Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Carrefour Full Year 2023 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 one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Good evening to all of you. Thank you for joining us for this presentation of our annual results. Before we begin, I would like to talk to you about our shareholder and friend , Abilio Diniz, who passed away on Sunday night. Since 2015, his life has been deeply intertwined with that of Carrefour, and the story of the Carrefour Group will always be closely linked to him. For an earlier decade, he has served as an example for all of us, and I want to express, in the name of the entire Carrefour Group, our profound emotion, admiration, and gratitude for his contributions to Carrefour at group level and in Brazil. Despite our sorrow, I have to present to you the results of our group for the year 2023.
Before we get into any figures, I'd like to share some reflections on 2023. Last year was marked by an extremely challenging environment. We face unprecedented macroeconomic challenges that impacted us more clearly in 2023: surging inflation across Europe, escalating interest rates, and consequences of soaring energy costs. Consequently, we witnessed the most significant decline in volume for decades, at least since the late '80s. Meanwhile, customers increasingly shifted toward private labels and entry price items and showed a heightened dependence on promotions. These trends pose significant challenges to our industry. Retailer faced the pressure of high inflation and the complexities of adjusting pricing policy, which added to the difficulty of negotiating with suppliers. Additionally, the financial services sector experienced tightening margins under intense pressure due to the rising cost of borrowing and the higher costs of risk.
Moreover, the landscape of regulatory instability presented an erratic and restrictive backdrop, adding another layer of complexity to our strategic planning and execution. These challenging conditions have led to a clear polarization among retailers. Some have not been able to maintain their footing, while others have seized the opportunity to strengthen their market position. Against these challenges, Carrefour maintained a strong performance and demonstrates the strength and resilience of its economic model. This resilience is reflected in all our key performance metrics. Our sales continued to grow thanks to our commercial strategy. In particular, we reached 36% of sales by our private label products, 3 points more than in 2022. On our e-commerce, has posted remarkable performance with a 26% increase in gross merchandise value, with +40% in Brazil and +16% in France.
Regarding the recurring operating income, the group's performance was mixed. In Europe, there was a notable increase in France, plus 19% on Spain. This is an impressive accomplishment given the significant rise in energy costs and challenges in financial services. On the other hand, in Brazil, recurring operating income decreased due to the challenges of integrating BIG within a volatile market environment, alongside one-off events and store conversions. Matthieu will detail this shortly. Last but not least, we delivered a record-high Net Free Cash Flow at EUR 1.6 billion. This was made possible thanks to our continuous efforts year after year to improve our cash conversion ratio. This financial performance demonstrate our ability to maintain strict control over our operations. We've met several important goals as part of our Carrefour 2026 plan, proving that that our strategic moves are paying off.
The penetration of private label, the growth of e-commerce with substantial improvements in profitability, a clear indication of the robustness of our model after years of strategic investments. The expansion of our successful formats, further strengthening our market footprint... and the development of our franchise model, especially in convenience stores, along with our lease management approach for other formats. By 2024, we aim to have half of our revenue coming from franchised stores in France. On top of this, after the important acquisition of BIG in 2022, we carried out significant moves in M&A. In France, we announced the acquisition of Cora and Match, which is our first major acquisition in our own market in more than 20 years. We carried out this operation under excellent conditions and acquired valuable assets at favorable prices, which should result in a value-creating transaction.
The strategic operation, involving a robust range of assets, will strengthen our position in the domestic market and boost our growth in the years to come. The store's geography we are integrating is highly complementary to ours, promising synergies that will enhance our market presence. In Spain, we reached an agreement to acquire 47 stores from El Corte Inglés to strengthen our position in several key regions of the country. These acquisitions demonstrate our ability to pursue our external growth strategy through targeted and strategic acquisitions. This leads to market share gains on synergies at a reasonable cost, thanks to the strength of our balance sheet, itself also the result of our transformation. Lastly, our performance extends to our social and environmental actions and reflects our commitment to making a positive impact.
We have surpassed our non-financial objectives as measured by our CSR Index, achieving a score of 110%. In particular, we met our Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction goals two years ahead of the planned timeline, with a reduction of already -38% by the end of 2023. Furthermore, we've achieved substantial advancements in aligning our top 100 suppliers with a 1.5-degree climate trajectory, engaging 44% of them in this crucial effort. We have also made significant strides in women's health initiatives, demonstrating our commitment to the well-being and empowerment of our workforce. And finally, our Carrefour Invest program has been a success, enabling over 30,000 employees to become shareholders, fostering a sense of ownership and alignment with our company's vision.
In summary, 2023 has been a year of significant accomplishment, highlighting the strength of our model. All this was made possible thanks to the commitment of our team and our franchising partners. I'd like to pay tribute to their work, especially in such an uncertain context. Now, let's consider what 2024 might hold for us. We are moving into the new year with confidence for several important reasons. First, the macro landscape is expected to gradually normalize. The high food inflation in Europe seems to be behind us. In addition, there are indications suggesting a stabilization of purchasing power with a possible positive impact on consumer credit, especially in countries like Brazil and Spain. Second, in 2024, we'll see the outcome of projects that we implemented in 2023.
In Brazil, we anticipate enhanced performance, driven by the complete transformation of BIG stores, a strong focus on the quality of operations on cost management. Furthermore, our Eureca purchasing platform is set for significant ramp-up, promising major economic gains for all our European countries. The rollout of Maxi across all our stores will enhance in-store productivity and the efficiency of our supply chain. We plan to intensify our cost-saving initiatives, especially in our European operations from the headquarters, as we move towards a more integrated European framework. The initiatives of Carrefour 2026 will also continue to contribute to our goals. In particular, the expansion of our private label portfolio and its program of innovations make us very confident about reaching our goal of 40% of sales by 2026.
We'll also continue to benefit from our digital transformation, helping to streamline our operations and enhance the customer experience. We will place a greater emphasis on price competitiveness in France as our customers are more sensitive to permanent price. Following the market leader's aggressive pricing strategy, we have initiated price adjustments since the fall, which have already resulted in an improvement in our Net Promoter Score. In 2024, we will continue to improve our pricing strategy without compromising our financial performance, including the growth of our financial metrics in France. To wrap up, we are confident in achieving our 2026 targets. This confidence comes from a strong track record, proving our ability to perform and deliver constant improvements over the last six years, and the changing conditions, including Net Free Cash Flow and earnings per share, which have shown steady growth....
It's based on this confidence on our very strong balance sheet, that we decided to increase the total shareholder return, including dividend and buybacks, to EUR 1.3 billion in 2023. We also decided to raise our dividend to EUR 0.80 per share, and we confirm our objectives to grow this dividend per share by a minimum of 5% per year going forward. With this increase, the dividend level is the highest since close to 15 years. In parallel, we are announcing a new share buyback program worth EUR 700 million in 2024. To conclude, 2024 is shaping up to be a sporty year, fueled not just by our drive to lead the pack, but also by our partnerships with the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
It's a fantastic chance to bring together our teams and customers, turning every campaign into a team sport. Following the Olympic motto of higher, faster, stronger, we are ready to boost our collective efforts and achieve new heights together. Thank you for your attention. I will now hand over to Matthieu.
Thank you, Alexandre, and good afternoon to everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you to cover our 2023 financial results in detail. Let's start on Slide eight with a look at our full year and Q4 revenue. Sales for the full year reached EUR 94.1 billion, up 10.4% like-for-like. France posted a +4.7% like-for-like sales growth, including +6% in food sales, with solid growth in all formats. E-commerce continued to grow strongly with GMV, up 16% in France. Europe was up 5.5% like-for-like last year, with different situations from country to country. Spain delivered solid 5.8% like-for-like growth over the quarter. Belgium and Romania delivered high single-digit like-for-like sales growth.
After a tough year in 2022, Belgium continues to recover at a rapid pace, with solid customer gains and volume growth, driven by a strong increase in NPS and aggressive marketing campaigns. Italy maintained a positive sales dynamic, with 3.1% like-for-like growth in the full year. Conversely, like-for-like sales in Poland decreased slightly in 2023 on the back of very high comps in 2022 related to the war in Ukraine. Like-for-like sales in Brazil were down -1.3% over the year in an adverse environment shaped around sequential deflation. Atacadão outperformed the retail segment, thanks to its defensive nature and attractive price positioning. We saw signs of improvement towards the end of the year across all formats. Argentina continued its strong momentum. It delivered further market share gains and positive volumes in a hyperinflationary environment.
Q4 underlying activity remained fairly in line with previous quarters, the key moving part being the slowdown in food inflation in Europe, which started in Q2. Business trends and shopping behavior, including trading down, remained globally unchanged in the region, although with some sequential improvement in volumes. In Brazil, sales were impacted by food deflation in the quarter. Volume trends improved throughout the quarter, although at a slow, slower pace than expected. Conversely, inflation reached new highs in Argentina in the context of the devaluation of the peso. Like-for-like sales in Q4 benefited from a strong activity as consumers stocked up in anticipation for further inflation. In total, group sales grew by 10.2% like-for-like over the fourth quarter. Online sales remained buoyant, with e-commerce GMV growing by 31% in Q4, driven by Brazil and France.
As you can see on Slide nine, the deceleration in food inflation we highlighted in Q3 was confirmed in Q4, reaching an average of 6.5% in Europe in December. Food prices increased sharply in Q1. They began to ease in Q2, followed by fairly stable prices in the second half of the year. In the end, the slowdown in like-for-like sales growth in Q4 versus Q3 in Europe mainly reflected the deceleration in year-on-year inflation. Recurring operating income for the year reached EUR 2,264 million, 4.7% below 2022. The gross margin rate was slightly down versus last year, mainly reflecting the move towards more stores under franchise, including the transfers to lease management in France.
Distribution costs as a percentage of sales increased in 2023 in the context of strong inflation, notably on energy costs, which were EUR 170 million higher than the previous year. The trend on distribution costs improved significantly in the second half, with better absorption of inflation, thanks to strong cost savings initiative again in 2023. Gross cost savings amounted to EUR 1.06 billion in the year. In conclusion, after a 33 basis points erosion in H1, recurring operating margin was stable in H2, notably driven by the improved momentum in Brazil, as we will see shortly. Moving on to the operating profit by region, starting with France on Slide 11. Recurring operating income increased by 19% to EUR 988 million.
In a context of high inflation, we maintained a good commercial performance and strong cost discipline, which allowed us to increase operating margin by 37 basis points to 2.6%, compared to 2.2% in 2022. Operating margin in France improved for the fifth consecutive year. We notably maintained strong control of operations and costs, despite inflation of energy costs. We benefited from the initiatives of the Carrefour 2026 plan, including improved profitability of digital activities, notably e-commerce. All these initiatives will keep supporting our performance going forward. The increase in operating margin was at the upper end of our expectations last year. This gives us full capacity to carry on with confidence. 2024 will be a busy year in France, with the integration of Cora and Match, as well as 31 former Casino stores.
At the same time, we intend to improve price competitiveness, and we are confident that we can achieve this while maintaining growing operating profit, albeit at a slower pace in 2024 than in 2023. Our cost savings plan will keep delivering, notably with the rollout of the Maxi productivity method and the ongoing reorganization of our head office. Profitability of our European countries was mixed last year. As shown on Slide 12, recurring operating income for the region was stable in 2023, at EUR 604 million. Spain delivered strong growth in recurring operating income, up 14%, despite pressure on financial services. The drivers for the strong Spanish performance were pretty much the same as for France, notably strong cost discipline.
Italy, Belgium, and Romania were globally stable, with sound management of operations offset notably by a sharp rise in wages and in energy costs, which we expect to reverse in 2024. Last, Poland weighed on the region's profitability on the back of a very high comparable base. Let's move on to Brazil. On Slide 13, where the key highlight in 2023 was the integration of Grupo BIG. This, together with sharply declining food inflation and still positive cost inflation, weighed on the group's profitability, but there are actually several elements to consider to put the 2023 performance into perspective. First, the integration of Grupo BIG is progressing well. Store conversions were completed at the end of H1, along with the one-off costs related to those conversions.
The remaining one-offs in H2 were related to the cost of recruiting a high number of former BIG customers in financial services. This is an investment for the future. Second, the converted stores are ramping up rapidly. Stores converted to Atacadão were particularly buoyant, with 17% like-for-like sales growth and an EBITDA margin of 5% in the last quarter. Finally, the legacy business showed good resilience, especially at Atacadão, while the retail segment was more impacted. Financial services activity faced an adverse environment, like in Europe, with high interest rates, putting pressure on financial margin and an increase in the cost of risk. Overall, the recovery of Brazil was a bit softer than expected in terms of year-end sales, but the path seems clear. Altogether, recurring operating income in Brazil was down 17% in H2, after a 39% decrease in H1.
Finally, on the Grupo BIG synergies, we have secured BRL 1.6 billion of cost synergies, a much higher number than the original plan. We reiterate our confidence in delivering BRL 2 billion of total synergies by 2025, thanks to the commercial ramp-up of the converted stores. In 2024, our profitability in Brazil will benefit from the current restructuring of the retail portfolio, as announced by Carrefour Brazil last November. First, 40 Carrefour hypermarkets will be converted to Atacadão or Sam's Club, of which 20 this year. Second, part of the Grupo BIG acquisition was a non-core network of supermarkets under the TodoDia, Bompreço, and Nacional brands. A large portion of these stores were structurally loss-making for a net total EBITDA loss of around EUR 40 million last year, and we decided to either sell or close them.
This process is being implemented rapidly, with 104 out of the 123 identified stores already disposed of as of today. The remaining will be completed by the end of Q2. Carrefour enjoyed another solid year in Argentina, as you can see on Slide 14, with a strong increase in recurring operating margin at 4.5%, up 138 basis points versus previous year. This reflects successful commercial and operational momentum with growing volumes and steady market share gains. Recurring operating income amounted to EUR 96 million compared to EUR 92 million in 2022, a fairly limited increase as a consequence of the IAS 29 accounting rule on hyperinflation, which converts the full year PNL at the year-end exchange rate. The reported recurring operating income includes a full year impact of -EUR 92 million from IAS 29.
The devaluation of the peso in December had a -EUR 60 million impact on operating income on its own. In conclusion, the evolution of the group's recurring operating income was shaped around a strong improvement of profit and margin in France and in Spain, offset by Brazil, and to a lesser extent, by Poland, while the rest of the business was roughly stable. As you can see on Slide 15, another way to look at 2023 recurring operating income evolution is to isolate the weight of financial services, Grupo BIG one-offs, and the impact of the peso devaluation in December. You see that retail operations held up quite well, with an increase of EUR 130 million in recurring operating income. Moving on to the bottom part of our PNL on Slide 16.
Non-recurring operating expenses increased significantly to EUR 558 million in 2023, driven by provisions related to reorganization projects, notably in France, as well as asset impairments in Brazil on stores that are currently being closed, as I mentioned earlier. Net financial charges decreased to EUR 410 million compared to EUR 490 million in 2022. This was driven by lower net debt following the disposal of Carrefour Taiwan last July, and higher interest income on short-term financial investments in a context of higher rates. The tax charge amounted to EUR 439 million, compared to EUR 408 million in 2022.
The effective tax rate was higher than last year due to the depreciation of deferred tax assets on Grupo BIG in 2023, versus a one-off tax credit in Brazil in 2022. Net income from discontinued operations was EUR 729 million, mainly corresponding to the capital gain of the sale of Carrefour Taiwan. So bottom line, adjusted net income group share improved by 8% on EUR 92 million to EUR 1,304 million. Finally, thanks to the reduction in the number of outstanding shares following our share buyback programs, adjusted EPS increased +12% to EUR 1.83, compared to EUR 1.63 in 2022. As you can see on Slide 17, the 12% growth in EPS last year is the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth delivered by Carrefour.
In total, EPS grew about 80% since 2017, a compound annual growth rate of +10%. Moving on to Net Free Cash Flow on Slide 18. We generated a record level of Net Free Cash Flow in 2023, at EUR 1,622 million, a EUR 360 million increase versus 2022. It includes a negative comp effect of about EUR 100 million linked to the sale of Carrefour Taiwan, which was consolidated for 6 months in 2023, compared to full year in 2022. Our operations delivered a solid EUR 363 million increase in Net Free Cash Flow, thanks to optimized management and strict control of inventory.
As a matter of fact, the inventory level decreased by 3 days in total, and 18 days in non-food inventories last year. This number does not include the additional contribution of EUR 94 million from asset disposals. Asset disposals included mainly real estate assets for EUR 395 million, notably relating to the large sell and leaseback transaction in Brazil, closed in H1. In 2023, Carrefour was a net seller of real estate for EUR 62 million, with investments in real estate amounting to EUR 333 million. This is detailed on Slide 35 of the presentation in the appendix. I'll be quick on the Net Free Cash Flow details on Slide 19, just to highlight that cash tax came down by EUR 106 million, thanks to the good use of tax credits in Brazil.
You can also see that, as just mentioned, change in working capital was a key driver for operating free cash flow, thanks to strong inventory management. CapEx were stable as guided at EUR 1.85 billion. As we did for EPS, I would like to take a moment to underline the trajectory of Net Free Cash Flow on Slide 20. Our strategic actions, combined with a well-established cash culture, have allowed us to turn our model into a very efficient and steady cash-generating one.
As much as we are confident that EBITDA and recurring operating income will increase in 2024, we believe that Net Free Cash Flow should be closer to the initial growth trajectory towards the objective of above EUR 1.7 billion in 2026. I'll be brief on debt, on Slide 21. As you already know, most of the key moving parts, the EUR 818 million euro reduction in net debt was primarily related to the sale of Taiwan, as most of our EUR 1.6 billion euros Net Free Cash Flow is paid out to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Finally, the capital allocation policy that Alexandre presented earlier is on Slide 22, for your reference. With this, I thank you for your attention. Alexandre and I are now ready to take your questions.
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now go to your first question. One moment, please. Your first question comes from the line of Sreedhar Mahamkali from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, Alexandre and Matthieu. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe three questions, please. Firstly, just going back to what you said, Matthieu, on France and trying to reignite competitiveness in your pricing, can you talk a little bit more about it? It seems like you're talking to a year of stable margins in 2024 in France. Is that the right interpretation of the combined efforts of investing in price and some sales growth? Secondly, in terms of working capital, I don't think we've seen anything like this in the past few years, the level of contribution from working capital of that magnitude. Certainly there wasn't a hint of anything like this coming in the first half either. Is there anything one-off here that might reverse in 2024?
Or should we continue to expect positive contribution to cash flow from working capital? And the third one really is balance between dividend and buyback. Can you just talk us through what prompted a big dividend increase, and a kind of slightly toned down buyback? Just curious to hear your thoughts there. Thank you.
Thank you, Sreedhar. I will take the first one. As you know, of course, I think we've been both very efficient and very rational during the wave of inflation in 2022, 2021, 2022. And it has enabled us both to gain market share in a very steady way. As you remember, we gained more market share than anyone in volume terms. And in the meantime, we have been capable to improve and to continue to improve our financial metrics for France. In 2023, there has been a new dynamic. The origin of this new dynamic is the strong initiatives of Leclerc on permanent prices.
You know how it's a key differentiating factor in the customer perception in a period of crisis. This strong initiative of Leclerc has lead us to start adjust prices in Q4. And the effect was a notable enhancement to our net promoter score in the Q4. The idea in 2024 is to continue to invest and to continue to improve this price competitiveness, as we have done in the last Q4, and to strike a clear balance with our financial performance. So the objective is really to continue to combine this price competitiveness and the maintain of a good dynamic in our financial metrics.
We do think that we are capable to do that. We've done that in the past, and it's really the dynamic we want to continue to maintain in our commercial policy.
And maybe to precise that a little further, I spoke in my speech of further growth of profit in France in 2024. This is what we are expecting. On your second question, Sreedhar, relating to working capital, well, you know, I don't think there's one-off . I think it's just the result of a very strong management by the teams of the inventory levels. You know, in a market where volumes were down, and notably on non-food products, I think the teams have done a fantastic job at reducing our level of inventories. I said 18 days, which is significant.
So this is good. We intend to take that further, maybe not with the same level of magnitude, which was very strong this year, but we intend to keep going in that direction.
Concerning your third question, Sreedhar, the decision the board has taken this morning is to make a significant step up in the ordinary dividend, is a clear message of confidence from the management team, from the board, in the real sustainability of cash generation at Carrefour. It's based on the very solid track record, as we saw, in the presentation. We really believe this provides additional visibility in terms of return to shareholders and really strengthens Carrefour shareholder friendly capital allocation policy.
All the more that we also confirmed, as I said, the target of growing ordinary dividend by at least 5% per year, on this, higher level.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Cédric Lecasble from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening, Alexandre, Matthieu, and team. Thank you for taking my question. I actually have a global question regarding the profitability of operations in Europe. You were a little specific about France. I just wanted to come back on the moving part, on the volume situation. Where do you see inflation in 2024, food inflation? What do you expect for volumes? How will cost cutting compare with last year? And do you believe you can globally... You were a little specific about France. Do you think Europe as a whole can grow profitability in 2024? Thank you. That's it. It's a short question, but maybe you have a long answer.
Okay. So, regarding inflation, as you know, we just concluded our negotiation with FMCG suppliers one month earlier than usual. Based on this, we think we are heading for 2024 towards food inflation in the market, progressively stabilizing at low positive levels, low single digit. It's what we see in the market for 2024. With, of course, higher inflation in H1 and lower in H2. To continue once again on inflation, we do not see this inflation as temporary, but structurally higher in the coming years than we experienced in the past decade.
Concerning volumes and trading down, of course, cumulative inflation over the past two years continues to put pressure on purchasing power, despite reduced inflation on more stable price in the market. So at the end of the year, we continue to see trading down on pressure on volumes in the market. We expect that to continue in the first part of the year. That said, with the combination of easing general and food inflation and continued wage inflation, households are starting to recover some purchasing power, and volume decline should progressively ease over the year. That's what we see about the market on the inflation and the consequence on the volume.
Of course, we continue to be very proactive commercially with notable emphasis on our private label, including the Simpl range, with promotions, with loyalty initiative, with pricing investments I've mentioned, with rollout of the Maxi method, and we fuel all that by our EUR 1 billion cost savings program for 2023. So that's really what we see. And of course, in 2024, we will see some improvement in customer purchasing power, and progressively it would have an impact on the volume, and the diminution also of the trading down.
Thank you for this. On cost saving, do you still have a potential? Where will the cost saving mostly apply in 2024, and are there some changes versus 2023?
So, yes, Cédric, we're satisfied with the dynamics on cost savings. If you remember, we had a EUR 4 billion cost savings plan over 4 years of our 2023-2026 strategic plan. So we delivered a little above EUR 1 billion in 2023, so we're very satisfied with that.
The savings came from for our sourcing where with improved negotiations and the beginning of Eureca, our buying office in Spain, we have improved our purchasing conditions. We've also improved our purchasing conditions on private label with a massification approach of private label, which are now negotiated more and more at a European scale. We've improved our logistics with a quite deep logistics plan to transform our logistics and reduce its cost and improve its efficiencies. It also includes operating costs with energy. Let me start with energy maybe. Where given the high level of cost inflation on energy costs, we've implemented a number of operations to reduce our energy consumption.
It does translate into our ESG objective, but it also does translate into some cost savings. In the stores, with the Maxi projects, we have a better efficiency, and in our head offices, we've announced a number of reorganization projects in 2023. You saw that in the non-recurring expenses of the year, where we are progressively moving from a country by country head office organization towards more and more mutualized functions across Europe, with the objective to reduce the overall cost of our head offices.
Many, many initiatives, which were launched in 2023 and which are continuing into 2024, with many new ideas popping up on the radar from our teams on the ground, who have a lot of creativity to improve our operating model.
Thank you very much, Alexandre, Bompard and Mathieu.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Izabel Dobreva from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hello, good evening. I had three questions. Firstly, I wanted to go back to the topic of France. If we, if we look at some of the external data sources, they suggest that the market share weakened and was down 60 basis points in January. So my question is, first, do you agree with this third-party data? Because I know sometimes, you know, it shows things which may be different than what you see internally. And if the market share is indeed down to this level, when would you expect it to stabilize? I think in some of the previous answers, you talked about striking a balance between the margin and the commercial KPIs and the price investments, but how does your market share expectation kind of feature within that?
I also saw some mentions in the press that by the summer you expect the market share back to 22.5, which I suppose implies a stable market share by the summer. Is that how you're thinking about it? I think that would be very helpful to just understand your thoughts around market share evolution versus margin evolution in France. Then my second question is on the Eureca ramp-up. Could you give us a sense of how you're progressing with the supplier negotiations? How much volume you expect to be doing through this platform over 2024, so we can have a view on the extent of the synergies. And then finally, I had a question on LatAm. So you outlined a number of the positive levers that you have
The conversion of the closures, et cetera. So would you expect that next year, LatAm, EBIT can be above EUR 1 billion?
Thank you for the question on the market share. If you may authorize, I would like to put things in perspective on that. Over the past 5 years, first on France, we doubled our recurring operating income on a recurring operating income margin. And by summer this year, with the integration of Cora Match, as well as former Casino stores, we will represent about 22.5% of the French market, which is the highest level for more than 15 years, now broadly at par with our largest competitor, thanks to both our acquisition and our organic performance. Organically now, because I think it's the sense of your question.
We delivered, as you know, very, very solid performance in 2021 and 2022, two years of consecutive market share gains in challenging environments, including COVID and the first year of strong inflation. We gained more market share than anyone, including in volume terms. On this year, in volume terms, we are globally stable. In 2023, there has been a new element, which is linked, as I told before, to the huge offensive of Leclerc on the permanent prices, which emerged as the key differentiating factor in the customer's perception. We have to react, and that's what we did by starting adjusting prices in Q4, resulting in an enhancement to our net promoter score. That's exactly what we will do in 2024, while managing these adjustments carefully.
To strike a balance between a better market share dynamic and our financial performance. It's exactly the sense of what we have been doing in the Q4, and it's exactly what we will do in the next weeks, and we will continue to develop that to restore a better dynamic in terms of market share. Matthieu?
Yeah, your second question, Isabelle, related to Eureca or buying platform. So let me just remind you that this platform has the objective to negotiate with very large FMCG international suppliers, which do serve all our six European countries with similar products. So it's the very big names that everyone has in mind. So we had a first batch of 4 suppliers that were negotiated at Eureca last year. We were satisfied with the outcome of these discussions. And so we are now moving to a second wave of 15 plus suppliers.
It's just, you know, the early days of the negotiation, so this is still ongoing, but we're confident that we'll get to agreement and that which will be a positive for Carrefour. Your last question was relating to Latin EBIT above EUR 1 billion in 2024. So we're not guiding and not even by region. I think the sense of the comment is that we feel strongly that Argentina with a very good dynamics in a complex macro environment, but a very strong performance. And as regards Brazil, we've highlighted the elements behind the reduction in profit in 2023.
We think that there are a number of factors at play, which would help the profit of Brazil to increase in 2024.
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes on the line of Andrew Gwynn from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, yeah, good evening, team. Yeah, first question actually comes back to why aren't you guiding for 2024? It sounds like the results are positive in France hoping to grow already-
Sorry, Andrew, the line is very bad. Can you maybe speak more slowly so we can hear you better?
Yep, try again. So the first question-
Much better.
Yeah, apologies. So the first question is just on the lack of guidance. I mean, obviously, you've given some moving parts of France, hoping to see some improvement, Brazil as well. So why aren't you giving group guidance as you did last year? Second one is on the... I suppose actually, very simply, why have you delayed the price reaction to Leclerc? But I think initially, maybe the hope was it would go away, but it seems to be quite a late reaction to initiatives that sort of were going on around about April, May time. And then the final one, just on the inventory improvements, seem pretty substantial. But when I look into the accounts, it looks like it's quite a big movement in payables. I appreciate there's quite a lot going on with food inflation, but just help me reconcile that. Thank you.
Yeah, well, on the guidance, in my speech, I said that we were confident that EBITDA and recurring operating income would increase this year. I think that's the same statement as we had last year, and which is in fact the trajectory that we highlighted for our 2026 plan, which is to grow EBIT and EBITDA year after year. So we confirmed that for 2024.
I nuanced the outlook for the cash flow, given the high level that we reached in 2023, where I said that in 2024, it should be closer to our initial growth trajectory that we set at the end of 2022 towards of our objective of being above EUR 1.7 billion in 2026.
On your second question, I don't share at all your point. As you probably remember, the dynamic in terms of market share gains were very good in both in value and in volume till the end of last year. Leclerc has intensified his offensive on the Q2. And we analyzed that. We had, as you know, our mix permanent prices, promotion, loyalty, and we try to define a new mix and an intensification of the investment on the permanent prices. Alexandre de Palmas put that in place when he joined in September. We have many initiatives launched in the same time, and we are in the good momentum.
On your last question relating to payables, maybe we'll take that one offline, but when I look at page 19 of the press release, where we have the balance sheet, we see that the trade payables are reducing by EUR 150 million at year-end 2023 versus year-end 2022. So as I said in my comments, the main driver behind the cash flow from working capital is the reduction in inventories.
Yeah, maybe I will follow up on that one. It's at note 6.4.1, which is the notes to the cash flow statement. But, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Nick Coulter from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. Apologies, first I have a couple of follow-ups to clarify. Firstly, are you targeting profit growth in France for 2024 and margin growth or just profit growth, please? I know you've talked to a 3% margin ambition previously. And then in answer to Andrew's question, did you say that you expect group EBITDA and EBIT to grow in 2024, but that you haven't written that in the release? Those are the first two, please.
Sorry, can you repeat the second one, Nick? I didn't get it.
Did you say to Andrew's question that you will grow EBITDA and EBIT this year on a group basis, but you, but you haven't written that in the release as you did last year?
So I-
Just-
That's what I said, that our objective is to grow EBIT and EBITDA in 2024 versus 2023 numbers. On the first one-
Great. Thank you. Yeah.
Please.
Go ahead, please.
So on your first one, you know, the message is that we think that for France and the profit growth, the message that we were passing is that, as we did in Q4, we're gonna keep investing into our competitiveness. And we think this is compatible with further enhancing our profits in France, and we think it would not be at the expense of future profit growth. I think that's the message tonight. Then, you know, the detail of that, we'll see how it develops, but that's the message.
Okay. So profits, but maybe not margins, I guess, depending on how it pans out from what you're saying. And then on the balancing of the dividend and the buyback, given your shares are on quite a lowly rating, it isn't clear to me why you wouldn't continue to favor a buyback at this point. Apologies, I didn't get the rationale from the previous answer. And then a quick third one, if I may, please. Can I ask how much of your French network sales in 2023 were from franchise or lease managed stores? And if there's a 2022 figures are comparable as well, please. Thank you.
So, on the dividend, I think the message is that we increase dividends to rebalance between buyback and dividend in a message of confidence in our structurally cash generating model. So we raised the bar on dividend as a sign of confidence. And then our share buyback programs is significant when you compare it to other players. And so it is indeed it will allow us to take advantage of the undervaluation level of the stock if it is maintained.
Okay. No, I hear. I just maybe a little bit quizzical as to why you did that now, when your shares are where they are, what—why you wouldn't rebalance in the future, but I guess that's a matter of judgment. Thank you.
Well, yeah, and it's four years of significant cash flow and growing. And so, as I said in my speech, we think that the cash culture is very deeply embedded into the organization now, with people working on improving cash generation on all actions. And so, that is the ground for improved confidence of the management and the board, hence the decision of increasing the dividend level.
Thank you.
Concerning-
Sorry, on the franchise. Thank you.
Concerning, yes, of course. Concerning your question on the franchise, you are aware of the fact that of course, the share is growing regularly through two main elements. The most important one is the openings of convenience store. As you know, almost 100% of our convenience stores are open in franchise, and we continue to open at a very steady pace, new convenience store each year. So, of course it fuels a higher share of the franchise in our model. And in the meantime, we transfer each year 15-16 or 15, depending on the year, hypermarket into lease management contract. Hypermarket that cumulate huge difficulties, around 15 each year and between 20 and 25 supermarket.
All in all, it means of course that we have more stores in franchise, and today franchise account for almost 55.0% of our revenue in France in 2023. So the number of stores increase on the revenue of franchise accounts for 50% of our revenue.
Super, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Frederick Wild from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Oh, yes, good evening, Alexandre, Matthieu and team. Three from me, please. Firstly, could you give us a bit more detail on your CapEx outlook and the uses for that cash, please? Second, you mentioned that volume trend expectations in Brazil were lower than you expected. How are those developing now, and how have you adjusted your expectations, volumes in that market going forward? And then finally, on the outlook in 2024 for the Other Europe margin, so obviously some markets, particularly Belgium and Poland, are quite challenged. Do you see those recovering next year? I mean, you've got also presumably quite a bit of help from those EUR 170 million of energy costs. So can we look to margin expansion in Other Europe as well? Thank you.
Thank you. Frederick, do you mind repeating your first one? The line was not good.
Oh, sorry. Hopefully, you can hear me now. It was just about a bit more detail-
Yeah
On the CapEx outlook for next year and the uses for that CapEx.
Okay.
Thank you.
So I'll maybe start with this one. So indeed, we're expecting EUR 1.9 billion of CapEx for this year. We which is so EUR 50 million higher than what we had in 2023. Well, we have a number of integrations to make this year, notably Cora in France, the 31 ex Casino stores. We have the Cora Romania also, where we have CapEx to be incurred there, and the 47 ex El Corte Inglés stores.
So, a portion of that will be devoted to this integration as we had last year, conversion and integration CapEx from the Grupo BIG integration. Then the balance will be, you know, roughly similar as what we had in 2023, with maybe a little increase of CapEx on energy reduction projects in order to make some savings and in order to reach our ESG objectives. On your second question, I think the line is not very good, but the volumes in Brazil.
Brazil has faced a very tough environment with a phase of high inflation and increasing interest rates, which has put strong pressure on our customers, put pressure on the whole sector. Today, what we see is that food inflation is nil, and rates are decreasing. So I would say in a parallel way than in France than in Europe, we see that purchasing power is improving in Brazil, which start to be visible in the delinquency indicators at Banco Carrefour that are improving. So it seems we have the conviction that we are heading in the right direction. Things are moving the right way, which should point to some improvement in volumes.
But as you know, Brazil is a pretty volatile country, and we need a bit more time to confirm the spots. But we are moving the right way with a stabilization volume, some late trading down, but it may take some time.
Thank you.
Your last question was on the outlook for other Europe in terms of margin. So we're not gonna be-
Yes, thank you.
Right there, but you understand that we were quite confident in our commercial dynamics. In a number of regions, we've had a disappointing performance of Poland on the back of high historicals. So we'll see how it develops, but we have a number of predicting elements, positive elements at play.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Clément from Bryan, Garnier & Co Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Just three from my side. So the first one, on the prices. Are you referring to the potential rollout of a new pricing, that you will have tested at the Leclerc, as revealed by Olivier Dauvers? What can you say about really this new pricing? Does it fulfill your expectation, your expectations, and how much does it cost on the, on the P&L? The second question is whether on the French EBIT guidance, just to clarify it, are you targeting an increase, including or excluding your real integration of Cora and Match? And finally, on the French leases, well, can you share a bit of color on this leases, following all the waves of transfers, towards the leaseback management?
If I'm right, the union said that the Hypers were quite close to breakeven level as of last year, so in 2022. So what about 2023? Are they already at breakeven or still in negative territory? Thank you.
Thank you. About your first question, as said, we have been taking several initiatives in the Q4, and the objective of this area of initiative is really and clearly to reinforce our competitiveness. The one you mentioned is part of them. I'm sure you will understand that I will not comment specifically, because it's something quite commercially sensitive. The only thing I can tell you, which is a lot, is that we are very satisfied with the initiatives we are implementing. They contribute quicker than we thought and stronger than we thought to the improvement of NPS. And we plan to carry on in 2024.
Matthieu.
On your second question, the comment on the improvement of the French profitability obviously excludes the benefits of the consolidation of Cora. So it's really on the historical French perimeter. And your last one, Clément, on the profitability of hyper, so obviously we don't share any information on that part.
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of François Digard from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hello, good evening. Thank you to take my question. I've a follow-up on the French guidance again, sorry. You are integrating as well a few stores from Casino this afternoon. LSA, the French newspaper, mentioned that the loss making in the magnitude of circa EUR 50 million. Could you confirm that or not, and is your guidance include these losses? My second question would be about Europe. I've been quite surprised by the magnitude of the Polish effect. Could you give us a bit more color, knowing that Spain, that is much larger than Poland, had been quite successful? I've been surprised by the flattish margin in Europe. And the last question, could you quantify the retail media contribution?
You mentioned it as a positive contributor to your performance in 2023. So it would be very appreciated if you could make a bit of colors on figures behind that. Thank you.
Thank you. I have to admit my lack of competence. I don't know at all the publication you mentioned, but it must be very interesting. But just to come back, as you know, we agreed within Intermarché on the acquisition of 31 Casino stores, six directly from Intermarché, 25 for which we will substitute Intermarché. The idea is to close in Q2. Of course, it's subject to regulatory approval, and the idea is that these stores will be converted to Carrefour banner on May, and all employees will be transferred to Carrefour France.
These stores will generate sales of EUR 400 million in 2022, and of course, we are absolutely convinced and confident in our ability to boost them, thanks to the implementation of our strategy on our model. Relating to the ROE, of course, you realize it's a very, very, very small subject. But clearly, what we do think is that we will be able to implement our model, which is, of course, far more competitive and to improve both the sales and the profitability.
On Poland, François. So please keep in mind that the level of profitability we had reached in 2022 was very high. We know how particular the situation in the country was in 2022. Nothing specific to report as far as 2023 is concerned. You know, pressure on purchasing power, increasing cost of energy. Nothing more than that.
On retail media, of course, it was a very important year as, as you know, with the launch of Unlimitail, our common business with Publicis. We are very satisfied with the first steps. We managed to attract other retailers in this project. As you know, the scale is so important, and we are so satisfied about our capability to attract other retailers. So we are really growing per plan. We are also on track to reach the objective we fixed during the Digital Day, which is EUR 200 million of ROC objective. The promising results are satisfying us, and we will continue to push for that.
As you know, we have huge confidence about the potential of this activity on this on the platform Unlimitail.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take our last question. Your last question for today comes from the line of Nicolas Champ from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two technical ones. The first one is about your net financial results that was significantly down last year. Just wanted to confirm the magnitude of the one-off profit related to hedge instrument in Argentina. I think on Slide 21 of your presentation for the free cash flow generation, you mentioned EUR 50 million, 50, of gains on deposits in Argentina. Is it the same number that benefited your net financial result last year? And so follow-up question is: How do you see your net financial results will evolve in 2024? And the second question is, again, a follow-up question on the working capital improvements, which is quite significant as well.
Is it fair to say that the bulk of this working capital improvement came from Brazil or not? Thank you.
Thank you, Nicolas. So you're right, the net financial result decreased EUR 80 million. And that includes the EUR 50 million that we footnoted somewhere in the presentation, which was Forex gain on our net cash position in Argentina. Plus, you know, short-term interest on deposits, notably following the cash-in from the divestment of stake in Taiwan. I'm not going to forecast 2024 on that one. I don't have a very precise view on the evolution of the currency, of the rates, and potential further devaluation in Argentina. So I won't go on that one.
Okay.
Working capital improvement came from all geographies. I don't have in mind that it came specifically from Brazil. So I think it's again a global effort to improve of our inventories, which was shared across most countries.
Okay. Thank you. Well, those are my questions have been answered. Thank you.
Thank you. I will now hand the call back.
Thank you very much for this discussion and, I'm sure we will have new opportunities to continue this exchange. Thank you so much.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thanks for participating. You may now disconnect.