Ahold and Delhaize both reported an increase in revenue and net sales in their respective earnings reports as they wrapped up the 2015 fiscal year.
Ahold reported that its net income increased 16 percent to $279 million from $241 million in the prior year, driven by a 21 percent jump in revenue to $10.8 billion. The company beat analyst expectations in terms of its underlying operating income, which increased 39 percent to $463 million.
For the full year, Ahold said that its net income increased 43.1 percent to $936 million from $653 million in the previous year. Revenue also saw a strong boost, increasing 16.6 percent to $41.8 billion from $35.2 billion in 2014.
“In the United States, we grew sales excluding gas by 4.1%, adjusted for an additional week,” said Dick Boer, CEO of Ahold. “We continue to make good progress with our investments in quality and price, highlighted by growth in identical sales and market share gains, primarily in the New York Metro market where we further strengthened our position with the successful conversion of 25 former A&P stores.”
Delhaize saw similar gains in both its net profit and revenue, which increased to $125 million and $6.9 billion, respectively, for its fourth quarter of 2015.
In its full fiscal 2015 year, Delhaize reported that its net income increased to $406 million and its revenue increased 14.2 percent to $26 billion.
“For 2016, our main focus is to complete the merger with Royal Ahold on schedule,” said Frans Muller, Delhaize Group CEO. “We are confident on the prospects of the merger given the complementarity of our store networks, the opportunity to accelerate innovation for our customers the €500 million run-rate synergy potential. The next step in the merger process will be the Extraordinary General Meetings of both companies scheduled on March 14.”
The strong results prove to be promising for investors as the two European retail giants look to complete their intended merger. Most recently, Ahold said that His Majesty the King of Netherlands has honored its request to use the predicate “Koninklijke” (“Royal”) after the merger completes. The name of the combined company will be “Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V.”
For any further details on the pending merger, stay tuned to DeliMarket News.
