusing a loss of 582 million euros in 2018, the French distributor announced this Thursday a net profit of 1.13 billion euros for 2019, thanks in particular to the sale of its activities in China, the closure of its Dia stores or the sale of the Rue du Commerce site.
While the group made a billion savings in 2019 (2 billion euros since the start of the plan), the transformations begun are starting to bear fruit. Its current operating profit thus increased by 7.4% (to 2.08 billion euros) in 2019 with in particular a strong contribution from France (+ 15.6%).
What to rejoice its CEO, Alexandre Bompard. “We have methodically corrected our weaknesses and put price competitiveness at the center of our commercial strategy”, he affirmed this Thursday during the presentation of the annual results before affirming that “France illustrated these dynamisms: those of the conquest and catching up ”.
In detail, Carrefour, which defines itself as the leader in the food transition for all, posts an organic sales growth of 25% and its e-commerce turnover of 30%. The group is also pleased to see its range of own brand products, which represents just under 30% of sales, attract more and more consumers.
“We are in a phase of reconquest”
In France, it is mainly local formats and the development of drives that constitute “the engines”, thus compensating for the drop in turnover in hypermarkets. But even on this format, which has been battered in recent years, the distributor displays his optimism. “On the hyper, we agreed to hurt ourselves by initiating a lot of transformations, by abandoning certain categories (Editor’s note: jewelry, for example) Recognizes Alexandre Bompard when the reduction in commercial areas reached nearly 55,000 m2 in France at the end of December. “But now, we are in a phase of reconquest,” says the CEO.
The distributor claims in particular an improvement in its price positioning which is reflected in France by the “unbeatable” prices on more than 500 consumer products or by the strengthening of loyalty schemes (such as the implementation of the “market loyalty bonus” ” in January).
