JDH Capital : News
FOOD LION PARENT POSTS STRONG SALES
19 Jan 2009
Charlotte Business Journal
Delhaize Group, the Belgian parent of the Food Lion supermarket chain, says the company beat analysts' expectations for fourth-quarter sales growth by rolling out store brands and offering steep sales.
Comparable-store sales in the United States rose 2.9 percent in the quarter. Analysts were predicting 2.2 percent growth at stores in operation for at least a year, Bloomberg News reports.
Chief Executive Pierre-Olivier Beckers says the company's U.S. operations "continued good revenue momentum" in the fourth quarter.
Beckers says shoppers turned to Salisbury-based Food Lion for inexpensive, private-brand material. And the company plans a cost-cutting program that will, in part, be reinvested so Food Lion can keep prices low in 2009.
"All of these initiatives should position Delhaize Group (NYSE:DEG) to come out of these difficult economic times as an even stronger company," Beckers says.
Food Lion operates more than 1,300 supermarkets under the names of Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys and Reid's.
