French retailer Casino has revealed a severe slowdown in sales growth for the second quarter of the year, as cost-cutting shoppers in France reduced their spending due to the economic crisis and poor weather, Reuters reported.
Casino said that its performance in emerging markets had made up for tough trading conditions at home, where its Geant hypermarkets had suffered the worst hit.
The company posted an 11.6 per cent increase in first-half profits, while its full-year target of boosting sales by more than 10 per cent remained unchanged.
Trading profit at the retailer, which last month took exclusive control of Brazil's largest retailer, Grupo Pao de Acucar, stood at some €638m for the six months ended 30 June, with sales rising by 7.5 per cent to €17.3bn.
Meanwhile, like-for-like sales growth excluding fuel slowed to 1.7 per cent during the second quarter compared with 6.6 per cent in the first.
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