The first retailer to publish its annual results in a context of particularly tense household consumption, the Carrefour group announced on Tuesday February 14 that it had achieved a turnover of 90.8 billion euros, up 8.5% in 2022, and an operating result which increased by 8.3%, to 2.38 billion euros. These results are “very solid given the unprecedented inflationary environment and the pressure it is putting on both our customers and our costs”judge Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of the distribution group, noting that many of its competitors around the world have warned during the past year that they would not meet their objectives.
Inflation is certainly mechanically responsible for this improvement in receipts since the prices on the shelves have increased, but “Inflation also has consequences on our purchasing, energy and transport costs, and our labor costs”, underlines the leader. The instantaneous photo is therefore, according to him, the fruit of “strategic choices made over the past five years and great financial discipline that have made it possible to build a very resilient growth model”. The annual savings target, raised to 1 billion euros, has also been achieved, notes the group.
In France, where revenue grew by 3.4% to 42 billion euros, “We also gained market share in both value and volume, and welcomed 500,000 more new customers [qu’en 2021] », adds Mr. Bompard. Carrefour captures 19.6% of the market, according to the latest data from the firm Kantar, just behind Leclerc (22.8%).
The trend is not recent, but in supermarkets, with tighter budgets, the French have concentrated their purchases even more on the essentials, as shown by the 4.4% increase in turnover on food products and the 3.5% drop in revenue from non-food categories. They also returned to hypermarkets for their daily shopping.
Multiple promotional operations
At Carrefour, turnover increased by 1.8% in 2022. Admittedly, the brand has greatly transformed this model, in which Mr. Bompard believes. But above all, “the French see it as a format that defends their purchasing power “. In these very large surfaces, consumers were also attracted by the many promotional operations to counter inflation, as well as by the various incentive discounts on fuel. And this, while food prices jumped by 12.1% in 2022 over one year, according to INSEE, well beyond the whole of inflation in France (5.9 %).
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