Record profit for Ahold Delhaize despite inflation

Supermarket group Ahold Delhaize made a profit of 2.5 billion euros last year. With a profit increase of 13 percent, Albert Heijn’s parent company recorded the highest net profit in at least ten years. The company sold many products, especially in the United States.

Despite the profit, Ahold says it has also been affected by inflation. In its own words, it could not fully pass on the increased product prices to customers in Europe, as a result of which margins declined in the last quarter, for example. In the United States it was different and profit margins actually increased.

The highest boss Frans Muller nuances the high profit. “It is a relatively high figure in history, but it is a figure that includes exchange rate effects. Without that effect, profit is up 3.5 percent and that still looks different.”

Ahold generates two-thirds of its revenue from the US. Due to the high dollar exchange rate, the money earned there is much higher in euros.

Lower prices

Muller expects that the higher prices in supermarkets will come to an end this year, and that they may even fall. The company is negotiating this with producers.

“Grain and sunflowers are falling in price, including energy. We have agreed with suppliers that if raw material prices fall, their prices will also go down. Inflation also has to come down for customers and we are working on that in our negotiations.”

Quieter in webshop

Subsidiary bol.com made some sacrifices. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the webshop still grew by 7.8 percent – there was still a lockdown in that month – but a contraction of almost 3 percent was reported in the same quarter in 2022. Bol.com previously announced that 300 jobs will therefore disappear.

The IPO that was planned for the webshop in the second half of this year was canceled last summer. According to the parent company, the market conditions are not good enough.

Earlier this year, subsidiary Gall & Gall went on strike several times for a pay rise. In May, Ahold and trade union FNV came out and the employees received a wage increase of 4.5 percent.