Ahold Delhaize‘s fourth quarter’s net turnover grew 2.8 % (taking into account exchange rate fluctuations and excluding week 53) to 15.5 billion euro. The company’s Dutch like-for-like turnover grew 6 %, but there was a 1 % drop in Belgium.
Strong online sales
The Dutch growth was attributed to a better product range and an improved supermarket service, but mainly thanks to the strong online growth for both bol.com and ah.nl. Ahold Delhaize’s fourth quarter online growth was an astonishing 27.9 %. Belgian like-for-like turnover dropped 0.9 %, mainly because of a strong fourth quarter in 2015. Belgian market share remained relatively stable compared to the year before.
In the rest of Europe, like-for-like turnover grew 3.4 %, thanks to a strong Romanian performance. The company expanded its store network there, but also managed a decent like-for-like growth. In the United States, de Delhaize America stores were the main growth contributor with a 2.2 % like-for-like turnover growth. Ahold USA suffered a slight 0.2 % drop because of increased competition and price pressure.
