Following today’s release of Casino’s figures for the 13 weeks ending 30th September 2023;
Joe Dawson, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:
“The global retail group Groupe Casino saw its Q3 sales dragged down by an underwhelming performance in its French retail proposition, which forms the bulk of the business. Group total net sales decreased 5.3% on a l-f-l basis to €4,562m in the 13 weeks ending 30 September, with growth of 6.4% in Latin America offset by a 5.6% decline in France where price cuts failed to drive revenue growth and attract new customers, and e-commerce sales fell back. While social and political turbulence and a downturn in weather in France will have certainly contributed to the group’s underperformance, it is a lack of investment in competitive prices and store management that have most severely affected sales. It is worth noting that these results come in the wake of rival Carrefour’s positive growth in all markets in its Q3.
“A poor performance from hypermarkets and supermarkets in France, with l-f-l sales down 18.6% and 11.5% respectively, underpins the negative overall result for Casino. This compares to Carrefour’s growth in hypermarket sales of 4.2% as consumers flock to the retailer’s larger store formats for lower prices and wider range of private label products. The group’s other retail brands and convenience format in France provided some respite. Monoprix sales were flat year on year, as food sales grew marginally and countered a slight decline in non-food sales, while Franprix had the best results for the period, with overall sales up 2.2% and 98 stores opened since the start of the year.
“The group’s Cdiscount e-commerce platform had net sales down 24.8%, as it reduced its direct sales to customers in favour of expanding marketplace transactions on the website. This saw service revenues up 6.9% and marketplace revenues up 1.4%, showing a clear trajectory for a return to growth in line with plans to transition to a more profitable model.”
