Ahold Delhaize reported a 1.1% increase in U.S. net sales at constant exchange rates, with total sales reaching approximately $15.3 billion. The company’s U.S. online sales grew 14.2% during the quarter, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
Food Lion led the company’s U.S. brands with online sales growth of more than 20%. However, comparable sales excluding gasoline rose only 0.5%, due to factors such as lower Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and pharmacy pricing changes related to the Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. underlying operating margin was 4.3%, down 0.3 percentage points from the prior year. The company attributed the decline to prior-year nonrecurring items, investments in pricing, and higher utility costs. U.S. IFRS operating income was approximately $698 million, representing a 4.6% operating margin.
Ahold Delhaize experienced a cybersecurity incident in October, which affected online operations in the United States and the Benelux region, as well as supply-chain operations in the Benelux. The company took some systems offline as a precaution and expects the incident to reduce fourth-quarter companywide net sales by approximately $225 million to $282 million.
The incident also prompted Ahold Delhaize to lower its full-year earnings outlook, now expecting low-single-digit growth in diluted underlying earnings per share at constant exchange rates. This is compared to its previous forecast of mid- to high-single-digit growth. The company anticipates a reduction of approximately $85 million to $113 million in underlying and IFRS operating income due to the incident.
Additional response and remediation costs are expected to have a marginal effect on 2026 IFRS operating income.