Ahold has published its summary report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2014, reporting that Q4 sales grew 7.9 per cent to €8.1bn, driven by currency and improved sales trends.
Underlying operating margin stood at 3.7 per cent, and excluding the impact of the Spar acquisition, this remained stable versus the prior two quarters at 3.9 per cent.
'In the fourth quarter, we reported a strong sales performance, reflecting a positive currency impact as well as improvements in underlying sales trends, both in the United States and in the Netherlands,' explained CEO Dick Boer said.
'Our underlying operating margin was stable versus the previous two quarters, adjusted for the Spar acquisition. Free cash flow generation during the quarter was strong, with €613m compared to €485m last year.
Net sales for the full year grew 0.5 per cent, or 0.8 per cent at constant exchange rates, to €32.77bn, while net income dropped 76.6 per cent to €594m - impacted by discontinued operations, such as the sale of the group's former joint venture ICA.
'The actions we took this year across our businesses to improve our customer proposition and to provide better value to our customers resulted in an improving sales performance over the course of the year,' he continued. 'Operating income of €1.25bn was slightly higher than last year. Underlying operating margin of 3.9 per cent was impacted by investments in our customer proposition in the United States, strong sales growth from our online business in the Netherlands and our acquisition of the Spar stores in the Czech Republic. We completed our 2012-2014 Simplicity programme and achieved €865m in cost and efficiency improvements, exceeding our target of €600m.
