Supermarket group Ahold announced on Friday an increase in turnover of 3.9% to €5.8bn in the third quarter of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007.

For Dutch division Albert Heijn the news was less rosy. Excluding the influence of new stores taken over from the C1000 supermarket chain, turnover in the third quarter was 8.3% higher the same period in 2007. In the second quarter of 2008 turnover had grown by 11.8%.
Never the less, the figure was still higher than market experts had predicted. In total, Albert Heijn third quarter sales reached €2bn.
In the US, where Ahold books around 50% of its sales, turnover was up due to cost cutting.