Ahold Delhaize: Q2 Preview: investing through US weakness

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Ahold Delhaize: Q2 Preview: investing through US weakness

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Ahold Delhaize

Q2 Preview: investing through US

weakness

Reiterate Rating: BUY | PO: 44.00 EUR | Price: 35.16 EUR

US softness, Europe holds up 02 July 2026

We expect Q2 to reinforce the key theme from Q1: a challenging US backdrop, offset by Equity

resilient execution and market share gains. The key debate should remain the trade-off

between volume protection and margin pressure as Ahold accelerates price investment.

Key ChangesWe expect results to remain consistent with management's FY framework.

(EUR) Previous Current

US: price investment weighs on margins 2026E Rev (m) 94,049.5 94,766.8

We expect the US to deliver another resilient quarter despite softer underlying market 2027E Rev (m) 95,354.8 96,099.9

conditions. Recent Nielsen (see report: June supermarket sales) and CPI data point to 2028E Rev (m) 98,173.7 98,941.3

weaker volume trends partially offset by firmer food inflation. Combined with ongoing 2027E EPS 2.99 3.01

price investments, we believe US sales momentum softened through Q2. We forecast 2028E EPS 3.23 3.25

US LFL growth of 0.7%. On profitability, we expect US margins to decline modestly yoy

to 4.2%. Following management's comments in Q1 regarding an acceleration of price Xavier Le Mene >>

investments across Stop & Shop, we view this pressure as consistent with the group's Research Analyst

strategy of prioritising competitiveness and share gains. Lower margins should be MLI (UK) +44 20 7996 7591

interpreted as a deliberate investment rather than a sign of deteriorating execution. xavier.le_mene@bofa.com

Europe: disinflation, but solid volumes

In Europe, we expect LFL growth to moderate to 1.7% from 2.6% in Q1 as disinflation

Stock Datacontinues across most markets.