French Supermarket Carrefour's Losses Deepen

Losses at French supermarket Carrefour extended in 2018, according to its latest results announced on Thursday. The closure of the Dia supermarket chain hit Europe's leading retailer increasing the company's net loss to 561 million euros over the previous year.

Carrefour's chief executive officer Alexandre Bompard said the company had undertaken an “unprecedented transformation” in 2018.

Discontinued operations made a significant contribution to the supermarket's losses with the closure of 273 Dia stories resulting in a loss of some 301 million euros.

However, net profit actually rose by almost 4 per cent to more than 800 million euros when adjusted for exceptional items.

The company said the Yellow Vest protests had impacted on operating profit with Carrefour's hypermarkets and non-food sectors being affected.

CEO Bompard put a positive spin on the results, saying the “encouraging results” enabled the French firm to “revise upwards a number of 2022 targets”, according to a statement.

Its cost savings targets were raised from 2 billion euros to 2.8 billion euros by 2020.