61 million euro profit for Delhaize in first quarter

No surprises

A few weeks ago Delhaize published preliminary
quarterly results, which were all confirmed: 214 million euro company profit,
comparable sales growth of +1.9% in the United States and +2.4% in Belgium and
strong profit margins in the US (4.2%) and Belgium (5.1%). One number, that of
sales, was upped a little bit: company sales were 5.52 billion euro; a few
weeks ago the number was 5.5 billion euro.

“We had a strong first quarter, supported by
higher sales and profitability at Delhaize America and Delhaize Belgium, partly
due to the favourable weather conditions. The repositioned shops of Food Lion
continue to perform well and in Belgium consumer behaviour was stronger than
expected. The activities in South-Eastern Europe were influenced by price
investments in Greece and the high inflation in other countries”, said
Pierre-Olivier Beckers, who recently announced his resignation, which was quite
the surprise.

In Belgium Delhaize had sales of 1.2 billion
euro in the past quarter. “The market inflation of 2.2% and the expansion were
the most important aspects for this growth. The underlying company profit rose
by 13.4% to 63 million euro.” The Belgian distribution group confirms its
year goal for an underlying company profit of 775 million euro, 3.6% lower than
the previous year.