Strikes result in lower turnover for Delhaize Belgium

Additional week of sales

Fourth quarter like-for-like turnover dropped 6.9 %, reaching 1.26 billion euro. Delhaize Group’s total fourth quarter turnover reached 5.79 billion euro, a 11.4 % increase – thanks to an additional week of sales.

For 2014, Delhaize reached a 21.36 billion euro (+ 3.7 %) turnover, while its Belgian home market had to deal with a 3 % turnover drop to 4.92 billion euro. Underlying 2014 company profit reached 764 million euro, well above analyst expectations at 700 million euro. Without the additional week of sales, profit would have been 739 million euro.

Excellent American results

“Our fourth quarter revenues at Delhaize America were solid, partly helped by inflation and both Food Lion and Hannaford reported positive real sales growth. In Belgium our revenues and results were both negatively impacted by disruptions in our stores and in our distribution network”, CEO Frans Müller said about its mixed results.

“We have the ambition to reach a final agreement with our social partners on the Transformation Plan negotiations soon. In Southeastern Europe, a difficult consumer environment in Greece and Serbia resulted in negative comparable store sales growth.”