Online boosts Ahold Delhaize results

Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize has had an excellent summer, with a 5 % turnover rise to 18.5 billion euros. Online turnover grew 30 % – despite the excellent base for comparison. American turnover grew significantly faster than the European figures.

Resilient model

Despite a number of obstacles – the retailer mentions floods in Belgium, tornadoes in Czechia, fires in Greece and a hurricane in the United States – the Dutch retailer beat analysts’ expectations of 18 billion euros with a quarterly turnover that grew 4.6 % to 18.55 billion euros. Ahold Delhaize points to its excellent comparable sales growth on a two-year basis (thus eliminating exceptional Covid effects), which reached + 15.3 % in the US and + 7.3 % in Europe.

“Our Q3 results once again showed the resilience of our business model, with our brands building further on 2020’s COVID-19-related sales gains, as various societies across our markets reopened in the quarter. During these ever-changing times, we remain proud of the significant efforts of associates in all our brands and businesses”, CEO Frans Muller commented in a press release.

Online sales grew especially fast at + 29.2 %, coming op top of last year’s Covid-related + 62.6 %. Again, online growth was especially steep in the US (+ 53 %), but almost exactly half of that figure came courtesy of the acquisition of FreshDirect. In Europe, online sales grew by a fifth.

Expectations raised

Ahold Delhaize’s underlying operating income went up by 0.7 % to 812 million euros, easily beating the 748 million euros that analysts had expected. Net profit was 522 million euros, meaning earnings per share were 0.51 euros.

The company’s underlying operating margin dropped slightly to 4.4 %, again more than analysts had expected. This positive figure, partly the result of an earlier cost-cutting exercise of over 750 million euros, allowed the retailer to raise its forecast for the full-year underlying operating margin to 4.4 %.