French hypermarket giant Carrefour plans to save 4.5 billion euros by 2012 as a fall consumer demand hits its profits, especially for non food items.

Changes include cutting operating costs, improving purchasing terms and reducing inventory times to boost profits, which are expected to fall to 2.7-2.8 billion euros from 3.3 billion in 2008 .

Carrefour is trying to win customers and improve its expensive image by moving to a single banner name across its hypermarkets and supermarkets as well as introducing a discount range and investing in hard discount and convenience stores.