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T Carrefour Indonesia, the arm of France’s retail giant Carrefour, may record sales growth of between 3 percent and 4 percent this year in the second semester of this year, the company’s executive said.

Carrefour Indonesia head of public affairs Satria Hamid said in Jakarta on Friday that although its sales growth was not so high, the Indonesian unit of the French retail giant, together with other Asian units, helped compensate the fall in sales in Europe.

Carrefour SA announced on Thursday that its group sales reached ¤43.68 billion (US$53.22 billion) in the first half of the year, a slight 0.9 percent increase compared to a year earlier. Only for the second quarter, Carrefour SA’s sales stood at ¤21.71 billion, falling slightly by 0.3 percent year on year.

Carrefour SA said that its arms in emerging markets helped the company compensate the declined of sales in France of 2.1 percent and 3.5 percent in other European countries. Sales in Asia, it said, was up 14 percent to reach ¤2.02 billion in the second quarter, mostly supported by sales growth in China.

“Of the 14 percent increase, Carrefour Indonesia contributed about 7 to 8 percent [of the Asian markets total amount of sales],” Satria said. She could not elaborate the financial performances of Carrefour Indonesia in the second quarter, because the financial reports were under completion.

Carrefour Indonesia is also expecting to see its sales jump in the second half of the year, as result of growing demand during Idul Fitri in August and Christmas holiday – followed by New Year holiday – this December.

Ahead of Idul Fitri, Satria said that Carrefour has anticipated growing demands by adding its supply, particularly staple foods, to up to 30 percent compared to normal days.

“The critical phases are one week before and two weeks after Idul Fitri as supply will be hampered due to many distributors halt their operations,” Satria said.

Carrefour Indonesia currently has 85 outlets nationwide. The retailer is planning to open between five and 10 more stores this year to support its business amid tight competition in the market. Among Carrefour Indonesia’s competitors are Hypermart, Giant and Korean Lotte Mart. The company has said that it would also expand to eastern Indonesia, in an attempt to grab the increasing demand there. The company only has nine stores located outside Java so far; four of them are located in Makassar, two in Medan, tow in Batam and one in Palembang.

Carrefour Indonesia is 39 percent owned by France-based Carrefour SA. Indonesian PT Trans Retail, a subsidiary of Trans Corp controlled by local tycoon Chairul Tanjung, has become the majority shareholders in Carrefour Indonesia after an acquisition of 40 percent stake in 2010. The remaining shareholders are Carrefour Nederlands BV (9.5 percent) and Onesia BV (11.5 percent).

— JP/Raras Cahyafitri