Ahold Delhaize reiterates outlook after resilient Q2. "Looking ahead, we expect the operating environment to remain challenging," President and CEO Frans Muller said. August 5, 2026. 11:58 AM ZAANDAM, the Netherlands - Ahold Delhaize reported second-quarter net sales of €23.2 billion, up 1.9% at constant exchange rates. Strong online growth and continued investments in value helped the retailer navigate a challenging consumer environment. "In the second quarter, we delivered another solid performance, demonstrating the resilience of our Growing Together strategy and the strength of our local brands in a challenging market," said Frans Muller, president and CEO of Ahold Delhaize. "Every week, millions of loyalty interactions help our brands understand customers in real time. Combined with data and AI, these insights have allowed our brands to personalize experiences, improve decisions and strengthen their connection with the communities they serve." In the United States, net sales increased 1.4% at constant exchange rates, while comparable sales excluding gasoline rose 0.8%. Results were pressured by lower egg prices, reduced SNAP benefits, and pharmacy pricing changes related to the Inflation Reduction Act. "In the U.S., we strengthened our competitive position in an environment where value and convenience remain top priorities for customers," Muller said. "A key highlight was our strong online performance, with online sales growing 14.5% at constant rates (11.5% at actual rates). This underscores the value of our omnichannel model in expanding reach, enhancing convenience and attracting new customers." U.S. online sales increased 14.5% at constant exchange rates, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Food Lion led the company's U.S. banners, with online growth of more than 20%. Ahold Delhaize also continued to invest in price. Stop & Shop has lowered everyday prices on thousands of products across all 137 of its stores in New York and New Jersey. "Across our U.S. business, these actions are supporting market share gains and net promoter score improvements, despite lower topline growth from a challenging backdrop that included lower egg prices, pharmacy pricing changes related to the Inflation Reduction Act and reduced SNAP benefits," Muller said. Own brands also played a larger role in the quarter. Ahold Delhaize increased own-brand food penetration by 0.7 percentage points, pushing the measure above 40% at the group level. Hannaford has priced more than 3,500 key-value own-brand products at parity with leading competitors. "Own brands are a key competitive advantage across our portfolio, helping customers manage their budgets without compromising on quality while deepening loyalty to our brands," Muller said. Technology and artificial intelligence remain another focus. Ahold Delhaize is modernizing its U.S. retail technology infrastructure to lay the foundation for additional AI-enabled capabilities and to expand its loyalty and digital engagement platforms. "Technology, data and AI make our local brands stronger and the combination of our portfolio even more powerful," Muller said. "We continue to invest in our data and technology foundation, looking at AI through three lenses: re-imagining business domains, optimizing existing processes and systems, and democratizing AI tools for all associates." Ahold Delhaize reported a group underlying operating margin of 3.9%, while its U.S. underlying operating margin declined 0.2 percentage points to 4.2%, reflecting price investments, higher utility costs, and other energy-related expenses. The company reiterated its 2026 outlook, including an underlying operating margin of about 4%, mid- to high-single-digit growth in diluted underlying earnings per share at constant exchange rates, and free cash flow of at least €2.3 billion. "Looking ahead, we expect the operating environment to remain challenging," Muller said. "But challenging markets also provide the clearest measure of competitive strength. They test whether customers continue to choose your brands, whether your value proposition resonates and whether you are executing consistently."

Ahold Delhaize announces new investments through W23 Global to drive innovation in retail technologies. Through W23 Global, Ahold Delhaize invested in five new start-ups developing solutions for AI-enabled operations and sustainability in the grocery retail sector. July 21, 2026 - Ahold Delhaize is pleased to provide an update from W23 Global, the venture capital fund supported by five leading grocery retailers, including Ahold Delhaize, Tesco and Woolworths Group. Last year, Ahold announced four new investments in August and December, and this year the fund has completed five additional investments in the start-ups Moment Energy, Verse, Skyfire, Haast, and Cresta. This growing portfolio contributes to the broader ambition of helping retailers operate more sustainably and efficiently while delivering improved experiences for customers. Sustainability. Advancing circular energy solutions with Moment Energy. Included in this new round of investments is Moment Energy, a pioneer in repurposed battery energy storage systems (BESS) and the first company in North America to manufacture certified, commercial-scale systems using second-life electric vehicle batteries. Built on the principle that every battery deserves a second life, Moment Energy's platform extends EV battery lifespan, preventing premature recycling and landfill waste while enabling more sustainable energy use. Its cost-effective BESS solutions deliver reliable and flexible energy storage at scale across grocery retail infrastructure as well as in settings including data centers, hospitals, factories and microgrids. As Ingrid Maes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of W23 Global, noted, "Moment Energy is meaningfully advancing what's possible in sustainable retail infrastructure and supply chain circularity. As grocery operations face rising energy costs and increasing demand pressures, Moment Energy's second-life storage systems give retailers a faster, cleaner path to reliable backup power, while significantly reducing peak-demand utility costs." Optimizing energy portfolios with Verse. W23 Global is also investing in Verse, an energy intelligence platform that helps large-scale energy consumers manage increasingly complex energy portfolios. Its core product, Aria(TM), centralizes utility bills, contracts, and power purchase agreements across thousands of sites, providing a unified view of energy data. This enables retailers to compare forecasts to actual performance across stores, distribution centers and other physical assets, make smarter procurement decisions, and optimize costs and risk. With the addition of Dispatch Intelligence, Verse also orchestrates on-site energy resources in real time, helping AI infrastructure come online faster in a constrained grid environment. AI-enabled operations. Enabling secure agent-driven commerce with Skyfire. Expanding its focus to the emerging landscape of AI-driven commerce, W23 Global is investing in Skyfire, which is building a cross-ecosystem trust and permission layer for the agentic economy. The platform provides a secure identity and financial stack that enables retailers to distinguish trusted AI shopping agents from malicious automation. Through verified "Know Your Agent" (KYA) credentials and integrated payment capabilities, Skyfire allows businesses to safely open their digital channels to autonomous shoppers. "Skyfire is providing the critical infrastructure required to turn the rise of autonomous AI into a new frontier of growth for retailers," said Ingrid Maes, CEO and CIO of W23 Global. "By upgrading traditional commerce stacks with a dedicated agent identity and payment layer, Skyfire provides the key to unlock high-intent agent demand while shielding systems from the surge of bot-driven cyber risk. Skyfire provides the infrastructure retailers need to capture and process automated transactions securely and instantly." Scaling compliant marketing with Haast. Among its latest investments, W23 Global is investing in Haast, an AI-native platform designed to automate marketing compliance and brand protection for consumer industries. Founded in 2023, Haast supports retailers in managing compliance across the full content lifecycle, from pre-publication review to continuous monitoring of live channels. Operating across text, image, video, and audio, the platform helps ensure consistent, compliant messaging while accelerating approval processes. It helps marketing, legal, and compliance teams save time, reduce risk, and speed up content approvals in a complex regulatory environment. Elevating customer experience with Cresta. W23 Global also announces its investment in Cresta, a unified platform in human-centric generative AI for contact centers. Cresta's platform combines autonomous AI agents with real-time coaching and conversation intelligence for human teams. Originating from the Stanford AI Lab and led by the co-founder of Google's AI Contact Center, the company helps teams work more effectively by turning conversational data into live agent assistance. Their scalable technology has already delivered measurable operational results for global enterprises, with over 80 businesses as customers. As Ingrid Maes, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of W23 Global, noted, "Customer service has become a critical point of differentiation for retailers. The opportunity is no longer simply to automate interactions, but to deliver faster, more personalized and more consistent customer experiences while fundamentally improving the economics of service. We believe Cresta is one of the companies best positioned to help retailers achieve both." About W23 Global. W23 Global is a global grocery retail venture capital fund backed by five leading grocery retailers: Tesco (UK, ROI, Europe), Ahold Delhaize (U.S., Europe, Indonesia), Woolworths Group (Australia, New Zealand), Shoprite Group (Africa), and Empire Company Limited (Canada). W23 Global invests in innovative start-ups and scale-ups developing technology to transform grocery retail. Its work focuses on supporting companies that build solutions with practical application across markets, helping advance the way retailers operate and serve customers while addressing sustainability challenges. As technology continues to shape the future of grocery retail, W23 Global remains focused on solutions that make a tangible difference for both customers and retailers.