Ahold Delhaize lowers outlook after October cyber incident
The parent of Albert Heijn expects the October cybersecurity incident to cut fourth-quarter sales by €200 million to €250 million and has lowered its 2026 outlook.
Ahold Delhaize, the Zaandam-based food retail group behind Albert Heijn, has lowered its outlook for 2026 after a cybersecurity incident in October. The company announced this with its third-quarter results on 4 November.
Online services and supply chain hit
Ahold Delhaize says it took some systems offline in October to protect its IT environment. To differing degrees, this mainly affected its online services in the Benelux and the United States, and its supply chain in the Benelux. Online store bol was not affected.
The company apologised to customers for the disruption. Most of it was contained within 2 weeks, it says, but work continues to fully restore normal operations.
Lower sales and profit in the fourth quarter
Based on current estimates, the incident will reduce net sales in the fourth quarter by €200 million to €250 million, and operating income by €75 million to €100 million. Extra costs for the response and repairs are expected to have a marginal effect on operating income for 2026.
Ahold Delhaize now expects growth in underlying earnings per share at constant exchange rates in the low single digits, down from mid to high single digits. It expects free cash flow of around €2.1 billion, down from at least €2.3 billion, partly because of new payment rules in Serbia. The underlying operating margin should now approach 4.0%, against around 4.0% before.
Third quarter before the incident
In the third quarter, net sales rose 1.9% at constant exchange rates to €23.1 billion. Net sales grew 3.1% in Europe and 1.1% in the United States, both at constant rates.
The company also announced a €1 billion share buyback programme, which is to start at the beginning of 2027.
