Europe’s largest and the world’s second largest retailer Carrefour reported a massive fall of 74% in its profits for the fiscal 2010.  The company accrued profits of 327 million euros this fiscal as against 1.27 billion euros, in the previous financial year.

The sales dropped to 86 billion euros, a slump of 1.2% compared to last year sales. The company executives attributed this huge dip in profits to its restructuring costs and impairment charges imposed on it, mainly in Italy. Carrefour paid total charges of 1.1 billion Euros in 2009, which included 766 million Euros of impairment charges.

Additionally, the retailer adopted major price cuts in 2009 in France and Western Europe in order to boost consumer sentiments which were running low due to the economic turmoil across the globe. But apparently the strategy didn’t work very well, as sales in both these markets (France and Western Europe) fell significantly.

However, in contrast to France and Western Europe the sales of Carrefour in Latin America and Asia shot up by a significant margin of 11.9% and 8.4%, respectively.

In another news, the France based retailer has announced its plans to foray in the Indian retail market by 2010. The company will start its Indian operations through cash-and-carry stores.