Paris, July 16 - Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer behind U.S. group Wal-Mart, said second-quarter sales fell 1.2 percent, hurt by weaker western European markets, lower petrol prices and exchange rates.
The drop to 23.44 billion euros ($33.04 billion), including a 3 percent fall in its domestic market, was slightly less than the expected 1.9 percent decline to 23.28 billion euros based on the average of estimates from nine analysts polled by Reuters.
"It was all pretty much pre-released. I would highlight that within France, the hypermarkets were worse than expected and the supermarkets were better," one analyst said on condition of anonymity. "There's a deterioration in the hypermarket numbers in the second quarter."
Carrefour, with some 490,000 staff in over 15,000 stores in 30 countries, had already issued a profit warning at an analyst day on June 30 when it said first-half sales should be about 46 billion euros. First-quarter sales were 22.7 billion.
"Carrefour posted resilient half-year sales in an environment that shows no signs of improving in the short term," Chief Executive Lars Olofsson said in a statement on Thursday.
"In the second quarter, we saw encouraging results of the actions we have started to implement ... The strategic initiatives that we are implementing should show positive results in the second half."
Carrefour said on June 30 that it plans to make savings of 4.5 billion euros by 2012 by cutting operating costs, improving purchasing terms and reducing inventory times.
Chief Financial Officer Pierre Bouchut confirmed on a conference call a forecast given then that full-year operating profit would decline to 2.7-2.8 billion euros from 3.3 billion.
FRANCE UP SLIGHTLY WITHOUT FUEL
In France, which contributed 10.14 billion euros of Carrefour's second-quarter revenue, second quarter like-for-like hypermarket sales fell 5.3 percent, or 1.4 percent excluding petrol, while hard discount stores posted a 7.5 percent decline in like-for-like sales.
Excluding petrol, sales in France rose 0.6 percent in the quarter, Carrefour said.
Retailers across the world are struggling in an economic downturn. Carrefour has suffered more than most due to its exposure to weak western European markets and to sales of non-food goods, which have been hit harder than groceries.
Wal-Mart posted a 0.6 percent fall in first-quarter sales, while British rival Tesco reported a 9.7 percent increase, helped in part by favourable exchange rates.
Smaller French rival Casino on Wednesday posted a 1.9 percent drop in second-quarter sales, broadly in line with analyst estimates, pulled down by lower petrol prices and declines at its French hypermarkets.
Carrefour said total second-quarter sales excluding petrol and the impact from currencies rose 2 percent. Like-for-like sales excluding petrol slid 0.5 percent.
The group saw a continued slowdown across all formats in Spain, "reflecting a difficult environment".
However, there was a slight improvement in trends in Italy and Belgium, supported by improved food sales, Carrefour added.