Solid growth from G&G
franchise holder and partner of the Carrefour group in France and
Spain, has reported solid growth in sales for 2002, and predicts
further improvements in 2003.
Guyenne et Gascogne (G&G), the French company which is a key franchise holder for Carrefour, has announced solid growth in sales for 2002. Turnover for the year reached €1.36 billion, up 4.6 per cent, a slight improvement on sales growth of 4.1 per cent in the previous year.
The parent company, which operates six hypermarkets under the Carrefour fascia and 23 supermarkets under the Champion banner, posted an increase of 6 per cent to €502.9 million. Most of this growth came as a result of like-for-like sales from the hypermarkets, which grew by 2.3 per cent during the year, considerably higher than the French industry average of 1.3 per cent for 2002. The opening of two new supermarkets also contributed to the improvement.
Sogara, the retail operator in which G&G has a 50 per cent stake along with Carrefour, saw its sales rise 3.8 per cent to €1.7 billion, helped by the integration of a new store during the first quarter. Sogara operates 13 hypermarkets, managed by Carrefour.
Sogara is also a minority shareholder in Centros Comerciales Carrefour, the Spanish company which operates the Carrefour fascia there, and G&G confirmed that it would be retaining its stake in the company (currently 8 per cent) despite Carrefour's decision to take direct control of its Spanish unit, which operates 117 hypermarkets and 180 supermarkets.
Centros Comerciales Carrefour opened five hypermarkets in Spain in 2002 and posted sales of €8.2 billion, up 1.9 per cent. These sales are not, however, included in G&G's consolidated results.
Like many other French retailers, the company said that its sales were affected in December by the fact that there was one Saturday less this year than last - Saturday being a key sales day in the run up to Christmas - and by the fact that the 2001 figures were swollen by consumers rushing to use up their French francs in advance of the introduction of the euro in January 2002.
However, trading appears to have returned to something approaching normality in the first few weeks of 2003, with the annual sales getting off to an excellent start.
G&G said it expected to continue to grow its business -in both south west France and Spain - during 2003.
