Carrefour reported sales worth €508 million in the first half of this year on the Romanian market, up 40.3% against the same period in 2007. Not taking into account exchange rate variations, the retailer’s turnover surged by 54.8% in this period.

The company feels that its multi-format strategy is paying off. Within the last 12 months Carrefour has doubled its number of hypermarkets in Romania, from 7 at the end of H1 2007, to 15 this month. This is the fastest annual expansion Carrefour has registered since it entered the domestic market in 2001.

At present, the network includes 15 hypermarkets. Carrefour integrated Artima’s network of 21 supermarkets early this year, which it took over last year the Polish Enterprise Fund V in a deal worth €55 million.

In Q2 of this year, Carrefour saw changing consumption patterns with customers purchasing less in non-food and differently in food. The decrease in volumes of national brands and rise of their own label brands has been another contributing factor in the company's H1 sales.