<!–*/
/*–>*/
The French supermarket giant
Carrefour amassed 249 million euro in the last six months, far worse
than analysts had expected – even after repeated profit warnings
they had expected a 31 million euro profit. Chairman Lars Olofsson
has subsequently lowered the expecttions for 2011 by 15%.
Even though Carrefour’s sales were on
the up in the emerging markets, Carrefour again led
massive losses in its home market France, where its achievements were
called “unsatisfying”. Not only its shrinking French market
share, but higher purchasing costs too did nothing good for the
French retailing giant. The net result was also weighed down by
one-off charges of 884 million euro – 516 million of which caused
by the Italian branch. Carrefour’s operating profit went down 22% to
772 million.
“We have tried to do too much too
quickly”, admitted CEO Olofsson, who admitted that Carrefour’s
performance was “disappointing”, partly due to economic
circumstances – but also due to Carrefour’s own mistakes. In
November, Olofsson celebrates his three years in charge of the
world’s second supermarket chain. This analyst predicts that it will
not be a very fun party…
