(News Bulletin 247) – The sales of the group led by Alexandre Bompard increased by 16% over one year in 2022, supported by the inflationary context. The company has notably tightened its costs with an overall saving of 1 billion euros for the past year.

Sales of the Carrefour distributor, driven by the rise in food prices in the various countries where it operates, rose sharply in 2022, and the group announced on Tuesday a net profit up 26%, to 1.35 billion. euros against 1.07 billion in 2021.

Carrefour saw its sales increase by 16% in 2022 to 90.8 billion euros, it said in a press release. The number two French retailer, behind E.Leclerc, has also announced the launch of a new share buyback program of up to 800 million euros in 2023, a measure intended to support its stock market price.

In previous years, Carrefour had already bought back 700 million euros of its shares in 2021, then 750 million in 2022, “with a view to their cancellation”. A measure that “reflects management’s confidence in the performance” of the group and its prospects.

Dividend increase

At the close on Tuesday, the distributor’s share was worth 16.42 euros, up more than 2% over the day and 4.99% since the start of the year. This is less than the entire CAC 40, which rose by 11.4% at the same time.

Carrefour will also propose to its shareholders to increase its dividend per share, from 0.52 to 0.56 euro, at its general meeting scheduled for May 26.

In the meantime, the Group’s Executive Director of Finance and Management Matthieu Malige welcomed during a telephone press briefing on Tuesday that the distributor had won “market share in value and volume” in the group’s so-called “key” countries. , citing France, Spain and Brazil in particular.

“In a context of unprecedented inflation, Carrefour is once again demonstrating the solidity of its model with remarkable 2022 performance,” said the group’s CEO Alexandre Bompard.

Cost discipline

The company manager presented his plan for the distributor’s next four years at the end of 2022, emphasizing the “discount”, a buoyant format in a context of inflation where consumers are very attentive to the price of the goods they buy. ‘they buy.

The group intends to finance a lower price policy through “strong discipline” in terms of its costs, which resulted in 2022 in a “cost savings target of one billion euros”, reached according to the distributor .

Saying to have “achieved all of its operational objectives” in 2022, it “anticipates growth in its main financial aggregates” in 2023, in particular EBITDA, current operating profit and net free cash flow, indicators of profitability. and cash level.

(With AFP)