Retail Analysts

Carrefour realised a good fourth quarter despite a difficult environment, with +1.0% sales at €26.0bn (excluding petrol). This gain is partly due to improvements on price image in France.

Lars Olofsson, CEO:
“The market share gains registered notably in France attest to the good execution of our strategic initiatives, which aim at capitalising on the attractiveness of the Carrefour brand and improving our price image.”

"Christmas at dream prices"

Carrefour / Christmas 2009

Q4

• Sales in local currency on prior year’s level with a significantly smaller number of new store openings than in Q4 2008
• Christmas trading in Germany: Real, Media Markt and Saturn as well as Galeria Kaufhof report like-for-like sales growth in December
• International sales in local currency grow by 0.3%
  (Western Europe: +1.5%, Eastern Europe: -1.5%, Asia/Africa: +0.7%)

Third Quarter Trading Statement for 13 weeks to 2 January 2010:

• Total sales for third quarter up 6.2 per cent (6.3 per cent excluding fuel)
• Like-for-like sales for third quarter up 3.8 per cent (3.7 per cent excluding fuel)
• Like-for-like sales for third quarter up 4.2 per cent excluding fuel and VAT
• The Non-Food range grew at over four times the rate of food in the quarter

Group sales increased by 7.5% at constant exchange rates (6.9% at actual rates) in the six weeks to 9 January 2010.

UK
Total sales increased by 8.3% compared with the same period last year (8.0% excluding petrol). Like-for-like sales excluding petrol and including VAT increased by 5.1% in the period (4.9% VAT-adjusted), all of which was volume growth. This was the strongest Christmas performance for three years.

United States
Fresh & Easy had a stronger Christmas and New Year period than last year, with total sales growth of 35% at constant exchange rates (24% at actual rates) and strongly positive like-for-like sales growth.

Five weeks to 2 January 2010:

• Total sales +15.8%
• Like-for-like sales +12.7%
• Fashion sales (including beauty) +22%
• Home +19.6%
• Electricals and home technology +11.4%

Source

13 weeks to 26 December 2009:

• Group sales +2.6%
• UK sales +2.3%
• UK General Merchandise +3.2%
• UK Clothing +4.0%
• UK Home –0.7%
• UK Food +1.3%

Like for like sales:

• UK +0.8%
• General Merchandise +1.2%
• Food +0.4%
• Online sales +32%
• International sales +6.0%

Source

• Net sales for the five weeks ended January 3, 2010: $8.26 billion (+11%)
• Net sales for the eighteen weeks ended January 3, 2010: $26.83 billion (+8%)
• Comparable sales (5 weeks): 5% (US), 25% (International), 9% (Total)
• Comparable sales (18 weeks): 2% (US), 17% (International), 5% (Total)

Source

• December sales: $6.3 billion (+3.6%)
• Sales in comparable stores -0.3%

Walgreens customer traffic in comparable stores was down 0.8 percent in the month, while average sales per transaction fell 2.3 percent in comparable stores.

Source

• Net retail sales for the 5 weeks ended January, 2: $9,741 million (+5.0%)
• December comparable-store sales: +1.8%

“December comparable-store sales were much better than expected, as stronger-than-anticipated guest traffic throughout the month drove sales growth in a broad array of merchandise categories, including apparel, electronics, toys, food, and health and beauty” said Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Target Corporation.

Source