Eurofood: Casino posts strong first quarter - Food Retailing - Brief Article

French food retailer Casino saw Its shares rise following strong sales in the first quarter. Casino posted a sales rise of 8.9% at (5.345bn [euro], above analysts' expectations of 5.22bn [euro]. Organic growth was 8.7%, again beating forecasts of 6%.

The strong first quarter performance from Casino also provided favourable comparisons with its rival chain and European market leader Carrefour. Casino saw sales at its hypermarkets and supermarkets rise by 2.2% and 5.9% respectively, comparing well against Carrefour's figures, which saw sales hypermarket sales up just 1.0% and supermarket sales up 3.3%.

Although the figures suggest Casino is outperforming Carrefour, many in the French industry believe the improved performance has come at the expense of Auchan, rather than Carrefour losing out.

Casino said its Geant hypemarket format saw sales rise faster than the industry average. Market share also increased at Casino supermarkets, Monoprix citymarkets, Petit Casino, Spar and Vival convenience stores.

Casino's discount format, Leader Price, also posted double-digit sales growth on a like-for-like store basis.

STRONG INTERNATIONAL SALES

Casino also reported a good performance on the international scene. In the US, Smart & Final sales grew in line with objectives, in Poland, hypermarket sales rose and Leader Price stores registered a strong 13% increase in sales.

In Argentina despite the difficult economic environment, Libertad hypermarkets reported a gain in market share and its first Leader Price outlets generated sales that were described by the French retailer as "substantially higher than objectives".

In Uruguay Grant hypermarket sales rose sharply up, 15%, and in Venezuela, supermarket sales rose another 7% after a 20% increase in 2001.

Operations in Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil and Colombia also posted sales increases.

Casino consolidated net sales Q1 2002 (m [euro])

                Q1 2002   Q1 2001   %+/-

France          3 980.7   3 731.8    +6.7
International   1 364.5   1 177.8   +15.9
Total           5 345.2   4 909.6    +8.9

Source: Casino