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Carrefour Group France announces Trading Statement

In the second quarter, Carrefour pro forma group sales, including VAT (Value Added Tax), but ex-currency, grew 3.1%. Including currency, sales grew 4.1%. On reported Q2 2004 numbers, sales growth was 1.9% and 2.9% respectively (Mexico and Japan were deconsolidated as of the 1st January 2005). As they have highlighted in recent communications, the trading environment in Europe is very challenging for them. They have seen deflation and weak market volumes across most of Europe since the end of last year. In the second quarter, however, these trends have been even more apparent. In this tough environment, their goal has been to consistently out perform the competition and win market share. To this end, they have made progress in the quarter.

Their price investments in France, particularly in their hypermarkets, have delivered results. The number of customer transactions in their French hypermarkets grew by 1.4% in the quarter and, as a result, market share increased. Overall, Carrefour Group in France grew market share over the first half, the first increase by the group as a whole since 2000.

They say they are on track to exceed one million square metres of new space in 2005 through organic growth and through tactical acquisitions. In Quarter Two, they opened 208 new stores under banner, accounting for 201,000 square meters of new space. This included 8 hypermarkets, 12 supermarkets, 129 hard discount stores and 54 convenience stores. They now have 11,432 stores in their portfolio.