Dive Brief:
- Ahold Delhaize recorded comparable-store sales growth excluding fuel of 3.1% in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2025, as severe winter in areas the company serves helped bolster its performance.
- Net sales for the quarter came in at about 13.9 billion euros ($15.8 billion), an increase of about 2% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period in 2024. Online sales rose year over year by 17.9%.
- The closure last year of more than 30 Stop & Shop stores held back Ahold Delhaize’s sales during Q1 by about 100 basis points, but the chain has shown signs of improvement, executives said Wednesday during an earnings call.
Dive Insight:
Volumes have been trending upward at the more than 40 Stop & Shop locations where the company has taken steps to bring down prices, a sign that the grocer’s efforts to revitalize the Northeast chain are beginning to bear fruit, Ahold Delhaize President and CEO Frans Muller said during the earnings call.
Stop & Shop has also made significant progress in renovating its store fleet and has completed remodeling projects at about 200 of the chain’s approximately 360 locations, Muller said. The company completed renovations of four stores during the first quarter, he said.
Muller added that the company has shifted to a less capital-intensive strategy for renovating additional locations. “Going forward, remodels are focused on making investments that will have the greatest impact on the in-store shopping experience and [are] combined with enhancements to the customer value proposition,” Muller said.
Ahold Delhaize has stepped up price investments at Stop & Shop because stores are mostly in good condition, CFO Jolanda Poots-Bijl said during the call.
According to Muller, the company has benefited from its decision to concentrate its online fulfillment operations in its stores. “The full store is at your disposal, which is rather unique for online. And it’s your own full store, with your own cultural and ethnic assortment,” he said.
Muller added that Ahold Delhaize has not yet seen a significant impact on discretionary and non-food spending from the tariffs the U.S. government has recently imposed, noting that most of the food it sells is sourced locally.
“I think, therefore, [we’re] less vulnerable,” Muller said. “And at the same time, we do not see that customers are stocking up [on] food products because they are afraid [of] tariffs or increases there.”
Food Lion remained Ahold Delhaize’s best-performing banner in the U.S. during Q1, Poots-Bijl said. The chain has now posted 50 straight quarters of comparable sales growth and saw digital sales rise during the quarter by almost 40%, she added. Food Lion opened one new store this past quarter and has five additional locations in the pipeline for 2025.
Hannaford, meanwhile, turned in its 15th consecutive quarter of comparable-store sales growth.
