Casino grows in Q1 – especially overseas

Food retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon posted a 2.2 per cent increase in first-quarter sales to €5.48bn, supported by further expansion overseas and growth for most of its French chains, with the exception of the Franprix-Leader Price business, which is being reorganised.

The sales figure was slightly below €5.53bn seen by Deutsche Bank and the €5.50bn forecast by Exane BNP Paribas, AFX News reports. Excluding currency effects and divestment of its Taiwanese operations, organic growth came to 3.7 per cent. Casino’s domestic sales rose 1.5 per cent to €4.24bn, while international sales soared 11.7 per cent on a comparable basis, reaching the level of €1.24bn. Casino repeated its full-year guidance for growth in recurring operating profit and an improvement in its net debt to EBITDA ratio to less than 2.5.