Belgian grocery retailer Delhaize saw increased sales momentum in the US and increased market share domestically as it enjoyed higher revenues and profit in the second quarter.
The group, which recently announced it is to merge with Dutch retailer Ahold, enjoyed revenue growth of 18.1 per cent at actual exchange rates and 3.2 per cent at identical exchange rates.
Underlying profit growth, meanwhile, stood at 25.7 per cent at actual exchange rates, or 8.6 per cent at identical exchange rates.
“3.2 per cent revenue growth, 8.6 per cent underlying operating profit growth at identical exchange rates and €308m free cash flow generation represents a solid performance for Delhaize Group in the second quarter of 2015,' said Frans Muller, president and chief executive of Delhaize Group.
'With a 3.4 per cent real growth, Delhaize America experienced continued sales momentum both at Food Lion and at Hannaford,' he continued. 'At Delhaize Belgium, our market share continued to improve compared to the end of 2014. Our Southeastern European operations’ performance was robust, helped by continued high growth in Romania and positive comparable store sales growth and network growth in Greece. Our performance in Serbia was stable.
'We are making good progress with the two strategic initiatives highlighted earlier this year,' Muller added. 'The execution of our Transformation Plan at Delhaize Belgium continues to go according to plan and at Food Lion we remain on schedule to launch our 'Easy, Fresh and Affordable' strategy in the Raleigh market in the fourth quarter of this year. Our first half year performance puts us in a good position to realise our ambitions for the year and we are looking forward to merging our operations with Ahold as announced on 24 June 2015.”
