Paris, Oct 14 - French supermarket group Casino posted a 13 percent rise in third-quarter sales, boosted by convenience and discount stores and its international business, and stuck to its full-year growth targets.
Consolidated net sales from continuing operations rose to 7.21 billion euros ($9.8 billion), the group said on Monday, just ahead of an average forecast of 7.16 billion from 11 analysts polled by Reuters.
Sales in its main French market grew by 5.2 percent to 4.74 billion euros, while its international business contributed 2.48 billion with a rise of 31 percent.
"Casino did a little bit better than in the second quarter in France, generally it is better than expected," said Claudie Casimir at French brokerage Natixis.
Casino, whose stores range from discounters Franprix and Leader Price to hypermarket chain Geant, added it was sticking to its goals of faster organic sales growth and further growth in trading profit this year.
Against the backdrop of the financial crisis, the retailer said consumers were switching from hypermarkets to discount stores and buying more private labels, as well as curbing spending on non-essential items other than food.
Same-store hypermarket sales rose just 0.5 percent during the quarter, declining 1.7 percent excluding gasoline purchases.
"Growth continued to be led by convenience and discount formats, as well as by private labels and value-line products," Casino said in the statement.