Stop & Shop Posts Q4 Profit Gains

MARK HAMSTRA

AMSTERDAM — Ahold here said Thursday that fourth-quarter operating income at the company’s Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover division rose 15%, to $238 million, and full-year operating income at the division rose 24%, to $869 million. As previously reported, sales for the year were up 4.6% at the division, to $17.9 billion, including an extra week of sales in the most recent fiscal year. Adjusted sales rose 2.6%.

At Giant-Carlisle, strong competitive pressures in the weak economy helped drive operating income down 10% to $54 million for the fourth quarter, after restructuring and related charges of $1 million. Operating income for the year was $218 million, down 6.4% compared with the preceding year.

Giant-Carlisle also plans to launch a second Giant To Go convenience-focused store in 2010, Ahold executives said during a conference call discussing the year-end results, although they stressed that while they are approaching the rollout of a small-format concept seriously, they are also proceeding slowly.

“The first [Giant To Go] has been as much a laboratory as it has been a sort of proposition on its own,” said John Rishton, chief executive officer. “We learned an enormous amount from it. We still think that the whole convenience segment for some of our customers’ needs is a significant one and an important one, and we’ll continue to try to figure out ways to create a format that works.”

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