ZAANDAM, Netherlands -- Ahold here reported increased sales and earnings for the first quarter ended April 24.
e sales rose 7.8% to $4.4 billion. Ahold's U.S. sales rose 5.5% to $2.1 billion.
Currency conversions were made at the rate of 1.93 Netherlands guilders to the U.S. dollar.
According to the company, Giant Food Stores, Carlisle, Pa., achieved considerably higher sales, while Bi-Lo, Mauldin, S.C., and Tops Supermarkets, Buffalo, N.Y., achieved sales growth in increasingly competitive markets.
Finast-Ohio, Maple Heights, Ohio, and Edwards Super Food Stores, Windsor Locks, Conn., achieved "slightly improved sales," the company noted.
Operating results in the United States rose 5% to $50.5 million, with Giant and Tops realizing higher results, the company said.
At Edwards and Finast, "the positive effects of changes in store format and cost-structure adjustments are gradually showing up in improved operating results," the company said.
"However, as a result of special price promotions, Bi-Lo's operating results lagged behind the extremely good results of the first quarter of 1993."
Claire Kent, a London-based securities analyst for Morgan Stanley, which is based in New York, said Bi-Lo's aggressive pricing policy resulted in U.S. operating margins remaining flat at 2.4%.
Overall, Kent said, Ahold's results were slightly lower than expected "due mainly to a weaker-than-expected operating profit in the Netherlands and the U.S. subsidiaries, which was partially offset by a better-than-expected result from Portugal and the Czech Republic."
