Supervalu is turning Albertsons into a winner, according to industry analysts, though there are still challenges to be met, they pointed out.

The Minneapolis-based retailer and wholesaler is on course to do what it said it would do with the stores, and doing it more quickly than analysts — or the company itself — thought possible a year and two days ago, when it formally acquired 1,124 of the best-performing locations from Albertsons, encompassing stores operating under the Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco and Shaw's and Star Market banners, along with 12 distribution centers.

According to Supervalu, its primary metric for judging its store-level program is like-store sales, which were flat overall in the second quarter of last year (the first quarter in which Albertsons sales were included), up 0.6% in the third and up 1.4% in the fourth — while comps at the acquired stores rose from 0.3% positive in the second quarter to 1.1% in the third and 1.8% in the fourth.

“We're off to a very good start,” Jeff Noddle, chairman and chief executive officer, told SN, “and if you ask me if there have been any surprises, I would tell you the biggest surprise is that there have been no surprises, and that's good news.”

That doesn't mean the process is not without challenges, he said.

“The ongoing challenge for us is to bring two operations together at the same time we're trying to improve sales trends, and while we'd prefer to do those one at a time, we're in a situation where we need to do both at once,” he explained.

“However, results since the merger have been in line with what we said would occur, and we continue to run close to the numbers we committed to.

“One of our goals while transitioning the two organizations was to improve sales trends, and so far the results have lived up to what we said we'd do.”

Analysts said they believe Supervalu is on a positive track.

“Supervalu has begun to lay to rest investors' fears over the company's purchase of the damaged Albertsons assets,” Perry Caicco, an analyst with CIBC World Markets, Toronto, said.

“There was concern the business at these stores was heading straight downhill and was unrecoverable; that heavy price investments would be needed just to generate any business at all; and that Supervalu's lack of retail experience would be exposed.”