Q4 2025 Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV Earnings Call

Speaker #1: Across our markets, our local brands invested in price and value by lowering prices and broadening own-brand assortments in key daily needs. In the US, we had our first full year investing towards a total of $1 billion in price investments over those four years.

Speaker #1: And at the same time, we strengthened our own-brand adding 1,100 new products in the US and 1,450 in Europe. In Europe, where own-brand penetration is close to 50%, our assortments are clear competitive advantage.

Speaker #1: Please note that this call is being webcast and recorded. During this call, Ahold Delhaize anticipates making projections and forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements.

Speaker #1: Over the past year, we expanded collaboration through our AMS buying alliance, and this delivered quality improvements while also generating cost savings with a further expansion planned in 2026.

Speaker #1: Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and other factors that are difficult to predict, and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Speaker #1: These efforts are truly resonating with customers. Own-brand growth continued to outperform the rest of the store, with group-level penetration reaching 39.8%, reflecting strong appreciation for quality health, value, and innovation.

Speaker #1: Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. The introduction will be followed by a Q&A session. Any views expressed by those asking questions are not necessarily the views of Ahold Delhaize.

Speaker #1: The next core block is vibrant customer experience. Covering every interaction between our brands and customers, in-stores, online, and through services. Customers' increasingly expect convenience, personalization, and a seamless integration across channels.

Speaker #1: In the US, we completed the rollout of Prism, creating a unified digital backbone for personalization at scale as it enhances opportunities in advertising and retail media.

Speaker #1: This enabled us to reach around 32 million customers and deliver 14 billion personalized offers in 2025. Customers are also responding positively to our shift forward towards a same-day delivery and partnerships with DoorDash and Instacart.

Speaker #1: With additional partnerships planned. Together, these initiatives strengthen relevance, convenience, and loyalty across channels. In addition, in 2025, we opened 220 new stores and remodeled more than 450 locations, maintaining a modern, healthy, and attractive store fleet.

Speaker #1: As a result, we have strengthened our number one or two positions in most of the markets where we operate. Another factor which is unlocking compounding opportunities for us is driving customer and business innovation.

Speaker #1: data, and AI are Where digital, increasingly powering both customer value and performance. Technology and AI represent a growing 2.7 billion euro in annual capex.

Speaker #1: We are applying these capabilities across our ecosystem. Improving journeys, and scaling predictive and visual intelligence enabling AI-assisted customer solutions. These investments combined with our focus on local, store-first fulfillment, and a more asset-light operating model are yielding good results.

Speaker #1: Online sales grew 12.9%, led by 22.8% growth in the US. Foodline had a standout quarter with over 35% e-commerce growth and a 2% increase in penetration.

Speaker #1: With the recent closure of six e-commerce fulfillment facilities, we have now completed the shift to our store-first operating model. In the Netherlands, the Albert Heijn app plays an essential role in daily lives for millions of consumers.

Speaker #1: Supported by generative AI, the app is becoming more personalized, multilingual, and intuitive, making it easier for customers to plan meals, manage rewards, and discover inspiration and new recipes.

Speaker #1: At BOL, we continue to innovate across the end-of-the-journey, the end-to-end journey. AI-powered features such as gift finder, spot, and shop are increasing engagement and reach.

Speaker #1: By combining rich shopper insights with impactful campaigns, BOL was named the number one retail media publisher for the second year in a row in the an increasingly important growth Netherlands.

Speaker #1: Retail media, as you know, is machine for the company. A key strength is our ability to build ones and scale across brands. With one global retail media platform, we can deploy new solutions quickly across markets while tailoring execution locally.

Speaker #1: So with strong capabilities in place, growth now is more about culture rather than capability. Which you can see in our people decisions. Good examples here are Margaret's move from BOL to Albert Heijn, or Keith brought a remit in the US as a chief commercial and digital officer.

Speaker #1: Both Margaret and Keith bring deep retail media and technology expertise into grocery, also understanding the importance of developing best-in-class digital offerings and boosting capabilities across the commercial value chain through the power of AI.

Speaker #1: belief that a This reflects our win at one brand is a win for all brands, and that scaling talent and capabilities is just as important as scaling technology.

Speaker #1: So let me drive growth and excellence. now turn to shaping our portfolio to Where disciplined portfolio decisions and operational execution work hand in hand.

Speaker #1: In Europe, we welcomed Profi at the beginning of 2025 as a strong platform in Romania for future growth. Throughout last year, Profi covered 17 new stores, marking the start of a promising growth trajectory.

Speaker #1: At Albert Heijn, we opened 19 new stores and launched a major refresh of the fresh square concept in more than 500 locations, responding to growing demand for convenient, nutritious food solutions.

Speaker #1: In Belgium, we now recently completed the acquisition of Louis Deleuze, adding 303 stores and expanding our presence in convenience in 2026. As the largest food retail group on the US Eastern Seaboard, we see meaningful runway in the still-fragmented market.

Frans Muller: Solutions: the resilience of our local value propositions and brand personalities, and a disciplined execution driven by aligned teams with a strong culture of ownership and accountability that underpins the growing together strategy. So let me unpack this a little bit more in detail with some practical examples. First, starting with the customer, let's talk about strengthening customer value through trusted products. Across our markets, our local brands invested in price and value by lowering prices and broadening own brand assortments in key daily needs. In the US, we had our first full year investing towards a total of $1 billion in price investments over those four years. And at the same time, we strengthened our own brand assortments, adding 1,100 new products in the US and 1,450 in Europe. In Europe, where own brand penetration is close to 50%, our assortments are a clear competitive advantage.

Speaker #1: In a region where supermarket volumes declined in 2025, we delivered positive volumes by leading into price, own brands, and omnichannel convenience. In the US, Foodline launched started construction on 93 remodels in the Greensboro market.

Speaker #1: Launched later this year. Stop & Shop remodeled over 30 stores, deploying an efficient use of capital and progressing on their revitalization plan. As part of this plan, Stop & Shop improved store standards.

Speaker #1: Service and value perception. Price investments now cover more than 65% of the fleet. Supported by stronger own brands, new marketing and in-store signage, upgraded stores and improved execution.

Speaker #1: Through the combination of these efforts, we have seen steadily improving trends in comparable sales growth. Including volume growth, by the way, and in our net NPS.

Speaker #1: Promoter score, or especially encouraging, are the year-to-date improvements in value for money and ease of shopping, showing the holistic nature of Roger and his team's revitalization efforts.

Frans Muller: Over the past year, we expanded collaboration through our AMS Buying Alliance, and this delivered quality improvements while also generating cost savings with a further expansion planned into 2026. These efforts are truly resonating with customers. Own brand growth continued to outperform the rest of the store, with group-level penetration reaching 39.8%, reflecting strong appreciation for quality, health, value, and innovation. The next core block is vibrant customers' experience, covering every interaction between our brands and customers in stores, online, and through services. Customers increasingly expect convenience, personalization, and a seamless integration across channels. In the US, we completed the rollout of Prism, creating a unified digital backbone for personalization at scale as it enhances opportunities in advertising and retail media. This enabled us to reach around 32 million customers and deliver 14 billion personalized offers in 2025.

Speaker #1: Finally, let me spend a moment on healthy communities and planet. Because we believe the everyday choices we all make do matter. As a family of brands, we are ambitious about measurable impact we can have.

Speaker #1: Striving to make healthier options more accessible and affordable. Supporting the natural systems that make food possible and reducing waste across our value chain. An important part of this is something we don't often talk about: our US pharmacy business.

Speaker #1: Which plays a growing role in customer trust, health access, and loyalty. Millions of customers use our pharmacy services. Placing them amongst our most engaged shoppers.

Speaker #1: The majority of them paying with primary, with the majority of them customers. With ongoing primary drugstore closures, our pharmacies also provide an important access point for health services in their local communities.

Speaker #1: Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare prices will come down for 10 high-cost drugs. Jolanda will share additional figures as part of the 2026 outlook, which will all enhance and purposes is a technical change for us.

Frans Muller: Customers are also responding positively to our shift forward, towards a same-day delivery and partnerships with DoorDash and Instacart, with additional partnerships planned. Together, these initiatives strengthen relevance, convenience, and loyalty across channels. In addition, in 2025, we opened 220 new stores and remodeled more than 450 locations, maintaining a modern, healthy, and attractive store fleet. As a result, we have strengthened our number one or two positions in most of the markets where we operate. Another factor which is unlocking compounding opportunities for us is driving customer and business innovation, where digital, data, and AI are increasingly powering both consumer value and performance. Technology and AI represent a growing share of our EUR 2.7 billion in annual CapEx. We are applying these capabilities across our ecosystem, improving availability and forecasting, enabling AI-assisted customer journeys, and scaling predictive and visual intelligence solutions.

Speaker #1: More importantly, for many customers, this provides meaningful financial relief, potentially freeing up spending for other everyday needs. As we leave 2025 behind, we can be proud of the progress achieved and the strong foundation built in the first year of growing together.

Speaker #1: Our strategy has been pressure tested. Our capabilities are evolving. And our teams are operating in strong rhythm with delivering compounding results. We are carrying this momentum into 2026 with confidence in our execution.

Speaker #1: Our portfolio and our ability to continue to create value for customers, associates, communities, and of course, shareholders. With that, I will now hand over to Jolanda.

Speaker #1: For more detail on our financial performance and outlook.

Speaker #2: Well, thank you, Frans, and good morning to everyone. Our performance underlines the resilience and flexibility of our brands to deliver also in dynamic market conditions.

Frans Muller: These investments, combined with our focus on local store-first fulfillment and a more asset-light operating model, are yielding good results. Online sales grew 12.9%, led by 22.8% growth in the US. Food Lion had a standout quarter with over 35% e-commerce growth and a 2 percentage point increase in penetration. With the recent closure of 6 e-commerce fulfillment facilities, we have now completed the shift to our store-first operating model. In the Netherlands, the Albert Heijn app plays an essential role in daily lives for millions of customers, supported by generative AI. The app is becoming more personalized, multilingual, and intuitive, making it easier for customers to plan meals, manage rewards, and discover inspiration and new recipes. At bol, we continue to innovate across the end of the journey, the end of the end-to-end journey. AI-powered features such as Gift Finder and Spot and Shop are increasing engagement and reach.

Speaker #2: It's a good reflection of how we're balancing our growth, investments, and cost-saving strategies in the US and in Europe, whilst remaining laser-focused on creating the best customer value proposition for every wallet.

Speaker #2: Our growth model is built on a simple and repeatable cycle. That cycle is anchored in the strength of our local capabilities and the customer value proposition that resonates.

Speaker #2: By combining sales-led growth with disciplined cost control and thoughtful capital allocation, we can invest in price, convenience, and digital, while maintaining strong fee cash flows and returns.

Speaker #2: So let's dive deeper into the numbers. Net sales grew 6.1% to €23.5 billion in Q4, and 5.9% to €92.4 billion for the full year.

Speaker #2: Driven by strong comparable sales, both in the US and in Europe, portfolio expansion, including Profi, and continued growth in omnichannel. Q4 comparable sales were 2.5%, which includes a negative impact of 0.1 percentage points from weather and calendar shifts.

Speaker #2: And a negative impact of 0.2 percentage points from the end of tobacco sales in Belgium. Online sales grew 12.9% in Q4 and 13.3% for the full year.

Frans Muller: By combining rich shopper insights with impactful campaigns, bol was named the number one retail media publisher for the second year in a row in the Netherlands. Retail media, as you know, is an increasingly important growth machine for the company. A key strength is our ability to build once and scale across brands. With one global retail media platform, we can deploy new solutions quickly across markets while tailoring execution locally. So with strong capabilities in place, growth now is more about culture rather than capability, which you can see in our people positions. Good examples here are Margaret's move from bol to Albert Heijn, or Keith's broader remit in the US as a chief commercial and digital officer.

Speaker #2: Reflecting strong momentum in online grocery across both regions. Underlying operating margin was 4.2% in Q4 and 4% for the full year. Strong US performance, more than offset, headwinds from Serbia pricing regulation and first-time integration of Profi.

Speaker #2: Diluted underlying earnings per share was 73 cents in Q4, up 11.9%. And €2.67 for the full year. Q4, IFRS operating income was €899 million euro.

Speaker #2: Corresponding to a €3.8% margin. IFRS results were 96 million euro lower than underlying, mainly due to the impairment charges related to the strategic shift to a local store-first omnichannel fulfillment model in the US.

Frans Muller: Both Margaret and Keith bring deep retail media and technology expertise into grocery, also understanding the importance of developing best-in-class digital offerings and boosting capabilities across the commercial value chain through the power of AI. This reflects our belief that a win at one brand is a win for all brands, and that scaling talent and capabilities is just as important as scaling technology. So let me now turn to shaping our portfolio to drive growth and excellence, where disciplined portfolio decisions and operational execution work hand in hand. In Europe, we welcomed Profi at the beginning of 2025, establishing a strong platform in Romania for future growth. Throughout last year, Profi opened 17 new stores, marking the start of a promising growth trajectory.

Speaker #2: For the full year, IFRS operating euro, representing a income was €3.5 billion €3.8% margin. The €192 million euro difference versus underlying was largely driven by portfolio optimization actions, including the shift to a store-first model in the US, and the acquisition and integration costs related to Profi.

Speaker #2: These actions reflect disciplined portfolio management aligned with our strategy. Operational excellence remains a core enabler of our growing together strategy. Through our family of great local brands, we leverage skill to combine sourcing power and skilled tech to deliver local impact in a simpler, smarter, and more seamless manner.

Frans Muller: At Albert Heijn, we opened 19 new stores and launched a major refresh of the Fresh Square concept in more than 500 locations, responding to growing demand for convenient, nutritious food solutions. In Belgium, we now recently completed the acquisition of Louis Delhaize, adding 303 stores and expanding our presence in convenience in 2026. As the largest food retail group on the US eastern seaboard, we see meaningful runway in a still fragmented market. In a region where supermarket volumes declined in 2025, we delivered positive volumes by leading into price, own brands, and omnichannel convenience. In the US, Food Lion launched 153 remodels and started construction on 93 remodels in the Greensboro market, which will be launched later this year. Stop & Shop remodeled over 30 stores, deploying an efficient use of capital, progressing on their revitalization plan.

Speaker #2: Unlocking new efficiencies through automation and innovation. In 2025, we delivered nearly 1.3 billion euro in sales for our customer savings, in line with our ambition for the year.

Speaker #2: These savings are reinvested with discipline, into price, technology, store upgrades, and sustainability initiatives. Increasing value for customers, creating free cash flow, and returns. This also includes investments in growing complementary income streams, such as enhanced personalization and support services for brand partners, creating a capital-light revenue stream.

Speaker #2: With double-digit growth in 2025, we are making good progress towards complementary income of around €3 billion euro by 2028. Let's now take a closer look at our regional performance.

Speaker #2: On slide 21, for your convenience, we present the impacts of weather and calendar over the last quarters by region. US net sales were €13 billion, and comparable sales, excluding gas, increased 2.7%, driven by continued growth in online and pharmacy sales.

Frans Muller: As part of this plan, Stop and Shop improved store standards, service, and value perception. Price investments now cover more than 65% of the fleet, supported by stronger own brands, new marketing and in-store signage, upgraded stores, and improved execution. Through the combination of these efforts, we have seen steadily improving trends in comparable sales growth, including volume growth, by the way, and in our net promoter score, or NPS. Especially encouraging are the year-to-date improvements in value for money and ease of shopping, showing the holistic nature of Roger and his team's revitalization efforts. Finally, let me spend a moment on healthy communities and planet because we believe the everyday choices we all make do matter.

Speaker #2: The cycling of Hurricane Helene had a negative impact of approximately 20 basis points. Online sales growth reached an excellent 22.8% for Q4 versus last year.

Speaker #2: Driven by strong performance across all our brands. The combination of our delivery speed, customer reach, and extensive assortment enabled by our strategic shift to same-day delivery and ongoing partnerships with DoorDash and Instacart is what wins over customers.

Speaker #2: Underlying operating margin in the U.S. was 4.7%. The margin outperformance was driven by higher sales leverage, improvements to our online margins, the positive impact from a shift in category mix, and lower shrink levels, which more than offset price investments and the dilutive impact from ongoing growth in pharmacy sales.

Frans Muller: As a family of great local brands, we are ambitious about the measurable impact we can have, striving to make healthier options more accessible and affordable, supporting the natural systems that make food possible, and reducing waste across our value chain. An important part of this, something we don't often talk about, is our US pharmacy business, which plays a growing role in customer trust, health access, and loyalty. Millions of customers use our pharmacy services, placing them amongst our most engaged shoppers, with the majority of them being primary customers. With ongoing drugstore closures, our pharmacies also provide an important access point for health services in their local communities. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare prices will come down for 10 high-cost drugs.

Speaker #2: Last October, we announced plans to develop a state-of-the-art DC in North Carolina. This investment adds capacity and automation in a key growth region. It improves efficiency and service levels and supports the long-term needs of our local brands, including food lion.

Speaker #2: And as you all know, food lion has been on an impressive trajectory of growth with consecutive quarter of growth. In Europe, Q4 trends were in line with the prior quarter.

Speaker #2: Net sales were 10.5 billion, up 11.2%, partly due to the. An increase in comparable sales of 2.4% and new store openings. Comparable sales had a negative impact of 50 basis points from the cessation of tobacco sales in Belgium and calendar shifts.

Speaker #2: Q4, online sales increased by In 6.6%, driven by double-digit growth at Albert Heijn. The strength of our European brands, their ability to adapt in complex conditions, and their relentless focus on cost savings allowed us to deliver an underlying operating margin of 4.1%.

Frans Muller: From a financial perspective, Jolanda will share additional figures as part of the 2026 outlook, which, for all intents and purposes, is a technical change for us. More importantly, for many customers, this provides meaningful financial relief, potentially freeing up spending for other everyday needs. As we leave 2025 behind, we can be proud of the progress achieved and the strong foundation built in the first year of growing together. Our strategy has been pressure-tested, our capabilities are evolving, and our teams are operating in a strong rhythm, which is delivering compounding results. We are carrying this momentum into 2026 with confidence in our execution, our portfolio, and our ability to continue, to create value for customers, associates, communities, and, of course, shareholders. With that, I will now hand over to Jolanda for more detail on our financial performance and outlook.

Speaker #2: This was slightly better than anticipated, considering the headwinds from the sudden government decree and intervention on the limitation of prices in Serbia. Some of the brand highlights in the quarter include Albert Heijn reaching a record market share of 38.2% for the year, Delhaize Belgium completing its transformation and expanding in convenience, and the CZ brands, particularly Romania, demonstrating resilience and readiness for renewed growth.

Speaker #2: At BOL, Q4 capped a strong year with high single-digit growth, record Black Friday sales, and 70 basis points of market share gains, as the brand successfully countered increased competition from Amazon and Chinese players.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Well, thank you, Frans, and good morning to everyone. Our performance underlines the resilience and flexibility of our brands to deliver, also in dynamic market conditions. It's a good reflection of how we're balancing our growth, investments, and cost-saving strategies in the US and in Europe while remaining laser-focused on creating the best customer value proposition for every wallet. Our growth model is built on a simple and repeatable cycle. That cycle is anchored in the strength of our local brands, our leading omnichannel capabilities, and a customer value proposition that resonates. By combining sales-led growth with disciplined cost control and thoughtful capital allocation, we can invest in price, convenience, and digital while maintaining strong free cash flows and returns. So let's dive deeper into the numbers.

Speaker #2: Full-year underlying EBITDA increased to €207 million, driven by advertising growth and cost discipline. Moving now to cash flow, free cash flow was €1.5 billion in Q4, and €2.6 billion for the full year.

Speaker #2: This exceeded our guidance for the year and is in part a reflection of the strong holiday period and solid Q4 performance. Additionally, our gross cap expend was lower than our original guidance for the year, due to the timing of new store openings, as well as the finalization of our project plans around the construction of the new food line distribution center.

Speaker #2: Given the overall performance, I'm pleased to announce our proposal to increase the dividend for 2025 by 6% to €1.24 per share. This reflects our stated ambition to sustainably grow dividend per share and generate strong shareholder returns.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Net sales grew 6.1% to EUR 23.5 billion in Q4 and 5.9% to EUR 92.4 billion for the full year, driven by strong comparable sales both in the US and in Europe, portfolio expansion including Profi, and continued growth in omnichannel. Q4 comparable sales were 2.5%, which includes a negative impact of 0.1 percentage points from weather and calendar shifts and a negative impact of 0.2 percentage points from the end of tobacco sales in Belgium. Online sales grew 12.9% in Q4 and 13.3% for the full year, reflecting strong momentum in online grocery across both regions. Underlying operating margin was 4.2% in Q4 and 4% for the full year. Strong US performance more than offset headwinds from Serbia pricing regulation and first-time integration of Profi. Diluted underlying earnings per share was EUR 0.73 in Q4, up 11.9%, and EUR 2.67 for the full year.

Speaker #2: To that end, we also initiated a €1 billion share buyback program for 2026 earlier this year. Finally, let me add some insights to Frans's comments on our Healthy Community and Planet priorities.

Speaker #2: Through our trusted products, we are making healthier and more sustainable choices easier and more affordable. We do this by improving nutritional value, increasing transparency, and using data and insights to guide customer choices.

Speaker #2: In 2025, the percentage of own-brand healthy food sales was 52.1%. Like-for-like, we improved by 40 basis points compared to 2024, as our CSE region implemented the Nutri-Score methodology changes in 2025.

Speaker #2: Our total tons of food waste per food sales decreased 39.1% versus the 2016 baseline. This is a 4.4% decrease in 2024, driven by smart sourcing, better inventory management, and more donations.

Speaker #2: CO2 emissions in our own operations decreased 39.1% versus our 2018 baseline. Which is an improvement of 3.4% versus last year, mainly driven by the installation of more sustainable refrigeration systems.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Q4 IFRS operating income was EUR 899 million, corresponding to a 3.8% margin. IFRS results were EUR 96 million lower than underlying, mainly due to the impairment charges related to the strategic shift to a local store-first omnichannel fulfillment model in the US. For the full year, IFRS operating income was EUR 3.5 billion, representing a 3.8% margin. The EUR 192 million difference versus underlying was largely driven by portfolio optimization actions, including the shift to a store-first model in the US and the acquisition and integration costs related to Profi. These actions reflect disciplined portfolio management aligned with our strategy. Operational excellence remains a core enabler of our growing together strategy. Through our family of great local brands, we leverage skill to combine sourcing power and skill tech to deliver local impact in a simpler, smarter, and more seamless manner, unlocking new efficiencies through automation and innovation.

Speaker #2: Virgin plastic in our own-brand packaging decreased in 2021, which is an improvement of 0.8 percentage point versus last year, as our brands were able to increase the percentage of recycled content in our own-brand product packaging.

Speaker #2: This progress reflects a true company-wide effort and something that deeply matters to our people. It is embedded in how we operate and is why healthy communities and planet remains a key priority for us.

Speaker #2: Now turning to our guidance for 2026. First, a few specific items to reflect in your 2026 models. The Inflation Reduction Act will reduce U.S. pharmacy sales by approximately $350 million.

Speaker #2: With no impact on underlying profit, the Dell Food acquisition is adding over $200 million in European sales. And 2026 includes a 53rd week, which is expected to add 1.5% to 2% to net sales and 2% to 3% to underlying net income from continuing operations.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: In 2025, we delivered nearly EUR 1.3 billion in SAFE for Our Customer savings, in line with our ambition for the year. These savings are reinvested with discipline into price, technology, store upgrades, and sustainability initiatives, increasing value for customers, creating free cash flow and returns. This also includes investments in growing complementary income streams such as enhanced personalization and support services for brand partners, creating a capital-light revenue stream. With double-digit growth in 2025, we are making good progress towards complementary income of around EUR 3 billion by 2028. Let's now take a closer look at our regional performance. On slide 21, for your convenience, we present the impacts of weather and calendar over the last quarters by region. US net sales were EUR 13 billion. Comparable sales, excluding gas, increased 2.7%, driven by continued growth in online and pharmacy sales.

Speaker #2: With no significant impact on operating margin. Our outlook reflects a disciplined approach to maximizing returns while maintaining flexibility. We expect an underlying operating margin of around 4%, with limited downside expected given our strong operating momentum and the good start of the year.

Speaker #2: Mid- to high-single-digit EPS growth at constant rates, a free cash flow of at least €2.3 billion, and a gross capex of approximately €2.7 billion.

Speaker #2: While we do not provide quarterly guidance, some phasing effects should be expected during the year as we flow investments in line with real-time trading conditions, allowing us to stay sharp, calibrate actions iteratively as new learnings emerge, and remain flexible to market developments, including macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties such as Serbia.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: The cycling of Hurricane Helene had a negative impact of approximately 20 basis points. Online sales growth reached an excellent 22.8% for Q4 versus last year, driven by strong performance across all our brands. The combination of our delivery speed, customer reach, and extensive assortment, enabled by our strategic shift to same-day delivery and ongoing partnerships with DoorDash and Instacart, is what wins over customers. Underlying operating margin in the US was 4.7%. The margin outperformance was driven by higher sales leverage, improvements to our online margins, the positive impact from a shift in category mix, and lower shrink levels, which more than offset price investments and the dilutive impact from ongoing growth in pharmacy sales. Last October, we announced plans to develop a state-of-the-art DC in North Carolina. This investment adds capacity and automation in a key growth region.

Speaker #2: For 2026, you can therefore expect a persistent focus on value for customers. Continued growth of our brands, disciplined investment in stores, logistics, and digital, and a relentless focus on cost and cash flow.

Speaker #2: This is how we operate: consistent, disciplined, and delivering compounding results. And with that, I will hand back to Frans for closing remarks. Thank you very much, Jolanda.

Speaker #2: As you have heard and as you have seen, our growing together strategy is now fully in motion. The focus ahead is simple: doing more, even better.

Speaker #2: We have spoken today about many of our capabilities, but in an industry like ours, one of the most powerful—and often underestimated—is thriving people being connected to their communities.

Speaker #2: The partnerships which we now branch and the communities they serve is as important an asset as scale or technology or algorithms. This proximity to our customers, listening carefully, learning continuously, and adapting quickly to what matters most in their daily lives is therefore the real oil that makes the ecosystem run smoothly.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: It improves efficiency and service levels and supports the long-term needs of our local brands, including Food Lion. As you all know, Food Lion has been on an impressive trajectory of growth, with Q4 marking the 53rd consecutive quarter of growth. In Europe, Q4 trends were in line with the prior quarter. Net sales were EUR 10.5 billion, up 11.2%, partly due to the proposition, an increase in comparable sales of 2.4%, and new store openings. Comparable sales had a negative impact of 50 basis points from the cessation of tobacco sales in Belgium and calendar shifts. In Q4, online sales increased by 6.6%, driven by double-digit growth at Albert Heijn. The strength of our European brands, their ability to adapt in complex conditions, and their relentless focus on cost savings allowed us to deliver an underlying operating margin of 4.1%.

Speaker #2: Therefore, also a big compliment to our teams for a remarkable result in 2025. Behind that, everything we do is within the framework of a clear operating reality.

Speaker #2: We remain laser-focused on cost, disciplined in how we allocate capital, and deliberate in sequencing investment so that growth is funded, repeatable, and resilient. This is how we create value every day for customers, associates, communities, and shareholders, and why we enter 2026 with confidence.

Speaker #2: With that, thank you for your attention. Sharon, please open the lines for questions.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: This was slightly better than anticipated, considering the headwinds from the sudden government decree and intervention on the limitation of prices in Serbia. Some of the brand highlights in the quarter include Albert Heijn reaching a record market share of 38.2% for the year, Delhaize Belgium completing its transformation and expanding in convenience, and the CAZ brands, particularly Romania, demonstrating resilience and readiness for renewed growth. At bol, Q4 capped a strong year with high single-digit growth, record Black Friday sales, and 70 basis points of market share gains, as the brand successfully countered increased competition from Amazon and Chinese players. Full year, underlying EBITDA increased to EUR 207 million, driven by advertising growth and cost discipline. Moving now to cash flow. Free cash flow was EUR 1.5 billion in Q4 and EUR 2.6 billion for the full year.

Speaker #3: Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.

Speaker #3: Please stand by while we compile the Q&A queue. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. And our first question today comes from the line of Frederick Wild from Jefferies.

Speaker #3: Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Yeah, good morning, Frans, Jolanda, and Vivi. Thank you for taking my question. So the first one is, would you be able to help us understand the competitive and consumer environment at the moment in the US, and your outlook there for 2026, including things like food inflation and how you expect volumes to develop?

Speaker #4: Secondly, you mentioned, Jolanda, a cadence throughout the year. Given what's happening in Serbia, given maybe some of the US pressures we're seeing at the moment, can we take those comments to mean that you're expecting a the year to sort of sequentially improve as we go through it?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: This exceeded our guidance for the year and is in part a reflection of the strong holiday period and solid Q4 performance. Additionally, our gross CapEx was lower than our original guidance for the year due to the timing of new store openings as well as the finalization of our project plans around the construction of the new Food Lion distribution center. Given the overall performance, I'm pleased to announce our proposal to increase the dividend for 2025 by 6% to EUR 1.24 per share. This reflects our stated ambition to sustainably grow dividend per share and generate strong shareholder returns. To that end, we also initiated a EUR 1 billion share buyback program for 2026 earlier this year. Finally, let me add some insights to Frans' comments on our healthy community and planet priorities. Through our trusted products, we are making healthier and more sustainable choices easier and more affordable.

Speaker #4: Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thank you, Frederick, for your questions. On the consumer sentiment in the US, if you read the newspapers, people think, 'Hey, there is a weaker sentiment than we had seen before.' We also saw, here and there, reports of negative volumes in the US in the market itself.

Speaker #2: If you look at our numbers, we came out of the 2025 year with positive volumes in the US. With flat volumes in 2025, the fourth quarter.

Speaker #2: And I think this is also caused by the fact that we have very strong market positions—number one and number two positions—in the U.S.

Speaker #2: That we are very connected to our communities. That we have a very good proposition. That we invested online technology and in our stores. So I think we are competing quite strongly.

Speaker #2: On inflation, we see a food at home northeast inflation of 2.2 at the moment. And if you ask my prediction, which is not so easy, then I think we see a flat inflation 2.2 going forward in the 2026 years.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: We do this by improving nutritional value, increasing transparency, and using data and insights to guide customer choices. In 2025, the percentage of own brand healthy food sales was 52.1%. Like for like, we improved with 40 basis points compared to 2024, as our CAZ region implemented the Nutri-Score methodology changes in 2025. Our total tons of food waste per food sales decreased 39.1% versus the 2016 baseline. This is a 4.4 percentage point improvement versus 2024, driven by smart sourcing, better inventory management, and more donations. CO2 emissions in our own operations decreased 39.1% versus our 2018 baseline, which is an improvement of 3.4% versus last year, mainly driven by the installation of more sustainable refrigeration systems.

Speaker #2: That's how we calculate this. So that's a little bit on inflation. That is on consumer sentiment. And when people talk about consumer sentiment, sometimes we forget two things.

Speaker #2: That we are in a food business, so we are not in a discretionary type of business. That we have very strong brands, number one and number two position, 90% of our sales.

Speaker #2: And that we try to convey this in my note, that we have very strong community connections. And the element of trust is super important.

Speaker #2: And that's what we earned over the years. And that's only strengthened during COVID. And that's, I think, what we also benefit from now. Plus our price investments are $1 billion price investment over four years in the US.

Speaker #2: Our strengthening and growing own brand share so I think we have a good proposition here. To support the customer journeys and not only physically, but also online and also through AI and technology.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Virgin plastic and our own brand packaging decreased 10.9% versus 2021, which is an improvement of 0.8 percentage points versus last year, as our brands were able to increase the percentage of recycled content in our own brand product packaging. This progress reflects a true company-wide effort and something that deeply matters to our people. It is embedded in how we operate and is why healthy communities and planet remain a key priority for us. Now turning to our guidance for 2026. First, a few specific items to reflect in your 2026 models. The Inflation Reduction Act will reduce US pharmacy sales by approximately $350 million with no impact on underlying profit. The Delfood acquisition is adding over $200 million in European sales.

Speaker #2: Jolanda.

Speaker #3: Yes,

Speaker #3: And thank you for your question. Good morning. Yeah, the cadence, as we guided in our storyline just now, we are confident. We started the year well.

Speaker #3: And we have given a guidance of around 4%. That cadence is something that we don't want to dive into. Europe and US might have different cadences for a started.

Speaker #3: And we want to allow ourselves the flexibility to invest where we see an opportunity, and do that in, in the perfect case, cadence to create value for our customers but also for our shareholders, of course.

Speaker #2: And we are in a growth

Speaker #2: strategy together. Yes, that's what

Speaker #3: we're heading for,

Speaker #3: Frans: We are, and that's where we're investing it.

Speaker #2: growth. Yep. Yep.

Speaker #1: Thank Amazing. you. We will now go to the next question. And your next question comes from the line of Sreedha Mahankali from UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker #1: Thank Amazing. you. We will now go to the next question. And your next question comes from the line of Sreedha Mahankali from UBS. Please go ahead.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: 2026 includes a 53rd week, which is expected to add 1.5% to 2% to net sales and 2% to 3% to underlying net income from continuing operations, with no significant impact on operating margin. Our outlook reflects a disciplined approach to maximizing returns while maintaining flexibility. We expect an underlying operating margin of around 4%, with limited downside expected given our strong operating momentum and the good start of the year, mid to high single-digit EPS growth at constant rates, a free cash flow of at least EUR 2.3 billion, and a gross capex of approximately EUR 2.7 billion. While we do not provide quarterly guidance, some phasing effects should be expected during the year as we flow investments in line with real-time trading conditions, allowing us to stay sharp, calibrate actions iteratively as new learnings emerge, and remain flexible to market developments, including macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties such as Serbia.

Speaker #4: Hi. Good morning, team. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Maybe just a big-picture one—just trying to understand how you approach margin on a Group level, because you consistently talk about and communicate guidance on the Group margin level.

Speaker #4: Is that how you run internally? As well as in if you expect some weakness, let's say in Europe, you try and set for it in the US.

Speaker #4: Obviously, within the limitations of what you can do on pricing and cost. Does that explain, probably, a much stronger-than-expected US margin in Q4?

Speaker #4: That's the first question. Secondly, Franz, it'll be amazing if you could dive a

Speaker #4: little bit into where we.

Speaker #2: speak up? Could you speak up a little bit, Sreedha? Could you speak a little bit louder? Because it's a little bit difficult to understand then.

Speaker #3: Sreedha, my ears are less strong than Franz's ears, so I need your

Speaker #3: ear.

Speaker #4: Sorry. Speak up a little bit. Sorry. I'll just repeat. Just a real question. First one on how you approach group margin. Because you consistently guide on a group margin.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: For 2026, you can therefore expect a persistent focus on value for customers, continued growth of our brands, disciplined investment in stores, logistics, and digital, and a relentless focus on cost and cash flow. This is how we operate: consistent, disciplined, and delivering compounding results. And with that, I will hand back to Frans for closing remarks.

Speaker #4: Internally, do you actually manage it as such? As in when you see potential weakness in one part of the business, you try and lean into another to deliver the group margin consistently.

Speaker #4: So that's the first question. The second one is just in terms of where we are on the stock and shop reinvestment, price investment, and how close to completion are we now, given stock and shop seems to be progressing in terms of a recovery?

Frans Muller: Thank you very much, Jolanda. As you have heard and as you have seen, our growing together strategy is now fully in motion. The focus ahead is simple: doing more, even better. We have spoken today about many of our capabilities, but in an industry like ours, one of the most powerful and often underestimated is thriving people being connected to their communities. The partnerships between our brands and the communities they serve are as important an asset as scale, technology, or algorithms. This proximity to our customers, listening carefully, learning continuously, and adapting quickly to what matters most in their daily lives is therefore the real oil that makes the ecosystem run smoothly. Therefore, also a big compliment to our teams for a remarkable result in 2025. Behind that, everything we do is within the framework of a clear operating reality.

Speaker #4: So if you can just talk through a little bit more on the reshaping of stock and shop offer, and where we are in the journey, that would be very helpful.

Speaker #4: Thank you.

Speaker #3: Thank you, Sreedha, and thank you for helping us out here. So, your question—I'll take the first one on group margin. Our business is local.

Speaker #3: And we optimize our businesses on that local opportunities and challenges that we have. So we're not balancing out in the portfolio as such. We're managing the optimum.

Speaker #3: Business by business and backend. And that's the strength of our model. We try to combine our scale to support those businesses locally. So I think that in short answers your question.

Speaker #2: Yeah, and I think also, Sreedha, we would like to stay as competitive as we can be on a brand level for the US, for example.

Speaker #2: On country level or brands in Europe or in the Benelux. I think that's our promise to customers, our commitments to make sure that we have the local proposition as strong as possible.

Speaker #2: And then, yeah, then in the mix, we see the results, of course. At the same time, to stay competitive, we invest a lot in prices.

Frans Muller: We remain laser-focused on cost, disciplined in how we allocate capital, and deliberate in sequencing investments so that growth is funded, repeatable, and resilient. This is how we create value every day for customers, associates, communities, and shareholders, and why we entered 2026 with confidence. With that, thank you for your attention. Sharon, please open the lines for questions.

Speaker #2: And of course, you know that we have a very strong cost-saving program, which Jolanda already talked to. And that plan, we also manage very strictly too.

Speaker #2: So I think that's where we get the funding to support locally. It's a local business, Sreedha. You can't say, well, we take more money in one brand to subsidize another one.

Speaker #2: That's not how retail is working for us. On stock and shop.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A queue. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. Our first question today comes from the line of Frederick Wild from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Maybe very briefly, just on that point. US margin was clearly stronger than most of us would expecting. Was it ahead of your expectation? Because you clearly guided to stable margin together.

Speaker #3: Yes, Sreedha. To be totally transparent, it was above our original plans. And as it is in groceries, you know it as much as we do.

Speaker #3: It's lots of small things. And if they all come together a little bit more. Positive than you expect, then you can outperform. And let me mention just a few of them.

Frederick Wild: Yeah. Good morning, Frans, Jolanda, and Vivi. Thank you for taking my question. So the first one is, would you be able to help us understand the competitive and consumer environment at the moment in the US and your outlook there for 2026, including things like food inflation and how you expect volumes to develop? Secondly, you mentioned, Jolanda, a cadence throughout the year. Given what's happening in Serbia, given maybe some of the US pressures we're seeing at the moment, can we take those comments to mean that you're expecting the year to sort of sequentially improve as we go through it? Thank you.

Speaker #3: If you look at our product mix, we sold more fresh than center store. That's a little support to that margin. We saw that vendor allowances were a little bit more positive.

Speaker #3: Our online profitability is improving. So it's many small elements all coming together, having small impacts as such, but then together you—

Speaker #3: outperform. So yes. And a strong

Speaker #3: Outperform. So yes. And a strong, strong ending of the holiday season then—year. So sales flow-through was that it was all the elements.

Speaker #3: Yes.

Speaker #2: Things are getting great. Christmas—great. Diwali also great, by the way. So, with a strong holiday season, and that's—and string numbers also went down, because if you have high sales, then also string numbers come down as well.

Frans Muller: Thank you, Frederick, for your questions. On the consumer sentiment in the US, if you read the newspapers that people think, "Hey, there is a weaker sentiment than we had seen before," we also saw here and there reports of negative volumes in the US, in the market in itself. If you look at our numbers, we came out the 2025 year with positive volumes in the US, with flat volumes in 2025 to the fourth quarter. And I think this is also caused by the fact that we have very strong market positions, number one and two positions in the US, that we are very connected to our communities, that we have a very good proposition, that we invested online technology and in our stores. So I think we are competing quite strongly. On inflation, we see a food-at-home Northeast inflation of 2.2 at the moment.

Speaker #2: So a lot of things in the right direction. So yeah, not surprised because we have a strong team there. But I think it was stronger than we would initially have expected.

Speaker #3: Yes.

Speaker #2: Finally, then we come to the—before you mix in another question, Sreedha—we now go to stop with... it's a good question. We now go to Stop & Shop.

Speaker #2: So stock and shop, we invested in prices as we promised ourselves. And our customers and in 2025, we were in 65% of our sales, 65% of our sales we did our we made our price investments.

Speaker #2: This will go in 2026 up to roughly 80%. So, we make additional funding available for our price investments. At the same time, Roger and his team—first of all, a very dedicated, enthusiastic, energetic, and a new and partly new team.

Frans Muller: If you ask my prediction, which is not so easy, then I think we see a flat inflation, 2.2%, going forward in the 2026 years. That's how we calculate this. That's a little bit on inflation. That is on consumer sentiment. When people talk about consumer sentiment, sometimes we forget two things: that we are in a food business, so we are not in a discretionary type of business; that we have very strong brands, number one and two position, 90% of our sales; and that we try to convey this in my note, that we have very strong community connections. The element of trust is super important. That's what we earned over the years. That's only strengthened during COVID.

Speaker #2: They made quite some changes. They are now very focused on execution availability of product is much better. Labor costs are better under control. Better service for customers in stores.

Speaker #2: Better mentality and we see also now that with the relief of the 32 stores we closed, we have now a much better store set for stock and shop as well.

Speaker #2: Also, stock and shop, as you might know, has a very high online penetration, of around 11%. So also there, the omnichannel is very strong.

Speaker #2: We see MPS going up for stock and shop. We see price perception within the MPS also getting higher penetration of our private brands. Products as well for stock and shop.

Frans Muller: That's, I think, what we also benefit from now, plus our price investments, a $1 billion price investment over four years in the US, our strengthening and growing own brand share. I think we have a good proposition here to support the customer journeys, and not only physically, but also online and also through AI and technology. Jolanda.

Speaker #2: So, a number of things are going in the right direction. And at the same time, we also remodeled 30 more stores for stock and shop within different types of frame.

Speaker #2: So stock and shop also there good momentum. And you have heard me and Jolanda earlier a good momentum is great, but we would like to see this a few quarters more.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Yes. And thank you for your question. Good morning. Yeah, the cadence, as we guided in our storyline just now, we are confident we started the year well, and we have given a guidance of around 4%. That cadence is something that we don't want to dive into. Europe and US might have different cadences for a start. And we want to allow ourselves the flexibility to invest where we see an opportunity and do that, in the perfect case, a cadence to create value for our customers, but also for our shareholders, of course.

Speaker #2: Before we completely embark on this journey. But also there are compliments to Roger and his team, what happened. There's a new wind and positive wind blowing at stock and shop for not only the associates, but also for our customers.

Speaker #4: Very

Speaker #4: clear. Thank you, Sreedha. Thank you for all our

Speaker #4: Let's try questions. Not to follow Sreedha's lead on that one. Three for the price of two.

Speaker #3: Well, thank you. We will now go to the next question. And your next question comes from the line of William Woods from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Frans Muller: We are in a growth strategy together, huh?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Yes. That's what we're heading for, Frans.

Speaker #3: ahead. Good morning.

Frans Muller: We are going to grow the business.

Speaker #5: Obviously, there's been kind of clear debate over the US margin trajectory over the last couple of years. And you showed good results today. When you look over the next year, how does your strategy change in the US as you go into the second and the third year of the strategy?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: That's what we're investing in.

Frederick Wild: Yep. Yep.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Amazing. Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Sreeda Mahankali from UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker #5: And do you think we're at the trough of the US margin today? Thanks.

Sreedhar Mahamkali: Hi. Good morning, team. Thank you very much for taking my question. Maybe just a big picture one, just trying to understand how you approach margin on a group level because you consistently talk, communicate, and guide on the group margin level. Is that how you run internally as well, and if you expect some weakness, let's say, in Europe, you try and save for it in the US, obviously within limitations of what you can do on pricing and cost? Does that explain probably a much stronger-than-expected US margin in Q4? That's the first question. Secondly, Frans, it would be amazing if we could dive a little bit into where we are.

Speaker #3: William, for that question. My sign a bit boring, but I think I explained earlier, boring for me is the new exciting. We continue on the journey that we shared with the markets when we launched our growing together strategy.

Speaker #3: I think in our business, it's important to get in a good rhythm, in a cadence, and then deliver on that cadence. So no big changes expected in the new year.

Speaker #3: It's fighting to support our customers every day with the best prices possible, continuing with those price investments that we announced, opening up more stores, doing the remodels, driving growth, and sharpening our competitive position.

Speaker #3: So no spectacular changes. It's continuing what we embarked

Frans Muller: Sreeda, could you speak up? Could you speak up a little bit, Sreeda? Could you speak a little bit louder because it's a little bit difficult to understand and.

Speaker #3: on. Jolanda mentioned

Speaker #2: Earlier, William, the $2.7 billion capex in our total company—a growing part of this is going into technology, AI, and these kind of elements.

[Company Representative] (Ahold Delhaize): Sreeda, my ears are less strong than Frans' ears, so I need your ear.

Frans Muller: Speak up a little bit.

Sreedhar Mahamkali: Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I'll just repeat. Just a real question, first one on how you approach group margin because you consistently guide on a group margin. Internally, do you actually manage it as such, as in when you see potential weakness in one part of the business, you try and lean into another to deliver the group margin consistently? So that's the first question. Second one is just in terms of where we are on the Stop & Shop reinvestment, price investment, and how close to completion are we now given Stop & Shop seems to be progressing in terms of a recovery? So if you can just talk through a little bit more on the reshaping of Stop & Shop offer and where we are in the journey, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker #2: That is also counting for our US business, of course. So, when we see digital AI both in the efficiency part and the forecasting part, but also in the consumer-facing part, we do a better and better job.

Speaker #2: Loyalty, personalization, and these kind of things. So we should not forget that. That also that positive trend of growing more into technology investments is also still continuing as well.

Speaker #2: Loyalty, personalization, and these kind of things. So we should not forget that. That also that positive trend of growing more into technology investments is also still continuing as well.

Speaker #3: Maybe last but not least, because we just delivered the 1.3 billion on Safer Our Customers. The next round is already, of course, heavily in because we have another target of 1.25 billion also for this year.

Speaker #3: So, it's also that relentless focus on exactly what Frans says: using AI, automation, looking for ways to drive our customers. Because year on year, of course, it's getting a little bit tougher to realize those targets.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you, Sreeda, and thank you for helping us out here. So your question, I'll take the first one on group margin. Our business is local, and we optimize our businesses on that local opportunities and challenges that we have. So we're not balancing out in the portfolio as such. We're managing the optimum business by business and backend, and that's the strength of our model. We try to combine our scale to support those businesses locally. So I think that, in short, answers your question.

Speaker #3: So we're overly also heavily into making sure that we drive those cost savings because that's one of the pillars of our success going

Speaker #3: forward. Understood.

Speaker #4: Thank

Speaker #4: you. Thank

Speaker #1: please. Comes from the line of you. Your next question, Rob Joyce from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hello, Rob. Are you on

Frans Muller: Yeah. And I think also, Sreeda, we would like to stay as competitive as we can be on brand level for the US, for example, on country level or brands in Europe or in the Benelux. I think that's our promise to customers, our commitments, to make sure that we have the local proposition as strong as possible. And then, yeah, then in the mix, we see the results, of course. At the same time, to stay competitive, we invest a lot in prices. And of course, you know that we have a very strong cost-saving program, which Jolanda already talked to. And that plan, we also manage very strictly too. So I think that's where we get the funding to support locally. It's a local business, Sreeda.

Speaker #6: Apologies. Yeah, maybe I was on mute. Sorry about that. Thanks very much for taking the questions. So the first one is just the investor event a couple of years ago.

Speaker #6: You talked about high single-digit percentage EPS growth as an algorithm. If we look at '26, I guess, excluding the 53rd week, we're probably not quite getting there.

Speaker #6: Just wondering what the headwinds are you see in 2026 to that, and whether that high single-digit percentage EPS growth is still the right growth rate to think about for the medium term.

Speaker #6: Second one, sort of follows on from that, I guess, though, is just if we look at the US. I mean, outside of potential consumer weakness, we've got SNAP cuts, GLP-1s more readily available, Walmart taking share, Amazon gaining more traction with its online grocery business.

Frans Muller: You can't say, "Well, we take more money in one brand to subsidize another one." That's not how retail is working for us. On Stop & Shop.

Speaker #6: I mean, why would we not expect the US to slow down on the top line, meaningfully in 2026? Thank you.

Sreedhar Mahamkali: Maybe very briefly, just on that point, US margin was clearly stronger than most of us were expecting. Was it ahead of your expectations because you clearly guided to stable margin?

Speaker #3: Well, thank you, Rob, for that question. So, first of all, our Growing Together commitments were high single-digit growth on EPS over the four-year period.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Yes. Sreeda, to be totally transparent, it was above our original plans. As it is in groceries, you know it as much as we do, it's lots of small things. If they all come together a little bit more positive than you expect, then you can outperform. Let me mention just a few of them. If you look at our product mix, we sold more fresh than center store. That's a little support to that margin. We saw that vendor allowances were a little bit more positive. Our online profitability is improving. So it's many small elements all coming together, having small impacts as such, but then together you outperform. So yes.

Speaker #3: And we stick to that commitment. If you look at our 2026 guidance based on the 53 weeks that we have in that year, we guide on a mid to high single-digit growth again.

Speaker #3: You are right. If you take out the impact of the 53rd week—of course, EPS is impacted—those are elements to keep in the back of your head.

Speaker #3: There is a survey and impact. Serbia used to be a profitable business, guiding well in our European average margins. It's now a loss-making business.

Speaker #3: So that is included in our guidance. And we're also fighting to repair that issue, one could say. So Serbia has an impact, and also don't forget the 53rd week—it is money that will be banked.

Frans Muller: Had a strong holiday season then.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: A strong ending of the year. So sales flow through was that it was all those elements. Yes.

Frans Muller: Thanksgiving great. Christmas great. Diwali also great, by the way. We had a strong holiday season. Strength numbers also went down because if you have high sales, then also strength numbers come down as well. A lot of things in the right direction. Yeah, not surprised because we have a strong team there, but I think it was stronger than we would initially have expected.

Speaker #3: And it is part of that four-year trajectory of growing.

Speaker #3: together. On your second

Speaker #2: question, Rob, yeah, it's pretty competitive out there. In the US, that's what this business also makes it also exciting. What we are used to this already for a longer time.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Yes.

Speaker #2: This is not a new phenomenon in itself. The elements I just would like to stipulate here is that we have a business which is now better positioned than before for growth.

Frans Muller: Finally, then, we come to the before you mix in another question, Sreeda. We now go to stop.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Good question.

Frans Muller: It's a good question. We now go to Stop & Shop. So Stop & Shop, we invested in prices as we promised ourselves and our customers. And in 2025, we were in 65% of our sales, 65% of our sales. We made our price investments. This will go in 2026 up to roughly 80%. So we make additional funding available for our price investments. At the same time, Roger and his team, first of all, a very dedicated, enthusiastic, energetic, and a new, partly new team, they made quite some changes. They are now very focused on execution. Availability of product is much better. Labor costs are better under control, better service for customers in stores, better mentality. And we see also now that with the relief of the 32 stores we closed, we have now a much better store set for Stop & Shop as well.

Speaker #2: We have a better supply chain. We have a stronger own brand offer. We are investing in pricing, and we will invest more in pricing.

Speaker #2: The $1 billion in four years, you have heard. We are growing our total footline network, not only by stores. And we will open more stores for footline.

Speaker #2: That is also a new trajectory. But we also keep remodeling our existing fleet. And where there are opportunities for footline, to dense up, let's say, the footprint by potential acquisitions, then we also will look at this.

Speaker #2: Technology and mechanization will help us to reduce costs or get better customer journeys. So, and we talked about it earlier, when one of the largest competitors in the US is gaining share in the Carolinas, that does not mean that we lose.

Speaker #2: We win share with footline in the markets where we operate—those states in the southern part or the eastern seaboard. And that is because we are connected to our customers.

Frans Muller: Stop & Shop, as you might know, has a very high online penetration of around 11%. So also there, the omnichannel is very strong. We see MPS going up for Stop & Shop. We see price perception within the MPS also getting better. They enjoy the higher penetration of our private brands' products as well for Stop & Shop. So a number of things are going in the right direction. And at the same time, we also remodeled 30 more stores for Stop & Shop with a different type of frame. So Stop & Shop, also there, good momentum. And you have heard me and Jolanda earlier; a good momentum is great, but we would like to see this a few quarters more before we completely embark on this journey. But also their compliments to Roger and his team, what happened.

Speaker #2: We are very local. We have very good networks. And we have great people. And I think that is not changing. I also heard that in the few stores, in the fresh areas.

Speaker #2: Which is also telling us this is competitive, and food retail, with the margins we make, is not easy. And that's why I think also experience. So, competitive, yes.

Speaker #2: Are we able to compete? Absolutely. We think that we also gained a market share in the fourth quarter in the US. And with positive volumes, I think we have a good start for 2026 also, when we look at the first period of the year.

Frans Muller: There's a new wind and positive wind blowing at Stop & Shop for not only the associates, but also for our customers.

Speaker #2: So competitive, but we are in a fighting spirit. And the teams are really very geared up for the

Speaker #2: journey. Okay.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Very clear. Thank you.

Sreedhar Mahamkali: Thank you, Sreeda.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: No follow-up questions.

Speaker #4: So you're well-positioned to keep taking share, sounds like.

Sreedhar Mahamkali: Let's try to not follow Sreeda's lead on that one, which that's three for the price of two.

Speaker #2: We come back to quarter by quarter. Rob, don't jinx it now. But that's a. It's not. We have a

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Well, thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of William Woods from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Speaker #3: It's our vision.

Speaker #2: Growth strategy. You know that our growth strategy means two things. It means volume growth and market share growth. And that is for every brand individually.

Frans Muller: Good morning. Obviously, there's been kind of clear debate over the US margin trajectory over the last couple of years, and you showed good results today. When you look over the next year, how does your strategy change in the US as you go into the second and the third year of the strategy? And do you think we're at the trough of the US margin today? Thanks.

Speaker #2: That's the task, and that's how we construe our plans. And then we have to see how that works out and how strong we really are.

Speaker #4: Thanks very much.

Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question today comes from the line of Ferdinand Debord from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Yes, good morning. Two questions from my side. One is about our client Europe. If you look at last year, 2025, you had, of course, the dilution of the acquisition Profi.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: William, for that question, it may sound a bit boring, but I think I explained earlier; boring for me is the new exciting. We continue on the journey that we shared with the markets when we launched our Growing Together strategy. I think in our business, it's important to get in a good rhythm, in a cadence, and then deliver on that cadence. So no big changes expected in the new year. It's fighting to support our customers every day with the best prices possible, continuing with those price investments that we announced, opening up more stores, doing the remodels, driving growth, and sharpening our competitive position. So no spectacular changes. It's continuing what we embarked on.

Speaker #4: You had Serbia—that's now mostly in the base. So what should hold you from higher margins in Europe in '26? And then the second one is on Albert Heijn.

Speaker #4: You are now at 38% market share. I think competitors are trying to move. How do you look at that for going forward?

Speaker #4: forward? Thank

Speaker #3: Thank you for that question. I'll take the first one in front. We'll take the Albert Heijn question. We have a share integration of Profi and Indeed.

Frans Muller: Jolanda mentioned earlier, William, the EUR 2.7 billion CapEx in our total company. A growing part of this is going into technology, AI, and these kind of elements. That is also counting for our US business, of course. So when we see digital AI both in the efficiency part and the forecasting part, but also in the consumer-facing part, we do a better and better job, loyalty, personalization, and these kind of things. So we should not forget that also that positive trend of growing more into technology investments is also still continuing as well.

Speaker #3: We are now positioned for growth in Profi. So we envision to open up more stores and drive growth there. And we will get some of those first synergies kicking in.

Speaker #3: We expect Profi will take around two to three years to land at the European average margin. So I would not say we're there yet.

Speaker #3: We are on a journey, and we look forward to that. Serbia, of course, is an impact that was only slight last year because the decrease started on September 1st.

Speaker #3: So that is for sure a difference versus last year.

Speaker #2: And then for now, on Albert Heijn, yes, this is a very impressive market share—you rounded down to 38%. But it's a very impressive market share, but this comes with zero arrogance in the marketplace.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Maybe last but not least, because we just delivered the EUR 1.3 billion on Safe for Our Customers. The next round is already, of course, heavily in because we have another target of EUR 1.25 billion also for this year. So it's also that relentless focus on exactly what Frans says, using AI, automation, and looking for ways to drive our costs down because year-over-year, of course, it's getting a little bit tougher to realize those targets. So we're also heavily into making sure that we drive those cost savings because that's one of the pillars of our success going forward.

Speaker #2: So the teams have designed their commercial plans for 2026. We might see a few brands in the Dutch market which have the intention to bounce back.

Speaker #2: We had an N12, almost 12% growth of our online in Q4 for Albert Heijn. And we also would like to make sure that we stay growing online as well.

Speaker #2: A double digit for Albert Heijn. We look at strengthening our journeys—and our portfolios. We have 1,900 organic products, where we are absolutely the leader in differentiation.

Frans Muller: Understood. Thank you.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Rob Joyce from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hello, Rob, are you on mute?

Speaker #2: Same for convenience. Same for meal solutions. So the creativity is there with the team. Online will be an important component to grow and I think it means also if you look at price investments and we know the price favorites where we were 2,000 items have the best offer in the market.

Rob Joyce: Apologies. Yeah, maybe I was on mute. Sorry about that. Thanks very much for taking the questions. The first one is just the investor event a couple of years ago, you talked about high single-digit percentage EPS growth as an algorithm. If we look at 2026, I guess, ex 53rd week, we're probably not quite getting there. Just wondering what the headwinds you see in 2026 to that and whether that high single-digit percentage EPS growth is still the right growth rate to think about for the medium term. Second one sort of follows on from that, I guess, though, is just if we look at the US, I mean, outside of potential consumer weakness, we've got Snapcut, GLP-1s more readily available, Walmart taking share, and Amazon gaining more traction with its online grocery business.

Speaker #2: That will also continue that focus, that we make that promise work as well. So Albert Heijn—you talk about the Netherlands, but Albert Heijn is also doing a great job, by the way, in Belgium.

Speaker #2: Also there, we had a very strong result over the year, and also big plans to grow our business there as well. So, in short, keep very focused.

Speaker #2: On the omnichannel proposition, zero arrogance. Use the innovation you have in your team. private label, which is well over 50% share now at Albert Heijn.

Rob Joyce: I mean, why would we not expect the US to slow down on the top line meaningfully in 2026? Thank you.

Speaker #2: And work strongly on your cost as well, because also their price investments have to be invested also through cost savings. And that is for Albert Heijn not different than for anybody else.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Well, thank you, Rob, for that question. So first of all, our Growing Together commitment was high single-digit growth on EPS over the four-year period. And we stick to that commitment. If you look at our 2026 guidance based on the 53 weeks that we have in that year, we guide on a mid to high single-digit growth again. You are right. If you take out the impact of the 53rd week, of course, EPS is impacted. Two elements to keep in the back of your head. There is a Serbian impact. Serbia used to be a profitable business, guiding well in our European average margins. It's now a loss-making business. So that is included in our guidance. And we're also fighting to repair that issue, one could say. So Serbia has an impact.

Speaker #4: Maybe one last question on working capital. How far further can you stretch your accounts

Speaker #4: payable? Sorry, my point off.

Speaker #3: I don't know what France was doing. A strong year-end sales, of course, means that your inventories are temporarily a bit lower and your accounts payable are a bit higher.

Speaker #3: So that's also a timing impact of, one could say, backward sales or a good year-ending. We're not expecting to stretch our accounts payable any further; we're just dealing with it as we should be, as a good partner in crime also for our—

Speaker #3: supplier.

Speaker #4: Okay. And the

Speaker #4: The 53rd week—does it have an impact on your working?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Also, don't forget the 53rd week. It is money that will be banked, and it is part of that four-year trajectory of Growing Together.

Speaker #4: capital? It will

Speaker #3: have a bit of an impact, of course. But what we will do as we always do, we will disclose any impacts of that last week in our communication to the markets in a very transparent

Speaker #3: have a bit of an impact, of course. But what we will do as we always do, we will disclose any impacts of that last week in our communication to the markets in a very transparent way.

Frans Muller: On your second question, Rob, yeah, it's pretty competitive out there in the US. That's what this business also makes it also exciting. But we are used to this already for a longer time. This is not a new phenomenon in itself. The elements I just would like to stipulate here is that we have a business which is now better positioned than before for growth. We have a better supply chain. We have a stronger own-brand offer. We are investing in pricing, and we will invest more in pricing, the EUR 1 billion in 4 years you have heard. We are growing our total Food Lion network, not only by stores, and we will open more stores for Food Lion. That is also a new trajectory. But we also keep remodeling our existing fleet.

Speaker #4: Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker #2: Like I did already for sales effect and total net

Speaker #2: margin. Yes.

Speaker #3: And also, in the reporting, we will make sure

Speaker #3: That the impacts are very clear. Got it.

Speaker #2: it. All right.

Speaker #4: Thank

Speaker #4: you. Thank

Speaker #1: You. We will now go to the next question. And the next question comes from the line of Xavier Lemena from Bank of America Securities.

Speaker #1: Please go

Speaker #1: ahead. Thank you.

Speaker #4: Question two, if I may, then. You mentioned that the AI you do, and other technology, is shaping the way you are operating. You mentioned a few examples, but can you potentially elaborate a bit more and give us a bit of the productivity gains you can expect, and potentially an indication of the scale?

Frans Muller: And where there are opportunities for Food Lion to densify, let's say, the footprint by potential acquisitions, then we also will look at this. Technology and mechanization will help us to reduce cost or get better customer journeys. And we talked about it earlier. When one of the largest competitors in the US is gaining share in the Carolinas, that does not mean that we lose. We win share with Food Lion in the markets where we operate, those states in the southern part of the eastern seaboard. And that is because we are connected to our customers. We are very local. We have very good networks, and we have great people. And I think that is not changing.

Speaker #4: So magnitude of gain you can get there. So even, what is the contribution to cost savings potentially? The second question would be on online.

Speaker #4: You mentioned it's profitable for the first time in 2025. Should we think about online being a potential driver for margin expansion going forward and what are you expectation for 2026 and beyond?

Speaker #2: Thank you, Xavier. On the question of AI—and AI is, of course, an interesting subject—it's as if this is just new to us.

Speaker #2: I mean, we've been working over many years on AI solutions—whether it's robotization, our financial processes, making predictions for our demand, or looking at our apps for our consumer-facing side. We also have a lot of new features as well.

Frans Muller: I also heard that a marketplace player is also closing a few stores in the fresh areas, which is also telling us this is competitive, and food retail with the margins we make is not easy. And that's where I think also experience and good people kick in as well. So competitive, yes. Are we able to compete? Absolutely. We think that we also gained market share in Q4 in the US. And with positive volumes, I think we have, yeah, a good start for 2026 also when we look at the first period of the year. So competitive, but we are in a fighting spirit, and the teams are really, yeah, very geared up for the journey.

Speaker #2: So, there will be a lot of AI and opportunities in mechanization. We do a lot of things on recipes and even more creative solutions for customers.

Speaker #2: You saw what we when we talked about spot and shop, make a picture of the lamp or the pair of shoes with your neighbors you like more and you make a picture loaded in the app for ball and you get a suggestion where you can buy these kind of things.

Speaker #2: So, we have a lot of back-end solutions—robotics, mechanization, forecasting, marking down to avoid food waste. We talked about it earlier. And more and more, we get even more consumer-facing opportunities with visual search and all these kinds of things that AI is giving us.

Rob Joyce: Okay. So you think you're well positioned to keep taking share, Frans, sounds like.

Frans Muller: We come back to you quarter by quarter, Rob. Don't jinx it now, but that's a point.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: It's our ambition.

Frans Muller: No, we have a growth strategy. And you know that our growth strategy means two things, means volume growth and market share growth. And that is for every brand individually, the task. And that's how we construe our plans. And then we have to see how that works out and how strong we really are.

Speaker #2: So, a lot of things happening there that you might have noticed. We also got a new chief technology officer on board with John Deere. The other thing is...

Speaker #2: John Deere is working very closely, of course, with IT and digital and tech teams. And I just came in here and just bumped into a room today—a meeting room where we're talking about our group focus area.

Rob Joyce: Thanks very much.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you. Our next question today comes from the line of Fernand de Boer from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.

Speaker #2: Our work group on AI, where we also bring Americans and Europeans and Central people together, is to see, hey, what can we learn from each other?

Fernand de Boer: Yes, good morning. Two questions from my side. One is about Ahold Europe. If you look at last year, at 2025, you had, of course, the dilution of the acquisition with Profi. You had Serbia. That's now most in the base. So what should withhold you from higher margins in Europe in 2026? And then the second one is from Albert Heijn. You are now at 38% market share. I think competitors are trying to move. How do you look at that going forward?

Speaker #2: And we can learn a lot from the US as well. What can we learn from each other to make even those propositions more standardized?

Speaker #2: In the end, cheaper in serialization, and to scale it up. So a lot more to come. And I think we will talk every quarter about the new features like we did today as well.

Speaker #3: On your second question, and thank you for that, online profitability, margin going forward. We look at online in a holistic way, so we're not separating it anymore.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you for that question. I'll take the first one. And Frans, we'll take the Albert Heijn question. We had the first-year integration of Profi. And indeed, we are now positioned for growth in Profi. So we envision to open up more stores and drive growth there. And we will get some of those first synergies kicking in. We expect Profi will take around two to three years to lend at the European average margin. So I would not say we're there yet. We are on a journey, and we look forward to that. Serbia, of course, is an impact that was only slightly in last year because the decrease started 1 September. So that is for sure a difference versus last year.

Speaker #3: Of course, we have those numbers, but we don't separate it in this, okay, it's margin dilutive and how do we balance that out in the portfolio?

Speaker #3: We drive growth. Online is a core driver of that growth. And from a holistic and more strategic point of view, having those online customers—which creates, indeed, growth—it also gives us access into people's daily lives.

Speaker #3: We can design personal assistants that going forward will give us strategic opportunities. It gives us data. We can do the personalization. So there are many elements for us that are so much more important than just an online business and a dilution.

Speaker #3: We indeed communicated half 2025 that we are now online profitable in the group. That profitability is increasing and improving. So going forward, we double down on online, also as France stated, for example, for Albert Heijn.

Frans Muller: And then for now, on Albert Heijn, yeah, this is a very impressive market share. You rounded down to 38%, but it's a very impressive market share. But this comes with zero arrogance in the marketplace. So the teams have designed their commercial plans for 2026. We might see a few brands in the Dutch market which have the intention to bounce back. We had almost 12% growth of our online in Q4 for Albert Heijn. And we also would like to make sure that we stay growing online as well, a double digit for Albert Heijn. We look at strengthening our journeys and our portfolios. We have 1,900 organic products where we are absolutely the leader in differentiation, same for convenience, same for meal solutions. So the creativity is there with the team. Online will be an important component to grow.

Speaker #3: We find ways to improve our profitability even further. And we're quite confident that as a part of our overall strategy, this will benefit our customers, our company, and also providing the returns to our shareholders that you could expect to have from us from a holistic point of

Speaker #3: view. Okay.

Speaker #4: Thank you.

Speaker #1: Thank you. We will now take our final question for today. And the final question comes from the line of Francois Degas from Kepler Silver.

Speaker #1: Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Good morning. Thank you very much. Could you in the US in '25 and specifically in Q4? I would appreciate a deep dive if you could help us to understand the main drivers behind this performance and how sustainable do you believe this growth is that really how we'd be interested to know how you share the value with your click and collect partners in this business.

Frans Muller: I think that means also if you look at price investments, and we know the price favourites where we were 2,000 items have the best offer in the market, that will also continue that focus that we make that promise work as well. So Albert Heijn, you talk about the Netherlands, but Albert Heijn is also doing a great job, by the way, in Belgium. Also there, we had a very strong result over the year and also big plans to grow our business there as well. So in short, keep very focused on the omnichannel proposition, zero arrogance, use the innovation you have in your team to build better products, better private label, which is well over 50% share now at Albert Heijn, and work strongly on your cost as well because also there, price investments have to be invested also through cost savings.

Speaker #4: Thank you very much.

Speaker #2: Thank you, François. Bonjour. 23% growth in the fourth quarter is, of course, magnificent. 35% for Footline. And you could argue that it's a little bit from a lower base in itself, but it's still amazing.

Speaker #2: Penetration getting over 9% now. Stock on shop historically already in very high participation, but also growing there to over 11%. So a very positive penetration growth in all the brands we operate.

Speaker #2: We operate very differently than before, as you know. We are now having our Click & Collect options powered by Prism, our own developed software, which gives us, first of all, picking efficiency, but also a much better customer connect and a much better customer journey in that online Click & Collect, let's say, part of our proposition.

Frans Muller: And that is for Albert Heijn, not different than for anybody else.

Fernand de Boer: Maybe one last question on working capital. How far further can you stretch your accounts payable?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Sorry, the mic went off. I don't know what Frans was doing. A strong year-end sales, of course, means that your inventories are temporarily a bit lower and your accounts payable are a bit higher. So that's also a timing impact of, one could say, backwarded sales or a good year-ending. We're not expecting to stretch our accounts payable any further. We're just dealing with it as we should be as a good partner in crime also for our suppliers.

Speaker #2: We also partner with DoorDash and Instacart. That is going very well. We might address that we might find another strong partnership too, which is going to fuel extra growth.

Fernand de Boer: The 53rd week, does it have impact on your working capital?

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: It will have a bit of an impact, of course. But what we will do, as we always do, we will disclose any impact of that last week in our communication to the markets in a very transparent way.

Fernand de Boer: Okay. Thank you very much.

Frans Muller: Like you did already for sales effect and total net margin.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Yes. And also in the reporting, we will make sure that the impacts are very clear.

Fernand de Boer: All right. Thank you.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you. We will now go to the next question. The next question comes from the line of Xavier Le Mené from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Xavier Le Mené: Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my question too, if I may, then. You mentioned that AI and other technology are reshaping the way you are operating. So you mentioned a few examples, but can you potentially elaborate a bit more and give us a bit of colour about the type of productivity gains you can expect and potentially an indication of the scale, so magnitude of gain you can get there, so even what is the contribution to cost savings, potentially? The second question would be online. You mentioned it's profitable for the first time in 2025. Should we think about online being a potential driver for margin expansion going forward? And what are your expectations for 2026 and beyond?

Frans Muller: Thank you, Xavier. On the question of AI, AI is, of course, an interesting subject. It's as if this is just new to us. I mean, we're working over many years on AI solutions, if it's robotization, if it's our financial processes, if it is making predictions for our demand, looking at our apps for consumer-facing. We have now a lot of new features as well. So there will be a lot of AI and opportunities in mechanization. We do a lot of things on recipes and even more creative solutions for customers. You saw when we talked about Stop and Shop, make a picture of the lamp or the pair of shoes which your neighbors you like more, and you make a picture loaded in the app for bol, and you get a suggestion where you can buy these kind of things.

Frans Muller: So we have a lot of back-end solutions, robotics, mechanization, forecasting, marking down to avoid food waste. We talked about it earlier. But more and more, we get even more consumer-facing opportunities with visual search and all these kind of things what AI is giving us. So a lot of things happening there. The other thing is that you might have noticed that we also got a new Chief Technology Officer on board with Jan Brecht. And Jan Brecht is working very closely, of course, with the IT and digital and tech teams. And I just came in here.

Frans Muller: I just bumped into a room today in a meeting room where they were talking about our group focus area workgroup on AI, where we also bring Americans and Europeans and central people together to see, "Hey, what can we learn from each other?" And we can learn a lot from the US as well. What can we learn from each other to make even those propositions more standardized, in the end, cheaper in serialization, and to scale it up? So a lot more to come. And I think we will talk every quarter about the new features like we did today as well.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: On your second question, and thank you for that, online profitability margin going forward. We look at online in a holistic way. So we're not separating it anymore. Of course, we have those numbers, but we don't separate it in as, "Okay, it's margin dilutive. And how do we balance that out in the portfolio?" We drive growth. Online is a core driver of that growth. And from a holistic and more strategic point of view, having those online customers, which creates indeed growth, it also gives us access into people's daily lives. We can design personal assistants that going forward will give us strategic opportunities, give us data. We can do the personalization. So there are many elements for us that are so much more important than just an online business and a dilution. We indeed communicated half 2025 that we are now online profitable in the group.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: That profitability is increasing and improving. So going forward, we double down on online, also as Frans stated, for example, for Albert Heijn. We find ways to improve our profitability even further. And we're quite confident that as a part of our overall strategy, this will benefit our customers, our company, and also providing the returns to our shareholders that you could expect to have from us from a holistic point of view.

Xavier Le Mené: Okay. Thank you.

Jolanda Poots-Bijl: Thank you. We will now take our final question for today. The final question comes from the line of François Digard from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

François Digard: Good morning. Thank you very much. Could you elaborate on the online sales growth in the US in 2025 and specifically in Q4? I would appreciate a deep dive if you could help us to understand the main drivers behind this performance and how sustainable do you believe this growth is, notably how we'd be interested to know how you share the value with your click-and-collect partners in this business. Thank you very much.

Frans Muller: Thank you, François. Bonjour. 23% growth in Q4 is, of course, magnificent. 35% for Food Lion. You could argue that it's a little bit from a lower base in itself, but it's still amazing. Penetration getting over 9% now. Stop & Shop historically already in very high participation, but also growing there to over 11%. So a very positive penetration growth in all the brands we operate. We operate very different than before. As you know, we are now having our click-and-collect options powered by our own, well-developed software, which is giving us, yeah, first of all, efficiency, picking efficiency, but also a much better customer connect and a much better customer journey in that online click-and-collect, let's say, part of our proposition. We also partner with DoorDash and Instacart. That is going very well.

Frans Muller: We might address that we might find another strong partnership too, which is going to fuel extra growth. So we talk about online a lot. The teams are so convinced that omnichannel is the name of the game.