BRUSSELS, Belgium, 2014-8-8 — /EPR Retail News/ — Delhaize Group reports its second quarter 2014 results
| Financial Summary Second Quarter 2014 |
| » Revenue growth of 3.7% at identical exchange rates (3.7% organic growth) |
| » Comparable store sales growth of 3.3% in the U.S. and -1.2% in Belgium |
| » Group underlying operating margin of 3.4% (3.6% in the U.S., 3.2% in Belgium)
» Impairment of €150 million in Serbia
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| Financial Summary First Half 2014 |
| » Revenue growth of 3.2% at identical exchange rates |
| » Group underlying operating margin of 3.3% (3.8% last year) |
CEO Comments
Frans Muller, President and Chief Executive Officer of Delhaize Group, commented: “Our operating performance in the second quarter was in line with our expectations. In the U.S., comparable store sales growth remained strong, driven by momentum at Food Lion and Hannaford. Our U.S. underlying operating profit began to stabilize as we started to cycle last year’s price investments.”
“In Belgium, our performance was impacted by weak sales and market share loss. In June, we announced our intention to implement a comprehensive Transformation Plan. Through significant organizational changes and accelerating the implementation of our commercial strategy, we aim to remain a differentiated and leading food retailer in Belgium with high quality, well-priced products and strong customer service.”
“In Southeastern Europe, we gained further market share in Greece, Romania and Serbia. In Serbia, our results continued to be impacted by macro-economic instability, negative GDP growth and retail deflation. While we are developing a new commercial strategy to strengthen our performance, the current economic outlook is not expected to improve in the near term. This has caused us to book a further impairment.”
“For the second half of the year, we are on schedule with our “Easy, Fresh & Affordable” initiative at Food Lion while we also have the firm intention to negotiate the implementation of our announced Transformation Plan at Delhaize Belgium. For the full year, we expect to generate a healthy level of free cash flow.”
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