Carrefour warns on 2011 profit

French grocery retailer Carrefour has reported a 22% fall in first half operating profit and warned that the economic climate was «increasingly challenging». The retailer said it expected trends in Europe to continue «broadly unchanged». First half operating profit fell 40% in France alone while a weak performance in Western European markets, notably Greece and Italy, was partly offset a better showing in emerging markets. The retailer warned that full year profits would slump 15% as it cuts prices in a bid to reverse market share losses in its home market and elsewhere in Europe. Following a review conducted by Noël Prioux, Executive Director for Carrefour France, the company said it was deploying a new commercial strategy in its home market called «Reset». This aims to «regain competitiveness and traffic in hypermarkets» and to adapt to «an increasingly challenging economic environment», according to the retailer.