Carrefour Sa

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Carrefour Q1 2026 sales webcast and conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to have a conversation with your speaker today, Mr. Mathieu Malige, CFO. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon to all of you and thank you for attending this 2026 Q1 Sales Call. I'm here with Sébastien Valentin, Head of Investor Relations and the rest of our IR team. Before we get into the numbers, I would like to remind you that Carrefour's operations in Romania are now accounted for as discontinued operations in accordance with the IFRS 5 accounting standard. Moreover, as announced during the presentation of our CAFOR 2030 strategic plan, we are today introducing our new reporting format centered on our three core countries, France, Spain, and Brazil. Let me start with a few key highlights before we get into the details of our Q1 numbers. The group had a solid start of the year with Q1 like-for-like sales up 2.2%. This performance was driven by accelerating business trends in France and Spain. Brazil is resilient in a still challenging market marked by this quarter by a sharp deceleration in food inflation. On the strategic front, we started the operational implementation of the CAREFUL 2030 plan with numerous initiatives. In Europe, we started to see the first positive effects of Concordis, our new European buying alliance, in our negotiations with major FMCG suppliers. We continued to improve the group's price competitiveness, notably in France and Spain. We kept expanding our growth formats with new convenience store openings in France and Spain. Additionally, we are pioneering a genetic commerce in France through the direct integration of Carrefour's offer into the chat GPT interface. And finally, at Atacadao, we launched Bullnus, our new entry-price private label range. As you can imagine, we have been closely monitoring the crisis in the Middle East since the end of February. To date, we have seen no material impact on Carrefour's business. As far as our energy costs are concerned, let me say that our energy efficiency has significantly improved over the past few years following heavy investments, and our energy costs are more than 85% edged for 2026. On the basis of this satisfactory quarter, we confirm our 2026 financial targets. Let's now dive into Q1 numbers on slide three with group sales. The total sales for the quarter reached 21.1 billion euros, increasing by 2.5% at constant currency. Group like-for-like sales were up 2.2% over the quarter. The scope effect had a negative contribution of 0.8% over the quarter, which includes perimeter adjustments in Brazil notably after the divestment of Nacional and Bonpreso stores last year. Petrol added 0.8 percentage points to growth, and the calendar effect was a positive 0.4%. Forex had an unfavorable impact on total sales growth of minus 2.1% over the quarter, mainly reflecting the depreciation of the Argentine peso. In total, Reported revenue was up 0.5% in Q1. Moving on to slide 4 with more details on the performance of France. Like-for-like sales accelerated to 1.4% in Q1 in a supportive market with food consumption holding up well, both in volume and value. All formats posted positive like-for-like growth. with a marked sequential improvement compared to Q4 2025. Market share increased over the quarter. The former CORA unmatched stores continue to ramp up with like-for-like sales now outperforming respective legacy formats by more than two points, reflecting the successful commercial transformation implemented throughout 2025. Carrefour continued to improve its price competitiveness with 200 private label products sold at cost and a first national wave of price cuts in March covering 500 SKUs. This was followed in April by a second national wave of price cuts, again covering more than 500 SKUs with an average price reduction of around 8%. These investments and further operating excellence are resonating with consumers, leading to an improved net promoter score up three points in France and up 11 points in ex-corastals. Let's now turn to Spain on slide five. Commercial momentum remains strong in the country on the back of a steel dynamic market, both in volume and value. Like for Like sales growth accelerated over the quarter with a 3.1% increase compared to 2% in Q4-25. This strong performance was driven by both food up 2.8% Like for Like with outstanding dynamics in fresh products and non-food up 4.3%. Carrefour continued to invest in its price leadership with a commitment to 1,000 unbeatable price products, which effectively supported consumer purchasing power and drove the NPS up by three points. Commercially, our omnichannel strategy is paying off with e-commerce up 9%. Finally, we successfully opened 34 new convenience stores in Spain over the quarter. Turning to slide six, On our operations in Brazil, we showed resilience in a still challenging environment. Q126 like-for-like sales declined slightly by 0.8%. The macroeconomic environment remained challenging with a still high interest rate. Volumes remained negative at low single-digit levels in line with Q4 after the lower point was reached in Q3. Food inflation dropped to 2% in Q1 compared to 4.1% in Q4 2025, weighing on both the cash and carry and retail formats. Against this backdrop, Atacadao delivered continued like-for-like market share gains. The quarter was also marked by the launch of the Bullness private level with 70 inaugural SKUs available to support purchasing power, which has been well received by customers. Carrefour retail food sales were up 2.8% and recorded growing volumes. In particular, hypermarkets delivered positive like-for-like sales growth of plus 1.1%. Non-food continued to decline as Carrefour Brazil maintained its focus on the profitability of its non-food digital operations. Sam's Club posted a strong 5.7% like-for-like growth driven by increases in both volume and the number of active members. Additionally, the financial services performed well with plus 15% increase in the credit portfolio. Moving on to the other countries segment on slide seven. In Belgium, sales growth came at plus 0.8% like for like, improving sequentially after plus 0.2% in Q4, supported by slightly positive volumes, despite a slowdown in food inflation. Poland continued to face a highly competitive local market and posted a decline of minus 2.9% in like for like sales, a similar dynamic to Q4. And finally, in Argentina, we recorded record market share in a difficult market still experiencing negative volumes. Let's wrap up on slide eight. As you have understood, we are pleased with our first quarter performance, which is in line with our expectations. We delivered clear sequential top line improvement in our core European markets of France and Spain. We maintained a resilient business trend in Brazil, despite navigating a still challenging macroeconomic environment that we believe will improve through the year. To date, we have seen no material impact from the conflict in the Middle East on the activities of the group. On the back of these solid starts to the year, we are confirming a full year 2026 financial target. I thank you for your attention. Sebastian and I are now happy to take your questions.

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. We will now go to our first question. And our first question today comes from the line of Saria Lemene from Bank of America. Please go ahead.