Helped by growth in its U.S. subsidiaries, Royal Ahold NV, the world's third-largest supermarket operator, reported yesterday a 3.8 percent increase in first-quarter earnings.
The Dutch company, owner of two Maryland subsidiaries, Giant Food Inc. and U.S. Foodservice, said it had a profit of 328 million euros ($311 million) on sales of 22.2 billion euros ($21 billion) in the three months that ended April 21.
For the corresponding period last year, Ahold reported a profit of 316 million euros ($299 million) on sales of 18.2 billion euros ($17.2 billion)
Cees van der Hoeven, Ahold's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the company's retail and food-service businesses in the United States continue to perform well.
Sales in Latin America were held back by the devaluation of the Argentine peso. In Europe, Ahold's operating earnings in Spain and Portugal were lower than they were a year earlier.
Ahold has grown through a spate of recent acquisitions - the company made 18 last year - but van der Hoeven has said he wants to boost growth this year without purchasing other companies.
The company's retail sales in the United States grew 16 percent to $7.9 billion, compared with the first quarter of last year, while operating profit improved 28 percent to $425.9 million with the help of the acquisition of Bruno's Supermarkets late last year. In addition to Bruno's and Landover-based Giant, U.S. supermarkets owned by Ahold include Stop & Shop, Tops and BI-LO.
Sales at Ahold's Columbia-based U.S. Foodservice - the second-largest food distributor in the country behind Sysco Corp. - grew 56.7 percent to $5.4 billion, mainly the result of the integration of Alliant Foodservice, which Ahold bought last year for $2.2 billion.
Ahold said yesterday that it expects earnings to grow "significantly faster" in the second half of this year than they did in the first half. It repeated a target for growth in net earnings per share of 15 percent for the year.
Ahold's shares have lost 23 percent of their value since April 4, when Ahold published earnings under U.S. accounting standards that showed 90 percent less profit than under Dutch rules. The company plans to publish quarterly statements reconciling the numbers.
American depository receipts of Ahold, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange, closed yesterday at $21.71, up 69 cents.
Bloomberg News contributed to this article.