French retailer Carrefour, the operator of Europe’s largest hypermarket chain, obtained revenues in 2018 that were 6 percent higher than in the previous year, reaching a new record value of almost EUR 1.9 billion, according to profit.ro.
Carrefour’s local store network grew by almost 40 units last year, having reached a total of 360, of which 35 are hypermarkets, 261 are supermarkets, 51 are proximity stores and 13 cash & carry stores.
Globally, Carrefour reported net sales of EUR 76 billion in 2018 – a 3 percent drop compared to 2017. At the end of last year, the group owned a total of 12,111 stores.
The group’s profit from recurrent operations was EUR 1.93 billion, a 4.6 percent increase, but net losses grew to EUR 561 million, 30 million more than in 2017.
The group revised upwards its estimations for annual savings by 2020, from EUR 2 billion to EUR 2.8 billion. It also announced that it would accelerate its plans to expand the proximity store network, estimating that it would open 3,000 new units of this kind by 2022.