Dive Brief:
- Ahold Delhaize recorded comparable-store sales growth excluding fuel of 3.4% in the U.S. during the second quarter.
- Net sales for the quarter came in at about 13 billion euros ($15 billion), an increase of about 2% at constant exchange rates compared to the year-ago period. Online sales rose year over year by 16.4%.
- During the first half of 2025, Ahold Delhaize achieved e-commerce profitability on a fully allocated basis — a key milestone for the company’s omnichannel model.
Dive Insight:
Ahold Delhaize improved its online profitability primarily by shifting toward less asset-intensive same-day delivery, boosting fulfillment capacity, tapping into retail media and automating operations, Frans Muller, the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
“It is particularly encouraging to see that, more and more, customers are finding value in the convenience and flexibility of our brands' omnichannel offerings,” Muller said, noting that the company expanded its e-commerce market share in both Europe and the U.S.
The company’s online sales in Q2 grew 14.4% — marking the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth — and more than 16% stateside.
In Q2, Food Lion led online sales growth in the U.S. and completed the rollout of Ahold Delhaize’s proprietary e-commerce platform, called Prism, which helps customers easily find favorite products, activate digital coupons, reorder quickly and choose delivery or pickup. Hannaford is slated to implement the platform in the second half of the year, Muller said.
For Q2, U.S. comp-store sales excluding gas showed positive growth for the fourth consecutive quarter. Food Lion achieved its 51st consecutive quarter of positive comp-store sales growth.
Muller said that, as of the end of Q2, all of the company’s stateside brands have launched price investments as part of a $1 billion campaign over the next four years in the U.S. Hannaford’s rollout in May of price cuts on roughly 2,500 private label center store items in Massachusetts “is already showing promising results, with center store, own-brand sales modestly outpacing the rest of the store,” according to the company.
So far this year, Ahold Delhaize has launched 300 private label items in the U.S. as the company continues to turn to store brands as a differentiator to drive customer loyalty.
Stateside net sales took a 1.1-percentage-point hit from the closure of 32 underperforming Stop & Shop stores last year and lower gas sales.
One year after Ahold Delhaize announced changes to turn around Stop & Shop’s financial performance, Muller said the company is “encouraged by customers’ response to the initiatives we have implemented thus far.”
“Where we have made investments, we are attracting new customers and seeing increasing volumes and an improving net promoter score,” Muller said about Stop & Shop.
