Ahold has announced consolidated net sales of €7.8bn for the fourth quarter of 2012, an increase of 7.5 per cent on the same period of 2011.
The Dutch retailer saw full-year sales for 2012 increase 8.5 per cent compared with the previous year, while at constant exchange rates net sales were up 3.5 per cent.
In the US, sales for 2012 were up 4.3 per cent, a strong performance partially driven by the 'exceptional efforts of our teams during Hurricane Sandy' the group said.
Sales growth hit 7.7 per cent in the Netherlands, mainly driven by progress on the company's growth initiatives such as the addition of 15 former C100/Jumbo stores that were converted during the second half of the year.
'In an ongoing tough economic environment in Europe, the VAT increase earlier this year continued to impact net sales,' the group noted. 'We continued to drive sales ahead of the competition and gained market share.
