Good day and welcome to presentation of Carrefour Third Quarter 2022 Analyst Call. Today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the call over to Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO, and Matthieu Malige, CFO. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being with us today. As you know, we will meet again in a few days to talk about new strategic plan on our midterm perspectives. In the meantime, given the particular macro on the business context, I wanted to be here today to exchange directly with you on the current performance of Carrefour and to answer any questions you may have. My main message is that Carrefour is outperforming the industry and is maintaining a rapid transformation pace. This is materialized by our commercial and financial performance and through the swift integration of Grupo BIG in Brazil. Let me start with our performance.
Let's be clear, operating retail in this inflationary environment is complex and requires a particular mindset and high anticipation. The number of topics of magnitude to be managed by our teams in parallel is unprecedented. In this context, Carrefour's momentum is strong and it stands out in the retail sector. As a matter of fact, our H1 results show that our performance was best in class among European retailers based on public information. This over-performance is confirmed by the quality of the figures we are publishing today. We continue to gain market share in all our key markets, starting with France. We maintain a high level of operating performance, thanks notably to an efficient commercial strategy, combined with a strong focus on costs.
As a result, I can confirm that our activity is progressing to date consistently with market expectations for full year 2022 EBIT. At the same time, we are raising today our net free cash flow target for the year. These solid numbers are the direct consequence of the outstanding job done by our teams, who switched to inflation management mode more than a year ago across all organization levels. Thanks to them and our capacity to adapt, we are able to protect our business model and our profitability. Let me also say a brief word on Brazil. As you all know, the acquisition of Grupo BIG and its integration represents a material value creation level for Carrefour. So far, the integration is proceeding very smoothly. As of today, 21 BIG and Maxi stores have been converted to Carrefour and Atacadão. These stores are performing well above our initial expectations.
In that context, we've decided to accelerate the conversion process, and we now plan to convert at least 50 stores by year-end versus 37 initially. Besides BIG, we have many transformation projects that we will unveil on November 8. As you see, we are staying the course, and I'm confident in the outlook for Q4. That said, I now leave the floor to Matthieu, who will present in greater detail our Q3 sales performance. I will join him for the Q&A session.
Thank you, Alexandre, and good afternoon to everyone. Before we go into details of our Q3 numbers, I would like to remind you that Carrefour Taiwan operations are now accounted for as discontinued operations in accordance with the IFRS 5 accounting standard. As a reminder, all pro forma numbers for 2021 and H1 2022 are available in the finance section of our website. Let's start our analysis with Q3, the revenue on page three of the presentation. Sales for the quarter reached EUR 23.5 billion, increasing by 16.1% at constant currency. Besides the strong like-for-like performance of +11.3%, expansion and M&A contributed for 4.9%, mostly driven by the consolidation of Grupo BIG. Petrol contributed negatively for 0.1%.
Forex was a positive 2.9% over the quarter, primarily due to the appreciation of the Brazilian real. In total, reported revenue was up 19% in Q3. Food sales were up 12.2% like-for-like at group level over the quarter. Non-food sales grew by 6.4%. Let's now review our different markets in more detail, starting with France on slide four. Like-for-like sales increased by 6.6% over the quarter, with all formats posting solid growth. Food sales were up 7.8% over the quarter, largely offsetting a 2.2% drop in non-food sales. The performance was supported by inflation, though at a lower level than in all other European countries, as well as sound resilience in volumes, thanks to our strong ongoing market share dynamics.
As a matter of fact, Carrefour has now been gaining share for 21 consecutive four-week periods. It is worth noting that these market share gains were driven by volumes. In volume terms, market share is up 0.5% over the quarter, versus a gain of 0.3 points in value. In line with Q2, convenience stores posted the strongest growth over the quarter, up 10.8% like-for-like, notably thanks to a strong summer season. Hypermarkets and supermarkets, which were slightly negative in H1, posted a solid performance over the quarter, respectively up 5% and 6.3% like-for-like. Q3 was also a good quarter for online sales as GMV grew by 22%.
The performance was particularly solid for home delivery, which consistently outperforms click and collect, and where Carrefour is a strong leader in France with more than 30% market share. As announced last July, we have now completed our 2022 conversion program for 43 stores that have now switched to lease management. We recently announced a new plan for 2023, which comprises 16 hypers and 25 supers. Moving on to Europe. Like-for-like sales were up 8.6% over the quarter. Sales in Spain improved by 8.7% like-for-like. We continue to benefit from a strong exposure to hypermarkets, which are price leaders in the country, and we are gaining market shares. Over the quarter, we actually improved our price positioning against all key local players.
Food sales were up 11.3% in Q3, while non-food remained slightly positive. Our Italian business continues its recovery with a fifth consecutive quarter of positive like-for-like, reflecting improved customer satisfaction. Poland generated double-digit like-for-like revenue growth of 18.5% thanks to a supportive business environment. We outperformed our peers across each format. Romania delivered another solid quarter with sales up 8.8%. Still, that number remains below food inflation in the country, which is one of the highest in Europe. Romania, and to a lesser extent, Spain, are the two markets where wages have increased less than food inflation, which definitely drove more trading down than in other geographies. One specific word about Belgium, which as you all know, has been facing some difficulties for a year now.
We definitely saw some improvement in Q3 with positive like-for-like growth of 5.2% and a stabilization of our market share, which had been under pressure for four consecutive quarters. Competition remains quite fierce in the country, but we are definitely going in the right direction under the new local management team. In total, sales in Europe were up 8.6% like-for-like in Q3. As you can see on slide six, we remain very positive momentum in Latin America, both in Brazil and Argentina. Our sales in Brazil increased by 41% in Q3 at constant exchange rate or 11.5 on a like-for-like basis. The increase was driven by this quarter by Carrefour Retail, up 15% like-for-like, driven by solid volumes and food sales.
Carrefour Retail is benefiting from its reinforced positioning on its segment. Like-for-like sales growth at Atacadão reached 10.5%. The period was marked by a sharp sequential decrease in the price of some commodities and basic products, notably milk and soy oil, mainly in September. This change impacted volumes, especially for B2B clients that postponed some of their purchases, betting on lower future prices. First days of October are showing some improvement. Finally, Argentina maintains its outstanding performance with record market share gains in Q3 and a solid growth in volume on top of high inflation, supporting a 91% like-for-like increase in sales. Besides day-to-day operations, our key focus today in Brazil is obviously the integration of Grupo BIG. As Alexandre said, we are clearly ahead of schedule on this, notably on conversions.
The converted stores actually deliver much better performances than anticipated, which comforted us in our decision to speed up the conversion process.
In parallel, we recently signed agreements to sell the 14 stores that have been identified as remedies by the local antitrust authority for a total consideration of BRL 443 million. Overall, this was a very satisfactory quarter for Carrefour. Although the environment is uncertain, we are confident in the outlook for Q4. Thank you for your attention. Alexandre and I are now happy to take your questions.
If you would like to ask a question or make a contribution, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We will take our first question from Sreedhar Mahamkali from UBS, London.
Yeah. Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple of them, please. Firstly on free cash flow, Matthieu, can you clarify if the change in the outlook means we should expect something similar to the FY 2021, about EUR 1.2 billion. I think the language is very similar in Q3 2021 when you raised the outlook to comfortably above EUR 1 billion. That's the first question. Secondly, Alexandre, you talked about changing consumer behavior. Clearly, we're also seeing meaningful OpEx inflation. I'll be very interested in your thoughts on how those will evolve into 2023. And if you think consensus with expectations for 2023 reflect those appropriately. To the extent you can comment on that'll be greatly appreciated. Those are the two questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Hi, Sridhar. On net free cash flow expectation for the year, we were saying earlier in the year that we were expecting at least EUR 1 billion. As you rightly noted, we now expect to be comfortably above EUR 1 billion. You're right. This is the same language as we had last year, when we also increased our guidance for the year.
Sorry. On your second question about the change in consumption in Europe. What we see is a change in consumer habits in Q3, characterized by smaller baskets and more frequency of purchases translating into more tickets.
In the meantime, volumes actually holding up quite well. You have these two phenomena, change of consumer habits, but in the meantime, volume still very resilient. Considering the first thing about the trading down, for us, we are well positioned to perfectly match this trading down, thanks to the level of our private label penetration, which is now close to 33%, thanks to the strong development our entry range of products under the Simpl label . We have around 1,000 products now. Thanks to all the commercial dynamic we have with promotion, loyalty programs and the quality of our formats, which are linked to competitive hypermarket cash and carry, Supeco.
We are expecting this trend to continue in Q4, which means a continuation of this trading down and the continuation of solid volume. When inflation are rising further, as Matthieu said, in some geographies such as Romania or Spain, there could be the beginning of an impact on volume. Generally, we do think that the volume will remain quite stable, and the trading down would, in the meantime, continue. That, that's what we see in terms of change in the consumption pattern.
OpEx inflation and your very early thoughts, if any, on 2023, EBIT consensus, and if that reflects these trends that you're seeing today?
No, we don't communicate at this moment the vision of the EBIT 2023. What we do think is that inflation would continue in 2023 with, of course, energy, wages and so on. On what we are convinced and we prove that this year in a outstanding way is that we are absolutely well equipped to adapt to this inflationary environment. We have the good format, we have the good commercial monitoring, we have a high level of cost savings, we have great experience of this inflationary environment. Due to our long term presence in Latin America.
All in all, we will have inflation, but in this inflationary environment, we are capable to outperform the market, and that's what we want to continue to prove in the next quarters.
Thank you both.
We will now take our next question from Andrew Gwynn from BNP Paribas.
Hi there. Good evening, both. Two questions, if I can. Firstly, just help us get expectations in the right place for the CMD in a few days. I'm just wondering if you give us a couple of things of what we might expect. By the sound of it, no guidance for 2023, but any kind of color there would be useful. Secondly, a very familiar question unfortunately, but just help us understand where you see markets. I mean, Belgium's obviously been a very, very competitive market. Any evidence of that turning the corner? Then thinking about, say, France and even Brazil actually, how rational do you think the market is? Thank you very much.
Well, for the CMD you have to be patient. I hear the excitement in your question, Andrew. Happy to hear that. Please be patient another two weeks, and we'll all be very happy to see you on November 8th . For the pricing landscape, what we think and what we said from the beginning of the inflation wave is that we have always considered and said that we expect the industry to be rational. This has been confirmed, since in roughly every market we operate, except, and you're right to mention, Belgium.
In the rest of our market, all players are progressively increasing prices and passing inflation on to customers. Of course, it can be a different pace, different depending on players, but at the end of the day, there is no alternative for any player. This is true for France, for Spain, for Italy, for all our geography. In Brazil the situation is quite different because they are more used to inflation, and we are a very strong leader in this country. We see this for a long time, this same rationality.
At the end of the end, when you have this level of inflation, every player is obliged to pass inflation on to customers, and that's what we are doing.
Just come back to Belgium, any evidence of a change in fortune there? Presumably still very tough.
No, we've spoken about Belgium a lot in the past. You've seen the communication of one competitor. What is very interesting to mention is that we have come back to a positive like-for-like. It proves that we have a good momentum due to the new managerial team that has taken the lead for few weeks with great energy. As you know, we were affected at H2 last year by the difficulties of the market and by the problem of logistics we have with a third party warehouses, which means that we have a better comp for H2.
We have a better comp, and we have a better momentum. Market share are more positive and that's why you see this 5% growth. We do think that the team would continue the very good job they are doing with the new management.
Okay, thank you very much. Look forward to seeing you and Matthieu . Thank you.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Nicolas Champ from Barclays.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. You raised your free cash flow guidance, but could you let us know if you also raised your CapEx guidance for this year, given the increased number of converted BIG stores? If yes, could you please share with us your new CapEx number? The second question is also very original. Could you please tell us if you feel comfortable with the current EBIT consensus for this year, which is I think slightly below EUR 2.4 billion at the EBIT level again? Maybe a last one, also a pretty classic question.
Do you still expect to maintain your EBIT margin in France stable for the full year as it was already the case in H1? Thank you.
Thank you, Nicolas. On CapEx, we've not changed our number. EUR 1.85 billion is the target. We said that we would have an additional and somehow exceptional EUR 150 million relating to the conversion and integration of Grupo BIG.
We may be a little ahead of that given the accelerated pace, but it doesn't change the total group number. On your second question, I think that relating to the consensus for operating income for 2022, without flagging a specific number, I think Alexandre commented in his introduction that the full year EBIT consensus excluding Taiwan is consistent with the current trend of the business. On France, we're not going to get into detail on a country by country basis. What you hear today is that France is performing well.
There's obviously a few more important weeks for business ahead of us. The performance is quite good, as you saw in the numbers, notably as when we look at the market shares and in particular in volume terms. In parallel to that, the cost savings dynamics in France is still very strong. That's part of the EUR 1 billion of cost savings for the group for the year that we are confirming today. I think that's the dynamics.
Okay. Thank you very much. We will now take the next question from Clément Genelot of Bryan, Garnier.
Yeah. Hi, thanks. Maybe two from my side. The first one is on wages. Can you elaborate a bit more on the wage inflation already seen year to date across your markets, and what we should expect for next year? The second question is rather on food inflation. As far as France is concerned, we should soon enter into the annual renegotiations period. What do you expect along that front? I mean, should we see another huge wave of price increases, or maybe that's the bulk of it has already been seen this year? Thank you.
Thank you for your two questions. First question about wage inflation. I would say of course, there's a trend of increase of the wage in all the industry in all the European countries. We see different situation across countries in Carrefour. In France, we just negotiated a new increase of 2.5% with unions. It will be applicable as of November and brings the total since November 1 last year to 5.3%. In Spain, the wage increase are limited for 2022, and there is discussion for next year, and it's a permanent discussion.
In other European countries like Belgium or Central Europe, minimum wages are set by the local authorities, and we have to adjust. You see, I would say there's constant discussion. There could be different rules according to the countries and to the state of minimum wages. For the moment, we managed to have a high quality dialogue with the trade unions and they are aware of the fact that we have both to help our teams that, of course, are affected by inflation, but in the meantime, maintain a high level of competitiveness. On your second question, you know, it's very difficult to talk about annual negotiation.
I negotiate every day now, so you have no fear to have. Negotiation is constant and permanent since the beginning of the year in France, as it is in the other European countries. The idea of annual negotiation in France doesn't exist anymore for me with this level of inflation. We negotiate and our team negotiates very regularly with our suppliers. You've probably seen that we have decided to modify a little bit our organization for purchasing. We have decided for the global FMCG industry or the main industry to mutualize our purchases at a European level with a new purchasing office called Eureca based in Spain.
They would lead the negotiation with large groups next year. In the meantime, French SMEs and the ETI would continue to negotiate directly with Carrefour France. The result would be a single contract and a single administrative process for all those. We have decided to mutualize Europe for the main globals and to be more local for the rest of the industry. We do think that it would improve again our competitiveness and our capabilities to have a positive discussion with our main suppliers.
On va prendre la question suivante de Fabienne Caron de Kepler Cheuvreux.[Foreign language]
Oui, bon,[ Foreign language] thank you very much. Three quick ones from my side. The first one would be, in France, if we include the new stores that you announced to pass under lease management in hypermarket and supermarket, including those stores, how many stores in percentage would then be under franchisee and lease management if we look at hypermarket and supermarket in France separately? This would be my first question. The second question would be regarding consumer behavior within the quarter. Did you see some difference if you look at July, August and September regarding mainly trading down and you see some change maybe in October or any comments you would like to make in October? My last question would be on the share of private label in France.
You say you're well positioned to face trading down, but I saw some counter data saying that your private label share in France was below some of your peers. I was wondering, when do you plan to do a catch-up compared to some of your peers on private label penetration in FMCG? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fabienne for this series of questions. Let's begin with lease management. I'm sure you remember that three years ago, the share of stores under the franchise on this management was below 60% for supermarket and around 5% for hypermarket. What is the situation today after the last announcement? More than 2/3 of our supermarkets are under the franchise model. Concerning hypermarket, around 30% of the network is under franchise or lease management. Second question, do we see something new in October? I think I've already answered this question. We see the continuation of the trading down and the maintenance of resilient volume.
Trading down continues with transfer to private label with all what you know about trading down. In the meantime, we don't see any decrease of volume. On the contrary, I would say volume in France due to better comp are better than in H1. We don't see any change in October. Volume remains solid on stable. About private label, as you know, it's a big battle we are leading for four years. It's something for us absolutely key in the transformation of the group. One of the best decisions we've taken with Carrefour 2022 was to launch this battle about private brand.
Of course, we didn't know about this context of inflation, but it's absolutely necessary for us to have this performance in private label. We are good, I would say, quite in everything. We have built this entry price range, Simp l, which is 5% under discount players with 1,000 products, very attractive for the customers who suffer from the purchasing constraints. We are capable, in the meantime, to have a premium brand with our Carrefour Home, with Carrefour Bio and so on. We are present with a complete comprehensive range of products. We accelerate, we are gaining market share for few years on that, and we will continue to do.
It's absolutely a key element of our strategy. In the meantime, of course, we work on the visibility, on the availability of these products in our stores. All this comprehensive program contribute to the fact that in four years, we have been capable to pass from 23%-33% of our revenue linked to private brand.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fabienne.
We will now take the next question from Xavier Le Mené from Bank of America.
Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my question. Three, if I may. The first one just on Italy and Belgium, where you've got quite, I would say brand-new teams managing the businesses. Can you just elaborate a bit more on the initiatives that they put in place and where you are seeing, you know, the best tractions with these initiatives? Is it about cost? Is it about price investment? Just to understand a bit more, what is happening there. The second one, can you just comment on the non-food sales? I know you provide us with some numbers, and it sounds like the non-food sales have been quite resilient. But do you expect that to continue, or do you see, you know, some risk going forward with non-food?
The last one, potentially, I'm back to what was asked already, but I know it's difficult to comment 2023, but so far, you're commenting volumes which are holding pretty well in all geographies. Are you concerned that with inflation increasing slightly, getting inflation on the top of inflation in 2023, that volumes could potentially be at risk?
Thank you for your question. The first one, so, you know, we have the same management team in Italy for now, I think two years or a little more with Christophe Rabatel. He's doing a very good job. It's five periods in a row. We are positive. The situation was very difficult. It's a very complete comprehensive program, long-term program with restructuring, with investments in competitiveness, with a strong development of franchise. Even if the market remains very competitive, we see a better trend, and it's very positive on the country. We think we are going to continue with this trend.
In Belgium, it's very recent because the new management team arrived in August. As you know, the situation was very difficult. We lost around EUR 60 million by January at the first semester. It's an emergency program, a new management team, big focus on the quality of execution, big focus on the question of supply chain. As you remember, we have a major event last year at the second H2.
It's of course brand new, but the performance we covered this quarter is just starting up in August and September that things are positive and we see a great energy in the country which is very positive. On your second question on non-food, I won't be very long. You know well, of course, the non-food market. You know that the tension is strong in this market. We have a correct performance. We outperform our competitors on that, but the market remains difficult.
The teams are very cautious about the level of stock we have on non-food, and we manage that very well. The commercial dynamic is not strong in the market. On non-food it's better, but just correct. On your last question, I think I've already answered. We are capable since the beginning of the crisis, the inflationary environment to combine a market share in value, but also in volume. As you see in France, for example, in this quarter we improve more in volume than in value, 0.5% versus 0.3%.
It proves that we have the good commercial dynamics, so we are obsessed by this level of the volume and the capabilities we have to gain market share in our geographies in terms of volume.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from Rob Joyce from Goldman Sachs.
Hi. Good evening. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I've got two. First one, just on the cash flow guidance. Can you give us an update on how much of a working capital inflow you're now expecting at the year-end, given the big uptick in sales? The second one is just in terms of helping us understand energy costs even this year. I think, in the report, we see it came out, I think, after the half year results that were up around 70% in the first half of the year. Can you help us understand how much energy cost inflation you're expecting in the second half of the year, please? Thank you.
Hello, Rob. Thank you for your questions. Well, I'm not gonna be very precise on cash flow, but clearly, given the inflationary environment versus last year, working cap is a positive. No surprise there. We have a number of negatives, including our increased CapEx number. So what's important is the level of comfort that we have today, that we would be comfortably above EUR 1 billion. The line by line analysis, we will discuss it in February. On energy cost, we're close to 80%, we think for the year. So clearly the inflation is increasing, comparing to the 70% number.
Okay.
I think it's the mechanical translation of what we see in the market. No big surprise.
Okay. Thank you.
We will now take the next question from Nick Coulter from Citi.
Hi. Good evening. Just one, if I may, please. When you say volumes are holding up, food volumes are holding up in France, are they up absolute, year-over-year, or are they just not as negative as might be expected? Obviously, noting that your volume share in France is improving. Thank you.
No, that's. They are positive compared to last year.
Thanks very much.
They are more positive in Q3 compared to last year than they were in H1, because the comps are probably more favorable. The volumes are positive compared to last year.
Would you be able to give a rough quantification of what the trading down impact is? Is that 100 basis points, 200 basis points? It would be interesting to get a feel for that. Then also I guess, why do you think you're not seeing negative volumes? I would've expected you to see some elasticity. Thank you.
Well, we think that the commercial operations and the assortment and the attractiveness of the Carrefour proposition to the customer is attractive and probably more attractive than the commercial proposition of the market on average. We don't see trading down in terms. When we refer to trading down, it's not in terms of volume, obviously. It's more in terms of product mix, where we see that the Carrefour private label products are increasing. They were already increasing, but they're probably increasing a little faster than they were in the past. But again, no big shift. It's just a continuation. We're also making these products very available.
We're working a lot on the availability as we know that these products are very key for our customers in terms of addressing their purchasing power concern. The same applies to the Simpl. I think the promotions that we have as part of our promotional campaigns are also very attractive and they have a strong success. In our mind, trading down is more about moving to these categories. In fresh, people would move from cheaper proteins versus a more expensive protein in the past. That's the type of change in behaviors that we see. It's more behavioral change than an evolution in any kind of volume. That's what we say, that we think that the consumption is holding up quite well.
Understood. Thank you very much. Just one final follow-up, if I may. Is the rest of the market, in aggregate, seeing volumes down year over year from the market data that you see?
Well, it'll probably obviously varies from one period to another. We think the market is relatively stable in terms of volume and we're positive.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
We will now take the next question from James Grzinic from Jefferies.
Hi, good evening. Good evening, Alexandre and Matthieu. I just had a couple both on Brazil. The first one is, I presume, given the accelerated integration of Grupo BIG, should we expect that the shape of synergies is brought forward as well relative to what's been shared so far? Secondly, I noted that a lot of the funding for the completion of the acquisition earlier this year was done locally to bridge financing. Should I be thinking that a lot of that funding will have been extinguished, repaid, you know, by the end of 2023?
Thank you, James, for your questions. You're right. The dynamics of integration of Grupo BIG in Brazil is positive. The teams which are coming from different origins are working together very well. We're very satisfied with that. You're right, we accelerated the conversion and the first stores are reacting quite well. You probably saw some numbers in terms of sales pickup in the Brazilian press release that was published yesterday. It's too early to give you a picture about the pace of the synergies. It's quantification.
We really stick to the number that was shared, which is BRL 2 billion of additional EBITDA in 2025. No change here. We'll obviously update you when we have more visibility, but I think we thought it was important to give you a qualitative info that things are running well and accelerating as far as conversions are concerned. In terms of funding the acquisition, which is in Brazilian real, was funded in Brazilian real in order to match the currency there. It was done locally. It was not bridge financing. It is financing which was done locally across various instruments.
The maturity of these financing locally, but that's the structure of the local market is shorter term than what we may be used to in Europe, but still it's not bridge financing. It is medium-term financing, which will have to be refinanced across the years, as any company does.
Understood, Matthieu. I guess if I can press that point further, my point being, I presume that the business will be strongly free cash flow generative, so the need to refinance beyond 2023 will be relatively limited. Would that be fair? Is that how you'd be thinking about the free cash flow generation of that business there?
Well, no specific message. We're confident. We'll see what's the cash flow, what we need to refinance, what amount, what magnitude. No specific plan and no specific message here. We'll see what, when we get there. Overall, the integration is progressing very well.
Great. Thank you.
We will now take the next question from Geoffroy Michalet de Oddo BHF.
Hi, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my question. Just coming back again on energy, but for 2023. Energy price has softened recently, but it was not the case a few weeks before. What could we expect for 2023? Thank you.
Well, yeah, I think it's too early. I just gave you the 80% energy cost increase for this year. Obviously, there's a number of hedging that we put in place regularly. It also depends on the structures of the market. In a number of markets, the energy prices are regulated by governments, totally or partially. It's too early to give you an outlook for the inflation of energy in 2023.
Okay. Thank you.
We will now take the last question from Cédric Lecasble from Jefferies.
Yes. Thank you. Good evening, all. Just to follow up on this question, could you remind us of the global weight of energy costs in your OpEx? That's number one, or even in your COGS, but globally for the company, just to have the potential impact of energy costs on your P&L. I have two questions, one on impact of trading down. Could you? Maybe we ask you this quite often, but could you guide us maybe through the different impacts in your P&L, everything all together, all else equal, to impact on gross margin, impact on EBIT margin? You have higher gross margin on private labels, not necessarily on entry prices.
What are the economics, and do you have the tools to go through this buffer through your private labels in all the markets? The second question is just a very, very quick. It's about politics in Brazil. What's the lesson of the past in when you had elections and political context on consumer behavior? Thank you very much.
Okay, the last one is the easier. I never speak about politics. The second question, you're right. Well, we will try to talk with you a lot about this question. By trading down, the sharp development of private label, of course, as you know, the price are lower. But in the meantime, a private label usually carries higher margin, which makes the impact on gross profit marginal. But in the meantime, it's more structural, it's more important for us, private label drive customer loyalty, drives customer stickiness.
They enjoy great recognition, and it contributes at a high level to the translation into continuous market share gains. The move of the market from the national one to the private brand, all in all, contributes for us to a better market share, more stickiness, more loyalty. It's positive. As we have been able for the last two years to develop this on three price range for our private label with Simpl, we are capable to attract in the meantime new customers. All in all, it's positive. It's particularly positive in our hypermarket. We have not spoken a lot about hypermarket today, which is a new thing.
I regret that because I deeply think that we are proving this quarter again that this format is very resilient. We have this 5% growth of hypermarket. It's absolutely perfectly adapted to the inflationary environment. It's adapted to the constraints of purchasing power of our customers. We continue to transfer and transform them with the lease management contract, with the development of private label, with the reduction of assortments and so on. They perform well. They gain market share on the. It's a very important trend we observe for quarters now. Matthieu, on the energy
Yeah, on your first question, Cédric, you were asking about the weight of energy in our expenses. It clearly varies a lot from one country to another. I would say between 10%-20% of general expenses do represent our energy costs.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for this discussion. I think we will have a new opportunity to exchange on November 8th . Take care, and talk to you very, very soon. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Good night.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.