Dutch retailer Ahold has published its results for the second quarter of the year, noting a slight drop of 1.1 per cent in sales to €7.4m, due to the timing of Easter in 2014.
Online sales soared when compared with the same period of 2014, growing 18.6 per cent to €273m, while Q2 underlying operating margin stood at 3.9 per cent.
'In a challenging competitive environment, we remain focused on executing our Reshaping Retail strategy and continue to make investments in our customer and value offering, making our stores a better place to shop,' said CEO Dick Boer.
The group pointed out that it had undergone a programme to improve customer proposition in the US, rolling out to a total of 320 stores.
'In the United States, the roll-out of our programme to improve our customer proposition is progressing well, bringing better quality, service and value to our customers,' he continued. 'By the end of this quarter, the programme was active in 320 stores and will be rolled out to more than half of our stores by the end of this year. The accelerated roll out of the programme together with our decision to absorb commodity price increases resulted in an investment in margin that was partly offset by cost savings from our Simplicity programme.'
Meanwhile in Europe, the group's reorganisation his now been implemented, resulting in a €29 million restructuring charge, while Ahold completed the acquisition of Spar stores in the Czech Republic.
'In Europe, as part of our Simplicity program, we implemented a reorganisation of our head office support roles to improve efficiency. In addition, we streamlined Albert Heijn's commercial organisation to enable a greater focus on improving quality and value for our customers and successfully introduced new products, especially in fresh.
'We expect that ongoing investments in our customer proposition and further development of our product range across multiple categories will result in improving sales trends.'
