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Ahold supermarket sales miss forecasts

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS: Dutch retail giant Ahold reported second quarter sales of €6.43 billion (US$9.2 billion), yesterday, Tuesday 28 July 2009, up 11.5% from a year earlier but short of analyst forecasts for €6.55 billion.

Sales were 3.9% higher at constant exchange rates.

"In the second quarter, inflation slowed considerably and we continued to see changing customer and competitor behaviour, with an increased focus on price and promotions," the company said in an interim trading statement.

Ahold said sales at its Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover supermarkets in the United States rose 2.8% to €4.1 billion.

In Europe, Albert Heijn gained market share, with net growing 7.8% to €2.2 billion.

But the Albert and Hypernova names in the Czech Republic and Slovakia saw sales fall 6.8% to €383 million, "impacted by store closures as part of our restructuring program," Ahold said.

"In a changing environment, we continue to manage the balance of sales, market share and margins in each of our markets and remain well-positioned to meet our customers' needs," it added.

Ahold's final results for the quarter will be published on 20 August.

Published courtesy of

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