Supermarket group Koninklijke Ahold (AHONY.PK) said Tuesday that it sales grew 4.3% for the third quarter, impacted by deflation and trading down by customers, while higher promotional activity continued, especially in the United States.
For the the most recent quarter, the company's net sales rose to 6.04 billion euros from 5.79 billion euros in the same quarter a year earlier. At constant exchange rates, sales increased 2.6%.
Segment-wise, sales from Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover climbed 5.5% to 2.78 billion euros from 2.63 billion euros in the prior year. Identical sales increased 0.2% and 2.3% at Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover, respectively. Comparable sales rose 0.6% at Stop & Shop and 2.7% at Giant-Landover.
Giant-Carlisle generated sales of 767 million euros, 4.2% up from last year's 736 million euros. Identical sales declined 1.5%, whereas comparable sales dropped 0.1%. Sales from Ahold U.S.A. moved 5.2% up to 3.54 billion euros from 3.37 billion euros in the preceding year.
Albert Heijn recorded three-month sales of 2.12 billion euros, a growth of 5.4%, compared to 2.01 billion euros a year ago. Net sales at Albert Heijn supermarkets grew 4.9% to 1.9 billion euros on year, positively affected by the conversion of former Schuitema stores into the Albert Heijn format in the second half of 2008. However, identical sales at the supermarkets decreased 0.4 %.
Sales from Albert/Hypernova dropped 8% to 378 million euros from 411 million euros in the previous year, reflecting store closures as part of company's restructuring program. The decline was 3.5% at constant exchange rates. Identical sales plummeted 3.4%. Sales from Ahold Europe rose 3.1% to 2.5 billion euros from 2.42 billion euros in the prior year.
In unconsolidated joint venture - ICA, net sales plunged 6.4% year-over-year to 2.25 billion euros from 2.41 billion euros. Meanwhile, at constant exchange rates, sales inched up 1.3%.
For the year-to-date period, Ahold's sales soared 10.8% to 21.12 billion euros from 19.07 billion euros in the former year.
Sales from Ahold U.S.A. for the year-to-date period improved 14% to 12.52 billion euros from 10.99 billion euros in the prior year. Ahold Europe posted sales of 8.6 billion euros, a growth of 6.4%, compared to 8.09 billion euros last year.
AHONY.PK closed Monday's regular trade at $13.07, up $0.07 or 0.54%, on a volume of 51 thousand shares.
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