The hypermarket group expects sales growth of about 6.5 per cent at constant exchange rates in 2008 and trading profit will only “grow slightly compared with 2007”.
The retailer said: “Over the last weeks, Carrefour has observed deteriorating global consumption trends, particularly in Europe. In this context, Carrefour has chosen to continue its aggressive promotional policy to meet the needs of its customers.”
Bernstein analyst Christopher Hogbin said the warning implied that trading profit would be about €150 million (£142.3 million) less than previously expected.
He said many of Carrefour’s difficulties were specific to it and observed: “The UK grocers in their domestic market are less exposed to non-food than Carrefour, we have recently seen data from TNS showing robust growth to November 30 and internationally they have no exposure to Western Europe.”
Carrefour chief executive Jose Luis Duran is standing down and will be replaced on January 1 by Lars Olofsson.
Hogbin said: “The agenda for the new chief executive will surely now have to focus on addressing the fundamentals of Carrefour’s core operations, namely price/promotional strategy, in-store execution and cost-cutting.”
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