Ahold 4Q Sales Down; U.S. Foodservice Revenues Up (Updated)



At U.S. Foodservice, Columbia, MD, which Ahold has put up for sale, quarterly revenue rose 5.1%, to $4.44 billion and full-year revenue rose 4.1%, to $19.22 billion. Ahold did not make any comment about how the sale process was going.

The world's fourth-biggest food retail and foodservice group by sales said turnover was 10.4 billion euros ($13.46 billion), at the bottom end of a Reuters poll of 16 analysts and compared with an average forecast of 10.5 billion euros.

In December, the retailer had warned of a challenging fourth quarter after rising competition and weaker economic conditions hurt its U.S. retail operations in the third quarter.

Ahold's shares dropped about 8% since the retailer said in early November it would overhaul its U.S. operations, indicating doubts among investors whether it can pull off the restructuring. The stock ended at 7.70 euros ($10.03) on Wednesday.

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