Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the presentation of our annual results. I'm at our headquarters in Massy with Matthieu Malige, our Group CFO, Laurent Vallée, our Group General Secretary, and Rami Baitiéh, Executive Director of Carrefour France. We will share with you a few convictions about this past year and about the years to come for Carrefour. First conviction, in 2020, Carrefour was at the forefront of the response to the crisis. Every day brought a new challenge. Business as usual went out the window and everything went faster. In 2020, we had to step up. We had to protect our staff and our customers. We had to secure our supplies. We had to adapt in real time to the sanitary and regulatory situation while making sure we operated as reliably as possible. We did.
I think our mindset was one of responsibility and solidarity. Our teams on the ground perfectly embodied this spirit. I thank them again for it. We never pulled back on our ambitions to achieve the full transition for all. Our food transition and CSR index reached a score of 115 in 2020. Laurent Vallée will tell you more in a moment. We will continue to step up this year. We will remain just as rigorous on the sanitary front and just as committed to our social responsibilities. As you may know, we are committed to hiring 15,000 young workers in France this year, with half the new recruits coming from underprivileged areas. They are the hardest hit by this crisis. As CEO, I want us to do our part. My second conviction, I would even call it a certainty, is that 2020 marked a successful turning point for Carrefour.
We implemented a model that ensures lasting sales growth and profitability for our group. First, our growth dynamic has further accelerated. Our like-for-like sales performance was our best in over 20 years. This crisis makes the full market more buoyant overall, but we outperformed the market, resulting in a positive market share dynamic in our core countries. Our Brazilian ecosystem is getting stronger and stronger, gaining more market share from an already leading position. Spain. Spain is amplifying its commercial success, gaining ground and building momentum. France, renewed vitality is obvious. All our formats, and most notably hypermarkets, are growing in France. Carrefour France in H2 posted its best half year in terms of market share in several years. Second, our growth model is long-lasting for two reasons. First, it's based on a strong rise in customer satisfaction level.
Group NPS increased three times faster than in the last two years. This shows just how obsessed we are with customer satisfaction. It's the first priority for our country directors. Rami Baitiéh will amplify that in a moment. Our growth model is also based on consumer trends that have been amplified by this crisis. These trends are very favorable to us. E-commerce. E-commerce boomed in the context of the crisis. Our investments and expertise in food e-commerce translated into growth of over 70% in 2020. We gained 1.3 million new customers last year, and we gained market share in food e-commerce everywhere. The increase in volumes and our higher productivity structurally improved our food e-commerce business model. This contribute positively to our profitability.
Our omni-channel model is already an advantage today. Tomorrow, it will be a highly valuable asset as our omni-channel clients are our best customers. On our products, our positioning is attractive. We have strengthened our leadership on organic products, whose sale increased by 18% in 2020 despite the logistical challenges that were caused by the pandemic. At the same time, Carrefour-branded products have grown faster than the market. They account for 29% of our sales. We have also been able to seize the non-food opportunities that emerged in 2020, such as home office or new forms of mobility. Finally, on all formats whose growth has been strengthened by this crisis, cash-and-carry, discount, on convenience stores, our expansion is fast-paced. For more than a year, we have also been adding active external growth through targeted acquisitions in Brazil, in Taiwan, in Spain, and in France.
Speaking of M&A, a quick word about the unsolicited offer we received from Couche-Tard early January. The way I see it, first, this episode is a positive sign that Carrefour has become attractive once again. Second, my responsibility was to look at this offer seriously. Discussions were still at a very preliminary stage when they were cut short by the government. Lastly, global M&A operations are not a necessity for us. We have a clear trajectory on our own, and we are on the offensive on our markets. Bolt-on M&A is part of our strategy. It leverages our strong balance sheet and operational expertise in order to reinforce our market positions, and it adds profitable growth to our group. Third, our growth model is indeed profitable.
Our recurring operating income improved once again by more than 16% this year, even though it has been a difficult year for B2B sales and for our services, especially financial. This means that it is our distribution activities that perform extremely well. The contribution to the group's recurring operating income is up EUR 630 million, and our financial discipline has remained strict. Our strongest performance comes from our cash management. We have generated EUR 1.1 billion of net free cash flow in 2020. To realize the full extent of these results, let me remind you that for the past decade, we were averaging a total of zero. Yes, this is a momentous turnaround. My third conviction is that we have mastered our operational, sales, and financial models. This allows us to look to the future with confidence.
Based on this analysis, we have taken new and significant commitments starting in 2021. First commitment, steadily increase customer satisfaction. We have raised our NPS target to 30 points by 2022. By achieving this goal, we'll meet high customer expectations in terms of pricing, of quality, service, and omnichannel distribution. Second commitment, control our costs and our operations even more. It is part of a permanent process. I'm announcing today a new target of an additional EUR 2.4 billion in annual cost savings by 2023. Third commitment, cash generation. We have reached an inflection point. I have confidence in the sustainability of our growth model. For the first time, we are introducing a target of over EUR 1 billion in net free cash flow per year starting at 2021.
With this level of confidence in our financial models, we are putting an end to 10 years of scrip dividends at Carrefour. We will distribute dividend fully in cash. We are proposing a dividend of EUR 0.48 per share for the 2020 financial year. It is set to grow in the coming years. This is part of a clear allocation policy, well-balanced between stakeholders. In short, three years ago, Carrefour was lagging behind. The launch of the Carrefour 2022 plan set us an ambitious path. The last three years of transformation have created an attractive model which benefits from new consumer trends. Our group has now reached a turning point. We have ensured growth, profitability, and financial capabilities in the long term. At the close of 2020, I note that despite challenges, we are continuing to grow. Despite emergency, we are reaching our goals, both financial and extra-financial.
Despite the F on the economy crisis, we are generating trust. This confidence translates into renewed goals for Carrefour. Thank you for your attention. I would now like to invite Rami Baitiéh to tell us more about customer satisfaction in France.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Alexandre. Good morning, everyone. I'm delighted to be with you today. I had the opportunity to deploy the 555 culture in several Carrefour countries. This has produced and delivered great results. Today, I'm very happy to share with you also how the 555 is delivering results in Carrefour France, how it is bringing back our attractiveness and bringing our customers to our hypermarket. The rollout of the 555 is a general mobilization of all teams in all areas, all department with one target, which is to get the best customer satisfaction level. Our key priorities are the price, are the offer in terms of quality, freshness, and innovation, and in-store experience when it comes, for example, to waiting time at checkout and availability of product. We put the store management in sales area.
We conduct daily analysis of our net promoter score, and this is done daily store by store. We make daily analysis of, and rankings of best stores and worst stores for every single irritants, and every irritant is solved. This led to immediate result. We can see the net promoter scores that grew last year by 17 points in hypermarket. It grew by 18 points in supermarket and 18 points in drive. This culture of ownership comes with a sharp focus on operational excellence and expenses management. To do this, we roll out TOP, Team Organization Project. TOP is a lean methodology that improve the productivity of our teams and thus it make them more available to serve the customer in store.
TOP is the best solution to solve many irritants like shrinkage, out of stock, waiting time at the checkout, expiration date, and price display and overstock, all unnecessary overstock in stores. We already rolled out TOP in more than 130 hypermarkets and roughly 20 supermarkets. The result are here on all the items in the barometer and the dashboard. This rollout of TOP will be completed by the end of the summer this year. Our customers are now directly involved in our commercial policy. Our catalogs and promotions are reviewed in advance by our customers. From offer point of view, we enriched the entry level items and the Carrefour branded items outperformed the market in 2020. We also pushed a clear focus on price in store. To eliminate all price irritants, we put clear methodology.
A dedicated team in every store that check every day the price accuracy, that price is clear and correct, and also a weekly checkup of all the prices with the competition. This led to a clear result, + 10 points in the barometer about price image and + 13 points when it comes to price accuracy. By eliminating all the irritants and by innovating our offer, what we want to do is to bring our customers to our store and to let them buy any additional product they need. I want to say a few words about relationship with customers. We are here to serve customers. My team and I, this is what we do. This is our knowhow, and this is what we love to do. Our call centers have been given a greater role with the daily feedback. Every root cause has been analyzed, identified, and solved.
Thanks to that, on a year-to-year basis, the number of calls received shrunk by 40% for store-related issue. We have provided to every cashier in store a small notebook to allow our customers to write their comments, suggestions, and complaints. We have collected over the second semester of the last year more than 25 feedback from customers. We conduct regular round tables with the customers. Over the second semester, we met more than 15,000 customers, benefiting from their feedback and guidance. We inverted the pyramid to put the customers on the top of our priorities and to make the management more engaged with the employees. The implementation of this ecosystem, as well as a renewed executive committee with a strong experience, has led to robust result in all our formats.
The key success factors of this culture of ownership are to think as a customer, to act as an owner, and to make Carrefour the best place to work. As we did in other countries, this strategy is bearing fruit in France day after day. I am very confident this is the beginning of a fantastic journey. The potential is great, and it is here. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you, Alexandre.
Thank you, Rami. After three years of turnaround and with this incredibly strong customer-centric approach, France is well on track for further profitable growth. You know that Carrefour is also a values-driven company with a strong environmental and social impact. Laurent Vallée will tell you more about progress on extra financial matters for the Carrefour 2022 plan. Laurent?
Thanks, Alexandre. Good morning, everyone. Leading on social and environmental issues is part of our core business. Carrefour is a coveted company. Throughout the pandemic, we have been very responsive to all the challenges that we have faced. We have made significant investments in safety and social distancing measures across every one of our stores so that people can shop safely and with confidence. In France, Spain, and Brazil, we were the first retail company to be awarded certifications based on best available practices for risk prevention against the spread of the virus. We supported our colleagues through exceptional bonuses and helped our communities through dedicated services, donations, and support for local producers. We are grateful to our colleagues for playing their part, to our customers who have been supporting our measures. We thank our suppliers for their partnership.
Let's discuss Carrefour's role in leading the food transition for all. The progress of our actions is measured by our CSR and food transition index, which is audited. For the third consecutive year, the index increased, reaching a score of 115%. This shows that we are on track to achieving our objectives. This is thanks to the ambitious action that we have taken in store on our products, as well as for our employees and customers. Moving to some of our key CSR initiatives this year. Sustainability is key to our customers. We are positioned to deliver the experience they want and to set the ambitious goals that they expect from us as well. I will take three examples. The first one is packaging. Our results are decreased by more than 6,000 tons in 2017, exceeded our expectations.
We did that by taking very concrete action as close as possible to our customers. For instance, by removing plastic from fruit and vegetables. We removed 450 tons here in 2020. Today, more than 80% of our organic products are plastic free. We decided to double our packaging reduction target to reduce it by 20,000 tons by 2025, including 15,000 tons of plastic. Second example, food waste. The pandemic has caused a surge in the demand for food aid of more than 20% in 2020 versus 2019. This has made the fight against food waste and even greater priority for our customers. This year, Carrefour has reduced food waste by more than 29%. This is part of our overall objective to halve food waste by 2025. Third, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, our increased energy efficiency and the use of natural refrigerants have enabled us to reduce our CO2 emissions by -9%. We have set a new target approved by SBTi of -30% in 2030 and -55% in 2040. Our performance has been measured by many of you here through your own methodologies and through internationally recognized rating agencies. Our positive results for 2020 have placed Carrefour among the top retailers globally and as the top French retailer in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and in the Carbon Disclosure Project. These results confirm the evolution of our internal index. I cannot close the presentation of our extra financial results without mentioning the reprehensible acts of violence that occurred in a hypermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil. A subcontracted security guard killed one of our clients, João Alberto Silveira Freitas, on November 19, 2020.
This tragedy could not be further from Carrefour's values. We condemn all acts of violence and racism. We immediately took strong measures to prevent this from ever happening again. We took action to ensure that all those involved in this incident were held accountable. We launched an internal investigation, as well as an internal audit of the security management services. We thoroughly reviewed the training policies for employees and subcontractors. We developed a detailed action plan which includes creating objectives to promote diversity and inclusion, reviewing service providers, including a clause to combat racism in all our contracts, evaluating security criteria of all stores. Finally, we have established a diversity stakeholder committee with whom we consult on a regular basis and have created a fund to promote diversity. Thank you for your interest in our company. Alexandre, I leave the floor to you.
Thank you, Laurent. Matthieu Malige will now give you more details regarding our financial performance.
Thank you, Alexandre. Good morning to all of you. I'm very happy to be with you today to give you more color on our 2020 performance. Let me start with our growth momentum. When detailing the annual like-for-like sales growth of 7.8% by quarter, it appears that all quarters showed a similar pace of growth between 6% and 8%. It shows the resilience of our sales dynamics across the year, despite very different and changing sanitary constraints. It also shows the great adaptability of our teams and the resilience of our food retail model. Our growth dynamic is also fueled by value-creating acquisitions. As part of our targeted external growth strategy, we acquired companies for a total amount of EUR 760 million in 2020. They should contribute to more than 2% of additional sales on a full-year basis.
These acquisitions include notably 30 cash and carry Makro stores in Brazil, 224 Wellcome convenience stores in Taiwan, 172 supermarkets and convenience stores in Spain, as well as the Bio c' Bon organic food banner in France. This strategy of targeted acquisitions at attractive conditions is a source of profitable growth and value creation for the future. A word on cost savings. In January 2018, when we launched our Carrefour 2022 plan, we set the objective to reduce costs by EUR 2 billion by the end of 2020. Quarter after quarter, we have delivered cost savings at a very good pace in all countries, constantly beating our initial ambition. We have finally reached EUR 3 billion of cost savings at the end of 2020, three years into our plan. Challenging cost, improving productivity, avoiding unnecessary expenses, being more agile and lean have become daily life of our teams.
Having our operating model well under control puts us in a position to announce today an additional cost savings plan of EUR 2.4 billion by 2023. It is supported by extra levels of efficiency, both on merchandise and goods not for resale. recurring operating income reached EUR 2,173 million in 2020, growing by 16.4% at constant exchange rates, or plus EUR 343 million. This improvement was driven by retail activities, posting a sharp increase of + EUR 630 million at constant exchange rates. Dynamic like-for-like and efficient cost savings explain this remarkable performance. This pattern is true in all geographies, with retail recurring operating income improving by EUR 160 million in France, EUR 150 million in Europe, and EUR 280 million in Brazil in 2020. Let me also highlight that the growth in food e-commerce contributed in 2020 and will continue to contribute to the improvement in recurring operating income and operating margin.
This represents a structural improvement in our business model. This retail contribution growth was compensated by declining contribution of financial services and other activities in the context of the economic crisis and sanitary restrictions. Contribution of financial services declined by EUR 200 million at constant exchange rates. They suffered from declining net banking income and the increase in the cost of risk in the context of the economic crisis. Net banking income declined as customers were more cautious on their spendings and used consumer credits less. It also declined as we decided to tighten conditions to grant credit in order to reduce future risk. Other activities, including B2B sales to restaurants and hotels, ticketing, and travel agencies, contributed EUR 80 million less to the recurring operating income. This is the direct impact of restrictions as a consequence of the sanitary crisis.
If we move down the P&L, adjusted net income group share increased by EUR 154 million. On top of recurring operating income growth, a sharp reduction in non-recurring expenses contributed to this improvement as fewer restructurings were initiated in 2020. Financial expenses slightly decreased by EUR 18 million, reflecting proactive debt management. The normative tax rate improved from 21.4% in 2019 to 30.1% in 2020, reflecting the evolution of the geographic mix and lower income tax rate in some countries. In 2020, Carrefour posted a strong cash generation. The combination of good commercial momentum and financial discipline enabled the generation of net free cash flow of nearly EUR 1.1 billion, up more than EUR 700 million compared to 2019.
Let me inform you that from now on, we will report on comments on this net free cash flow, which corresponds to the free cash flow after net financial cost, net lease payments, and cash out of exceptional charges. This aggregate reflects the cash generated when everything has been cashed out, just before paying dividend and doing M&A. It represents the end game for shareholders. Hence, they can easily benchmark our cash generation versus other investment opportunities in the market. This best free cash flow performance in more than 10 years primarily reflects an increase in EBITDA and a good control of our financial model. Indeed, it reflects very selective and productive CapEx, which were reduced to EUR 1.2 billion in the context of the pandemic. It also reflects a two-day improvement in inventories, equivalent to 30 days of sales versus 39 days two years ago.
Let's now move down the cash flow statement in greater details. The EUR 732 million improvement in net free cash flow in 2020 includes the increase in EBITDA of EUR 49 million. It also includes the following items: the payment of EUR 128 million of exceptional bonuses and similar benefits, a lower cash out for restructuring costs of EUR 341 million versus EUR 580 million in 2019. The decrease of the dividend received from Carmila reduced CapEx, as I explained earlier, and an improvement of the change in working capital requirement, reflecting a dynamic activity, better inventory management, partly offset by lower petrol sales and hence lower tax payables, and a decrease in SG&A payables following good cost reductions. In 2020, net financial debt decreased by EUR 288 million at constant exchange rate to EUR 2.6 billion.
This reflects the strong generation in net free cash flow of nearly EUR 1.1 billion, acquisitions for a total cash out of about EUR 640 million, and the payment of dividends for EUR 169 million. Bolstered by the success of our transformation plan and confidence in the Carrefour model, we are setting today an objective of generating annual free cash flow in excess of EUR 1 billion. How do we see the main building blocks from cash flow evolution in 2021 versus 2020? First, our solid growth momentum shall steadily improve profitability and EBITDA. Second, as the first three years of our plan have experienced heavy transformation, exceptional expenses and other items should decrease over time. Third, thanks to continued growth and further inventory improvement, working capital requirements is expected to contribute positively to the cash flow.
CapEx, which were unusually low in 2020, should return to a normative level of between EUR 1.5 billion and EUR 1.7 billion from 2021. Cost of debt should keep decreasing thanks to further dynamic debt management. Our good dynamics allows us to normalize our dividend policy and to put an end to almost 10 years of scrip dividend at Carrefour. Going forward, we will distribute dividends fully in cash. We are proposing a dividend of EUR 0.48 per share for the 2020 financial year, subject to the approval of the annual shareholders meeting. The dividend is expected to grow regularly from this point. We have also set an explicit capital allocation policy, which includes the following elements. First, investments in the business and the customer offer, serving our [Non-English content ]. Second, an ordinary dividend, fully paid in cash and intended to grow regularly. Third, a bolt-on M&A strategy.
A solid investment-grade rating. Finally, potential share buybacks or equivalent. We thus aim to develop our activities and combine a robust balance sheet, enabling us to seize value-creative acquisition opportunities with financial efficiency and with return to shareholders. Thank you for your attention. Alexandre, back to you.
Thank you, Matthieu. Many thanks to all of you for your attention. We will now answer the questions you may have.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Be sure to mute your computer when it's your turn to ask a question. We have a first question from Cédric Lecasble from Stifel. Sir, please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three, if I may. The first one for Alexandre. What extent has the pandemic and Carrefour's internal progress changed or not your view on the need to consolidate the French market? Where do you see the strongest potential for bolt-on acquisitions in France? The second one is for Rami. To win the French consumer, are there some specificities, differences versus what you have seen and done in other countries? What are the most challenging aspects, and do you have all the assets and services today that you need for this turnover? The last one for Matthieu. You state that food e-com growth positively contributes to profitability. Could you be maybe more specific and drive us through the KPIs, and how does this compare to your pre-pandemic expectations? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Cédric. It was not so easy to absolutely grasp your first question, but I think it's about consolidation in France related to the pandemic, if I heard well. What we do think is that we are really in capabilities, thanks to our performance, our commercial performance, our financial performance, our capability to generate this level of free cash flow recurring to continue to be very offensive. In the bolt-on M&A, we have initiated last year. Last year, we spent EUR 716 million to a certain number of acquisition, Wellcome, Spain, Makro, and France with Bio c' Bon. Thanks to this level of free cash flow recurring, we have these capabilities to continue to grasp opportunities. For that, we are very selective, as you know. We try to clearly analyze, select the companies that we can acquire with a clear criteria.
Is there a capability to grow? Is it a growth format? Are we capable to give value to this company? Carrefour can bring something to this company? Is it an intermediate size? We try to see all these criteria. When all these criteria are fulfilled in all geographies, including, of course, France, we decide to go. In France, we don't think that there would be a major consolidation for Carrefour. It's not today at all [Non-English content] , but we analyze a certain number of situation. When all these criteria are fulfilled, we act. It's exactly the way we will continue to behave in the next year and the years after. Rami?
Yes. Thank you very much for your question. Actually, I think that the French customers are very demanding when it comes to the key items of the retail. I think that the Plan 2022 led by Alexandre is the basis to address their needs. The culture that we have implemented with the inverted pyramid and the mindset of thinking as a customer, acting as an owner, and make Carrefour the best place to work, this is fundamental. We need to address this high demanding level of the French customer. We need a methodology. This is my mission, to bring this methodology and to accelerate what has been done. The methodology is the 555 with all the tools of the 555. Team, Organization, Project, and others. With this methodology, we put ourself at this customer service. Let me give you two example.
All the members of the executive committee, we put our email on the website of Carrefour saying to customers, if you have any suggestion, complaint, note to make to the management, just you can reach us. Of course, there are call centers. What if sometime the customer is not satisfied? They can reach us because we are now below the pyramid. Every week we go with the executive committee to visit one region in France. We meet all our store directors. We consider our stores like a unique store. We treat every store like a unique store. Last Saturday, we were in Lille, in the north of France, and yesterday we were in Evreux, in Normandy region. We meet store managers and all the executive committee, we go to them to listen to how we can help altogether serving our customers.
The 555, which is based on the trust, five points, then the service, five points, and the experience, five points. All of this help us today to address the customer satisfaction. The customers say it. As Alexandre mentioned, in the NPS last year grew by 17 points in hypermarket, 18 in supermarket, and 17 points also in drive. We are in the right way, and now we need to continue accelerating.
Matthieu, on the improvement of profitability of food e-commerce.
Yes, you're right, Cédric. From 2020 onwards, food e-commerce contributes and will contribute to the increase in our profitability. We just come back a few years, we set food e-commerce as a priority as part of our strategic plan, and we announced at the time a EUR 2.8 billion investment to digitalize Carrefour. What did we do? We invested heavily, notably into fulfillment centers, in order to improve the quality, the speed of our fulfilling online orders and also improve our capacity in order to fulfill and serve more customers online. What has 2020 changed? First, it has confirmed our initial direction. Food e-commerce is essential to doing food retail business. It has tremendously accelerated. We've posted a 70% increase in food e-commerce activity. On the economic model, with the investments we've done for three years, it is more fixed cost.
When we have more volumes, we have more profit after variable cost and more EBIT. I think 2020 confirms that e-commerce is a growth opportunity for us. It will help us in our growth model in the future, and it will also contribute to the improvement of our profitability with this new economic model.
Thank you, Matthieu. Next question.
Thank you. Next question from Arnaud Joly, from Societe Generale. Sir, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I have three questions. The first one to come back on the Couche-Tard story, which can be a bit confusing for investor because they believe that top management could have been ready to accept a deal at a low price. Alexandre, two questions. Do you see any significant potential of value creation based on fundamentals in the coming years? What's your view on the group's ability to further expand and transform its business model on a standalone basis? Two other quick questions on CapEx and the planned increase in the coming two years. Where will the increase come from? Will it be higher investment in IT and online or store revamping? The last one for Rami. A good progress in Q4.
Have you started to regain new customers or have you started to increase the loyalty of your existing customers just to have a better view of the improved momentum? Thanks.
Thank you, Arnaud. Few words on the, I would say, few facts on the Couche-Tard approach. As you know, the facts are the following. Couche-Tard approaches us with an exploratory offer at the beginning of January with a price of entry of negotiation with offer EUR 20. They are credible. They have resources, and they have the ambition. They had this ambition to create a world leader with Carrefour at the center of this world leader. Our responsibility, my responsibility, of course, was to explore this offer, to understand this offer, to analyze if all the conditions, if all the guarantees for all the stakeholders, shareholders, employers, partners, friends, were fulfilled. There was the intervention of the government at the moment where the terms of a project were not on the table because we were entering into this phase of negotiation.
As you understand, it puts an end to this episode. Now we are back as we were before. We were going well just before this offer. As you've seen with these results, we are very well after this episode. My conviction, I think it's the conviction of the team, the results prove that, the commitments prove the level of confidence we have on the model is that we have huge capabilities to create value, to transform the model, to accelerate the model. The performance are not related with the COVID. The performance are sustainable. They are linked to these capabilities we have to grasp this obsession of the customer satisfaction, the 555 of Rami and all the CEO in all the countries.
The fact to be capable to increase by 12% and 16% in France, this customer satisfaction, this NPS, is a huge sign that we are back. Thanks to that, we increase our market share and thanks to the improvement of the market share, of course, the like-for-like is increasing. Thanks to that, on the level of financial discipline we have on the cost, we are capable to transform that into profitability and financial capabilities and free cash flow. We are highly confident in the fact to continue to accelerate this moment. We are at a turning point in our history because we have seized all the consumer trends, and we are now capable, thanks to this approach, this customer satisfaction, to transform and to accelerate.
I would say for myself and for my colleagues and for all the teams, the level of confidence we have about the capability to create value in the future is very high. On the CapEx, in fact, we are just back to a normative CapEx. Last year it was EUR 1.2, but it was related to the fact that due to the pandemic, we have less expansion. For example, we are less projects on IT, for example, because during March, April, we have to slow down all that. We are back to the normative level of CapEx between EUR 1.5 and EUR 1.7. With Matthieu, we told you since the beginning that we think that it is the good level, the good normative level, both to build this global model, but in the meantime, be selective, be very capable to grasp this level of CapEx.
We'll continue this year to invest in the digital transformation, in the acceleration of expansion, particularly proximity store and cash and carry, to maintain the level of standards of our stores. Rami, one additional word?
Yes, thank you for the question. About the regain customer and loyalty, I would like to say both. The 555, which is the three columns about trust. Trust make us to protect our current customers. Service, it lets the customer to buy any additional product they want because of the best service you provide. Experience to bring more customers. If we look at the last quarter you mentioned, Arnaud, is both of them. We gained in traffic and also more products, more units in the basket and in the trolley. Both of them. We ensure the basics and as well as enriching the offer. I take three example. For example, for the offer that we did in this quarter.
The original product and local product, we open to reference in the original product from all regions in France with easy referencing of local suppliers. You have, for example, the international product. Also, we put these items in some stores, as well as entry-level products. All of this enhances the traffic and also increases the basket together.
Thank you. Next question.
Thank you. Next question from Claire Bouleau from Challenges. Madam, please go ahead.
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Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my question. I have three coming from the same topic. The first, thank you. You just presented results that are, it is true, very good. We have another two years before the end of the plan. If we take a distance as regards the figures of Carrefour today and regarding certain targets that you increased, what are the challenges, Alexandre, for the deadline? For the time left until the end of the plan, what are your priorities, and where are you not totally satisfied regarding where you stand? If in 2022, you're exactly where you want for Carrefour, where will you go from there? We can see that Rami is taking more and more position. Can we consider that he's your trump card?
Okay. Well, thank you very much for this question. I will answer in French because you asked this in French. What I told the teams this year counts double. This is a year where we are trying to get closer due to this deadline, 2022, and therefore, we really need to reach the targets, the financial targets, to reach the operational targets that we had set because it's the team's credibility, it's the project's credibility which is at stake to be successful in this transformation. It is a year because of course, I didn't decide that 2022 we need to go until 2022 without changing anything. We must speed things up.
This is why we use this word because this is the reality. This is where we stand. This is a turning point. This year is truly a turning point. It counts double because it is a true milestone. We are showing, we are giving visibility to investors and to the market, and we are proving our confidence, our trust. We did this as we take new indicators. When you increase the NPS indicator, when we set the initial target, it was extremely ambitious. At the time, in 2018, we had increased very little, and we were wondering how we could reach this. In fact, we managed to reach it. +12 points, +16, and we decided to speed up with +30 points.
Our capacity to increase this NPS to be at the right level in terms of increase, but in a relative share compared with our competitors, because we're not alone in the world. We must be at a right level. We need to be a leader in all our geographies if we want this customer centricity approach to transform into market share. That's extremely important. The fact that we're capable and the fact that we launched this plan of EUR 2 billion. I remember, Carrefour already announced plans, and they never held their promises. No. We committed to two, we did three. We are announcing an extra EUR 2.4, which means we had announced an increase in EUR 2 billion in 2018 before 2022. We were done because we are going to reach this. We're going to reach EUR 5.4 billion in cost savings by 2022.
This is the momentum, and we can now give this visibility, which is so important for investors. I understand that this sector generates skepticism, worries, concern, digital transformation. We have global players such as Amazon. There's a very strong competition. It's very intense, this competition. I understand these worries and concern, but now our model, we've got it under control, and we can provide visibility as regards our financial performance. The fact that we can say for Carrefour, I generate every year EUR 1 billion in free cash flow is extremely important as regards our capacity, the company's capacity to imagine the future, to pay shareholders, to carry on working for our [Non-English content] , investing, doing M&A. We are accelerating. This is a turning point. This is a year where we are accelerating, and this is why it counts twice. Your second question is very important.
I always considered in my functions that my main responsibility was to generate a generation of managers to put the best in every position. I consider this is my job, and therefore I am very happy and proud to see these generations of managers emerge. Rami is a wonderful manager. He filled out extremely difficult missions in different continents, and he's now in charge of France, and he's been doing an awful lot of work over the last few months, and we've seen things change. I have excellent managers in other geographies, in Spain, Alexandre Palmas, of course, Noël in Brazil. I cannot mention them all, but I have a team of country managers which is in charge. They are customer focused. They believe in it.
They do not believe that Carrefour is in the right position. Therefore, we're all very much motivated. Therefore, the group team, all those around him and all the others who work on a daily basis with us and with whom we've built a team with different talents, with different profiles, different origins, which works well together. This is my biggest satisfaction. It is the token for our future success.
Next.
Next question.
Thank you. Next question from Sreedhar Mahamkali from UBS. Sir, please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three as well, please. First one for Alexandre. Alexandre, you talked about, pretty much I think it was your words, certainty in terms of lasting sales growth and profitability. Also comments from Matthieu, Rami, all point to very strong conviction. You've turned corner in France, important France market. Clearly, we're seeing second half French margin was also comfortably strongest in it's been in a few years. Just trying to understand your ambition in terms of growing here, profitable growth that you refer to.
Yeah.
You don't have to go too long back in history when you made Carrefour France more than EUR 1 billion of operating profit. You're clearly talking to profitable growth.
Sorry.
How should we think about by the time the plan has ended, Carrefour 2022 plan, should France restore its contribution to the overall group back to where it was just a few years ago? Just paint a picture at the end of the strategy, what it should look like, please, in terms of French profitability or profit, relative contribution to group, whichever way you choose to answer the question. That's the first one. Second one, perhaps I think to Matthieu, in terms of capital allocation framework, which is quite helpful. Thanks for sharing that. Maybe just to probe you a little bit, how do you strike a balance between what might be a fairly modest bolt-on acquisition versus going to your step five, launching a modest buyback to sort of add to your dividend policy? How do you strike that balance?
The last one, again, I think also probably for Matthieu Financial services, can you give us a sense of contribution from this area in France and Europe? We clearly get a pretty good idea in terms of LatAm or how should we think about the impact? Clearly significant impact in the second half it seems in Europe. Can you help us a little bit into how we should think about 2021, please? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. If I understand well, the question is where I see France in our model and the potential of France in the future. You're absolutely right. We need a strong France to give the full potential of the group. I have this conviction since my arrival. It's not possible for this group to be in a good shape, to be the leader if France is not profitable, if France doesn't grow, if France doesn't have a positive market share, doesn't have a good level of customer satisfaction, and so on. The conviction I have is that we are on the good road. We are on the good road. It is structural. It's not related to the buoyant market last year with COVID. Of course, it was a positive element in terms of growth. It's more structural than that.
First, because a certain number of trends that contribute to the performance of France last year would continue this year. You know them, of course. The underlying trends such as digital, it would continue. organic, it would continue. home consumption would not disappear in a day, as you know, with home office, so it would continue to be at a good level. More than that, we have a good momentum. We have the capability to grasp. It was the first quarter for years where all our formats, all our store in their formats, they increased their market share. proximity was superior to market share. supermarket also and hypermarket was superior to market share of hypermarket. It's the best market share in the half semester that we've known for years and years. We have this capability now to grasp growth. You know this model by heart.
If you are capable to deliver the level of cost savings on which we are engaged on with Matthieu, we are obsessed with that. If you are capable through to customer satisfaction, market share on like-for-like to grow, you have a profitable model. If you have a profitable model, the contribution of France in our model would grow. I'm dreaming about a real competition between my main country, between Brazil, between France, between Spain. They are all France, but I know that they compete for having the best contribution to the profitability of Carrefour. I know that France has an enormous potential in front of us. I'm highly confident for the role of Carrefour France in the group model. Matthieu?
Yeah, on your second question, Sreedhar, on capital allocation, thank you. We've set this capital allocation policy. The order obviously matters. First, we want to develop the company in line with our objectives, then pay dividend, in third comes M&A. We've also set, I think, quite clear conditions for entering into bolt-on M&A. It needs to be bolt-on in our existing geographies to complement our existing presence, easy to integrate, good price, acquisition price, having a good potential for synergies and value creation. We really want to stick to a strong discipline in this M&A strategy. If we have excess for that, excess cash generation, if our rating becomes very solid and in excess of the target solid investment grade rating we have set in our capital allocation policy, we're very open to potential share buybacks. We're not announcing a share buyback today.
We're setting a policy, and we're going to keep developing. On financial services. I think it's important to understand the dynamics of the year between H1 and H2 to understand what's the outlook and perspective for 2021. As I said in my comments, we had a decrease in net banking income, and we also increased the provision for the cost of risk. H1, we started to have a decrease in net banking income, but it was only over a few months. We started to have customer reduce their appetite to consumer credit. We also started from March, April onwards to tighten the conditions to grant credit in order to avoid future risk. We had a partial effect in H1 of the reduction of net banking income.
Obviously, in H2, the trend continued, and we have a full semester effect. In terms of risk, most of the risk that we accounted for was booked in H1 with only marginal complement in provision in H2, as there is no sign of worsening of the credit quality at the end of 2020 versus the numbers we had on the table in June, July, when we closed H1. I think it's very important, there is no worsening of the quality of the portfolio at the end of the year. In terms of credit production, what do we see in terms of trend? We see that there is good credit production. You saw that in the Brazilian release last night. Credit production remains down in Europe. It is public market data, but it grows quite strongly in Brazil. Credit production is now positive. Brazil overcoming European negative trend.
At the end of the year, the credit portfolio stabilized, and it is now growing again. Along 2021, that's going to fuel a better dynamic on net banking income.
Okay. Matthieu, can I have a quick follow-up, if you don't mind? Just in terms of the striking a balance between bolt-on and the potential buyback, if you don't mind. What I'm trying to understand is, there was an offer, pretty much very preliminary on that, I fully accept, a EUR 20 offer, shares are at EUR 15 today. In the allocation framework, we've got share buyback set at five. I'm just trying to reconcile the two. When you've got cash flow targets out there already, do you reassess it every quarter, every six months? At what share price do you think bolt-ons are less accretive to investors than buying back stock?
Well, yes, we will reassess that very regularly. Obviously, assessing the opportunities available in the market for acquisitions. We've proven in 2020 that there were a high number of opportunities, that we were able to seize them at good financial conditions. It's really work in progress. We will reassess the situation very regularly.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question.
Thank you. Next question from Maria-Laura Adurno from Morgan Stanley. Madam, please go ahead.
Thank you very much for taking my questions this morning. I actually have two. The first one is with respect to hypermarket and France performance in 2020. Any comments that you can actually make with respect to underlying operating profit performance? The second question is with respect to your private label strategy. A very impressive growth in the penetration in France. Just wondering, to reach your target, as you said, for 2022, is it new SKUs to be launched or is it price momentum, or is it more segmentation within the private label strategy? Any comments would be helpful. Thank you very much.
I'm sorry. It's very difficult to hear you.
[Non-English content]
Second question is, what is driving the private labels and segmentation?
As you know, we don't give you any details of the profitability of hypermarket in France, but something very important this year is the fact that due to the good performance, the fact that we gain market share, the fact that we have been capable at the Q4 to increase the growth of market share by 3.8%. The profitability of the hypermarket has improved compared to what it was before and compared to 2019, and quite steadily. It is a very positive trend. On the private label, you're right. It's at the core of the transformation since the beginning. It's at the core of the food transition. We are all obsessed with the fact to be capable to put our private label at the center of the model. We have developed so many products.
We have changed the way it is presented in our stores. We reach this performance of 29%. We are on the good road. We are capable to have a premium private label, also a new entrance gamut assortment on Simpl. We have all the capabilities between premium and the entrance price. We work very strongly on that. We have good teams in terms of capabilities to develop new assortments, to think about marketing about that, to work in the stores for improving the performance of the private label. There's a strong competition on private label with our competitors, as you know. We are on the good road. To be capable in such a year to increase by two points the penetration is very positive. It proves that we are on the good road.
We will reach the objective we fixed at the beginning of the plan. Next question.
[Non-English content]
Next question from Olivier Dauvers. You have the floor.
Good morning, Alexandre. Hello, everyone. Very quick question, kind of symbolic question. Do you know what the second figure after the comma for the fourth quarter in France is? Seriously, to come on the growth of supermarkets, hypermarkets, I understand that we will not get the ROI for hypermarkets in 2020. My question is, how long will the hypermarket still need you to be positive in terms of recurring operating income? I guess this is a very important point. The second question concerning consumption and the various changes that we see, the trends in consumption that we see with the new small supermarkets that are growing up here and there, popping up here and there, and, obviously, stealing market share from you, taking away market shares from you. What do you need to do?
Do you believe you need to do something about this?
Right. Thank you very much, Olivier. We'll check the second figure after the 55. I'm sorry to deceive you with regards the hypermarkets, I can reassure you also. We'll do as fast as possible. You will have understood that we are impatient to see hypermarkets perform and improve their performance. We hope that as soon as this year, we will be able to be back on track with regards to the objectives we've set ourselves and with everything that we've put in place, namely the 555, but not only that. We believe that this will allow us to just increase profitability, increase our growth. We are very motivated and we are, let's say, very keen to make these changes occur as fast as possible.
These new formats, you often talk about them, and you're right. To be honest, what strikes me, and this is not mentioned enough, I believe, apart from you. We see so much diversity and this big dynamic in our industry. I'm very proud, I must say, because I feel that my teams, all my teams are very, let's say, careful and looking out for all these new trends, these new formats. Not a week goes by without someone telling us, "All right, well, we've seen this format. Should we replicate? Should we add something? Can we integrate it?" So on. We've seen so many different actions, programs being developed, not necessarily many further, but we see that some formats work quite well. The organic approach, which we are, let's say, very strongly into, is quite interesting.
We're considering many different opportunities because we believe that tomorrow there is to be, or Carrefour could play some kind of a role of a moderator or, let's say, fit all these models, formats in one company. We need to understand that these companies are entrepreneur-led companies, and we need to respect this. We need to perhaps invite, encourage people to join us in our ecosystem in what I should call our Carrefour galaxy. Any other questions?
Thank you. Xavier Le Mené from Bank of America, sir, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. I will ask my question in English, if you don't mind. Good morning, Alexandre and Matthieu. Just one thing on COVID on 2020. I just want to understand whether it has changed your view on the hypermarket overall. Do you think that you potentially have to maintain most of the non-food? What are you going to do by reducing space? Any changes that COVID has been bringing, going forward.
You're right. COVID, of course, changed a certain number of trends, accelerated a certain number of trends. I evoked before digital, organic, and so on, but also changed the role of the different format. Concerning hypermarket, it's clear, and I think we had this discussion at the first semester last year, at the end of the semester. We told you, and it was not very clear because there was skepticism about this idea we had at this moment that we thought it creates a momentum for the hypermarket. These capabilities to have everything under the same roof, the one-stop shopping, a good experience, with the good level of social distancing, with the perfect respect of the sanitary rules is positive for the hypermarket. Of course, you're right, particularly for the non-food. We have done a tremendous job.
It was not so obvious to see. In the last two years, to come back to good offers on our non-food. We were good in a certain number of country, in Spain, in Brazil, but we were not at the good level in others, and particularly in France. We have done a global job with global sourcing, with massification of products, with capabilities to think what is the good products on non-food in hypermarkets for our customers. We are back with good offers. Additionally, because of this crisis, new trends appear. The role of home office, the urban mobilities, kitchen. On immediately, all the teams react in all the countries, to be capable on these non-food trends to offer an answer to our customers. The combination of all that create what you see in our results.
The fact that the non-food performance is good in terms of growths, more important, it's good in terms of market share. If you add that with difficulties of a certain number of specialized retailers, let's say particularly in textile or something like that, it reinforces the potential we have. That's why we have decided, you know we are extraordinarily pragmatic. When we see all these elements in place, we decided to be very focused on the non-food this year, capable to grasp all these opportunities, that's why we have these good trends. That's why in 2021, we have great ambitions on a certain number of categories on non-food. It's not only the case in the countries such as Brazil and Spain and others that were the center of our offer before.
That's widespread because you're right, it's a new role of the hypermarket, and it's a new role on the new performance of non-food inside the hypermarket. Next question.
Thank you. Next question from Fabienne Caron from Kepler Cheuvreux. Madame, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Three quick question for Rami, please. The first one, Rami, could you reassure us on the performance of the French hypermarket at the beginning of 2021? We have now the curfew at 6:00 P.M. We have, I think, 50% of the Carrefour malls are being closed. Can you reassure us that you still perform well at the beginning of the year, would be my first question. The second question, can you share with us what you view on the hypermarket post the improvement of the execution that you're doing? I'm thinking here of the view on square meter. By the way, the target on square meters are not listed anymore at the end of the press release.
What's your view on potential cutting square meters in the French hypermarket and on lease management, so location? My last question would be, could you share with us the online sales for France? Because it's the biggest weight. I suspect it may be something like EUR 1.4 billion. Could you confirm, and what's your target for online sales in France for 2021? Thank you.
Rami?
Thank you very much for your question. Hypermarket as well for other format, but hypermarket, as you know, as Alexandre has just mentioned, are very important to France. We can see the trend of hypermarket improving among the figures that Matthieu has presented. It's a day-to-day improvement. It's continuous improvement. The story in hypermarket is a day-to-day improvement. The methodology and the mindset and the focus are clear for this year. Personally, I'm very confident because we see the first result in last year. My mandate from Alexandre is to accelerate putting this methodology in the center of our mindset, which is the 555, to gain the trust of the customer, to serve the customer, and to have the best in-store experience. I'm very confident about the continuous positive trend of hypermarket. I can tell you that today is better than yesterday.
Tomorrow is going to be better than today because every day is with the training of the team, enhancing all the key items of the strategy. Regarding your point about the square meters, for example, we listen to our customers, and customer asked me to put some chairs in hypermarket, and we put chair in hypermarket. When customer asked me to reduce hypermarket, we reduce hypermarket. Let's remember that a lot has been done over the last years. The main fundamentals are done and now we are in acceleration time, acceleration period, keeping in mind what the guidance of our customers and taking into account the general context that we're living. Your third point about the online, we are gaining market share, as Alexandre mentioned, on online. We are improving our NPS by 17 points over the last year.
We are in a very good trend, and we are happy to satisfy our customers with our online drive and home delivery services.
Thank you, Rami. Perhaps, Fabienne, just to come back to your question about the indicator of square meters. You've seen it has been suspended in our release. We are very pragmatic. You imagine or you know by heart retail how much our teams have had as complexity to manage last year with sanitary measures, change of regimentations, opening hours, non-food, non-essential, not possible to send on and so on. Many changes. The priority for us and the priority for Rami was, okay, we have to serve the best our customers. We have to give them the more comfort we can in this moment, because it is the key. The only key for our customers that have many complexities in everything is that in our stores, things are simple. They have their habits, and we don't want to modify all that.
That's why last year, with all this level of complexity, with the extraordinary commitments of our team to deal with the sanitary decisions and so on, we decide not to suspend this criteria because it was not the key priority. Adding with that, we see the potential of the non-food, and as you know, we are very pragmatic and we decide to suspend that, accelerate on the non-food and not create any disturbing changes both for our teams and for the customers. I propose a very last question.
To come back on, did I get it right that the performance of the Carrefour hypermarket are not impacted by the closure of the malls? Saying the momentum was still good despite the closure of the malls that was ordered by the government.
I think, Fabienne. I sometimes read comments because we've been indeed in 2020 and again in the first month of 2021, through a number of changes in terms of rules, constraints. I think what the numbers show, in particularly these Q4 numbers, we've gone through lockdown. We've had the closure of some non-food categories. You see the numbers today. I think it's another proof of the resilience of the model, of the fantastic commitment and adaptability of our teams in France, in the stores, and in other geographies in order to deliver a sustainable, a resilient performance. Our performance is here. It's not just new constraints that change the fundamentals that we are putting into the business.
Thank you, Matthieu. I propose the very last question, if someone has one.
Last question from [Morgane Le Guay] from LSA. Please go ahead.
Please go ahead, LSA.
Yes, hello, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. Yes. I'll come back to Fabienne Caron's question. Can we have a clear answer with regards to your objective of reducing the 350,000 sq m of hyper in the group? I think the objective has been suspended, but I guess that the reduction is not enough. Hyper seems to be back on track of a good trend. Does it make sense to reduce the size? The second question, you talked about tactical acquisitions. Where are we with regards to development of Supeco? We see that purchasing power is going to be a very important point to take into account. The third question I have has to do with the negotiations. What do you do with this, namely at the international level?
Okay. Thank you very much, [Morgane].
I'm going to try to answer this very briefly. Now, the objective, as it's been said, has been suspended. Either we've changed the targets, we've modified them, or we've suspended them, right? Once again, in 2020, in 2021, with so many changes to manage, Fabienne Caron mentioned the curfew at 1,800 and all these other measures. We decided that we would not make life even more complex for our teams. Situation is so difficult already, and we don't want to make life more complicated for our customers either. We decided to suspend this measure, taking into account also that we have a very good dynamic on non-food, and we have a great team. Our team is extremely pragmatic, and so just being in line with what our customers experience and with the support of our teams, we decided to suspend this indicator. Supeco, you're right.
Great satisfaction for the team. We found the good format for our supermarkets, our discount supermarkets. It wasn't easy. We hadn't found a format in a long time, right, for one part of our clients, a very specific part of our clients, understanding what these discount supermarkets are about. They're very good in terms of price, but also quality with fresh products that are very good. We've opened six. We are very happy about the results. We're very happy about their performance. Our ambition is to open up some more, and we hope that we will find the right positioning for these discount supermarkets in Romania. We're very good in Spain. We've also made a good progression. France, we have the right model. We are going to continue. It's a great satisfaction for our team. Now, last question, commercial negotiations.
Obviously, this is the moment when we come to these negotiations, right? Listen, they are happening currently. They are very positive, especially for farming and SMEs. We've signed roughly 80% of our contracts with SMEs. We've probably signed more since then. We still have this ability because we want to, right, to improve and to valorize the price of that number of raw materials. We announced yesterday an agreement with dairy farms and their cooperatives. Yeah, we are continuing to valorize the prices of raw materials as much as we can. We are discussing with a certain number of multinational corporations. What we do, well, we act as negotiators once again. I believe that when you negotiate with Coca-Cola or Red Bull, I don't have any specific advantage for them. When I look at their results, they seem to be quite good.
I don't feel that I'm putting the farming industry at risk when I negotiate with Coca-Cola. Our teams are doing their job quite well. We are actually run in advance with the situation last year and two years ago. Things are happening quite well. Very positive trend, very positive context, and I guess that we will be on track with what we have decided and in the right time frame. Right. Thank you very much with this.
Discussion. We'll speak again to you very soon. I think we begin a roadshow with Matthieu. We have first meetings with investors this afternoon at 2:00 P.M. or 3:00 P.M. We'll meet all together, I think, for the H1, the 21st of April. Thank you so much. Keep safe, and it was a pleasure to have this discussion with all my colleagues. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.