Daryo Dec 9, 2014:

oops --- didn't read carefully enough it's "euros courants" IOW raw totally uncorrected sales figures...

Daryo Dec 6, 2014:

en valeur du marché du meuble de l’ordre de 2% à 3% à surface évolutive et en euros courants.
=
=> en valeur du marché du meuble : market estimated in term of monetary value of goods sold, as opposed to estimates in terms of quantities

=> à surface évolutive et en euros courants: the only correction made in order to make figures comparable from one year to the next was to adjust for inflation (en euros courants) - there was no adjustments made to take into account any acquisition or disposal of retail units (à surface évolutive, i.e. without trying to establish any "périmètre constant")

if there is any "smoothing its sales" in all this, it's hiding pretty well...

Charlie Bavington Dec 5, 2014:

the opposite of like-for-like as Duncan says, turnover (activité en valeur) i.e. the financial value of the sales (not e.g. the no. of items sold) is anticipated to drop by 2-3% including the effect of changes in "area" (sales floor area - shops opening and closing, basically).

It is indeed essentially the opposite of like-for-like (the "constant perimeter" although that smacks of translationese to me!)

And ditto no adjustment made for inflation (and potentially perhaps exchange rates).

Duncan Moncrieff Dec 5, 2014:

cont... "Like-for-like net sales were calculated by adjusting:
• 2013 net sales to exclude companies consolidated for the first time during the year, and 2012
net sales to exclude companies divested in 2013;
• 2013 and 2012 nets sales based on 2012 exchange rates." (http://www.lagardere.com/fichiers/fckeditor/File/Relations_i...

So "à surface évolutive" means "integrating market evolutions" (the appearance of new competitors, the disappearance/bankruptcy of others, opening/closure of stores, etc). "En euros courants" means that the effect of inflation hasn't been removed - compare real vs nominal value:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_versus_nominal_value_(econ... or in French http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeur_nominale_et_valeur_réell...
and:
http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/vernimmen/definition_...
http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/vernimmen/definition_...

Duncan Moncrieff Dec 5, 2014:

"à périmètre/surface constant" = "constant perimeter":

"Constant perimeter definition used is 2002 sales minus contribution of 2002 acquisitions minus contribution to 2002 sales of companies acquired in 2001" (http://www.altran.com/uploads/tx_lpaltran/Altran_20030220_PR...
"Solvay’s relative environmental indicators are performance indicators at constant perimeter; their values are expressed as a percentage of their efficiency in the reference year 2012. As such they can be compared directly with the reduction targets the Group has set in its new Environmental Plan. For more details on the Sustainability targets for 2020, the reader is referred to the page 3.
To obtain the relative environmental indicators, the absolute environmental indicators are corrected for changes in the Group’s perimeter (incoming and outgoing sites) and normalized by the production volumes in order to correct for changes in economic activity. (http://www.solvay.com/en/binaries/2013-Sustainable-Developpe...

Duncan Moncrieff Dec 5, 2014:

Contrast "à surface évolutive" with "à périmètre/surface constant"...
i.e.:
" L’an dernier, l’enseigne Class’croûte a réalisé une bonne année, avec un chiffre d’affaires de 55,2 millions d'euros HT, en progression de + 10% à surface évolutive et de +3,3% à périmètre constant. Nous étions partis sur un trend de 5% mais les trois derniers mois de 2010 nous ont pénalisés.
Cette tendance positive semble encore être meilleure sur les deux premiers mois de l’année 2011 car notre réseau a vu son activité progresser de +7% à périmètre constant et +15% à surface évolutive. Le business est véritablement reparti à la hausse. L’activité de livraison, qui reste notre cœur de métier, est également de nouveau bien orientée." (http://www.observatoiredelafranchise.fr/interviews-classcrou...

"Entre janvier et juin 2014, les ventes de meubles dans l’hexagone ont donc baissé de 2,5 % à surface évolutive et euros courants (aux alentours de – 4,5 ou – 5 % à surface constante)" (http://courrierdumeuble.fr/marche-du-meuble-resultats-du-1er...

Also: http://www.mobicite.com/content/download/17875/179041/file/I...

David Swain (asker) Dec 5, 2014:

Good morning everyone. Thanks for your contributions. No one has been able to give me a definite answer, but its seems clear that this is an unusual term. With the deadline looming, I decided to submit the job with this term provisionally translated using the "smoothing" concept, but query it with the client. I hope to receive any answer, at which point I will close the question, create a glossary entry and - if appropriate - award the points.

Didier Fourcot Dec 5, 2014:

Per François' PDF The discussion of the figures is rather confusing, comparing increases to previous decreases in reference year with no concept of average or smoothing, but it does mention clearly "5 jours de soldes en moins", so this is also a comparison based on the number of sales days

This is rather common for comparison among months for car sales for example: they take into account the number of opening days of the dealer halls:
http://www.ccfa.fr/Le-marche-des-voitures-neuves-a,125139

Francois Boye Dec 5, 2014:

Click on the pdf attachment in the link below and you will understand what the Asker is talking about.

http://www.mobicite.com/Developpement/Economie/Le-meuble-sur...

Didier Fourcot Dec 4, 2014:

I understand like Melissa At least for the first occurrence
chute d’activité en valeur du marché du meuble de l’ordre de 2% à 3% à surface évolutive et en euros courants
clearly indicates a consolidation, natives will probably find a better wording, but I understand "including mergers and acquisitions"

Melissa McMahon Dec 4, 2014:

Surface = périmètre? A few cases on the net seem to contrast "à surface évolutive" with "à périmètre constant", which is accounting terminology to do with the "scope of consolidation". I only find 51 instances of "à surface évolutive" on the net, the majority from the same source, which suggests it's not an official accounting term, but may be the author's paraphrase of this notion.