Carrefour Brasil, a company owned by France’s Carrefour, made a profit of 39 million reais ($7.7 million) in the first quarter of this year. This is a big change from last year when they had losses during the same time. The reason for this turnaround is that food prices went up, which helped Carrefour Brasil make more money.

When we adjust the numbers, Carrefour Brasil actually made a profit of 52 million reais, which is less than what analysts expected. The analysts thought they would make around 137.4 million reais.

In late April, Carrefour Brasil already shared that their sales for the first quarter went up by 2.5% compared to last year. Most of their sales come from Atacadao, which is a wholesale store. Atacadao’s sales grew by 6.6%.

The CEO of Carrefour Brasil, Stephane Maquaire, told reporters that the increase in food prices helped them sell more. This was especially true for Atacadao, which sells to other businesses like small grocery stores. These stores had stopped buying as much because they were making less money. But with food prices going up, they started buying more again.

Maquaire also mentioned that they are trying to lower prices for some basic products in their retail stores. This is because their sales in these stores went down by more than 10% in the first quarter. By lowering prices, they hope to sell more and make up for the decrease in sales.

Overall, Carrefour Brasil’s profits before subtracting things like taxes and expenses went up by 36.6% to 1.42 billion reais. This is a bit higher than what analysts expected, which was around 1.33 billion reais.

Their profit margins also went up from 4.3% to 5.7%, which means they are making more money from each sale compared to last year.

Maquaire also mentioned that they had to close seven stores in the state of Rio Grande do Sul because of heavy rains and floods. To help people in that area, they decided to keep prices the same until the end of May.