Brussels, March 12 - Belgian supermarket group Delhaize forecast growth of its operating profit this year along with further cost savings after 2008 results that beat market expectations.
The company, which generates about 70 percent of its sales in the United States, said in a statement on Thursday that it planned to cut costs by 100 million euros ($127.8 million) this year and improve working capital by 50 million.
This followed more than 60 million euros of cost savings in 2008, a large part of which was booked in the fourth quarter.
The group expects operating profit growth of up to three percent in 2009 at identical exchange rates. Excluding a 53rd week of business in 2008, growth would be between 3.5 and 6.5 percent.
Chief Executive Pierre-Olivier Beckers talked in a statement of a challenging environment in 2009.
"Our competitive prices and innovative solutions should allow us to remain the brands of choice for the customer in these challenging economic times," he said.
Delhaize said 2008 net profit increased by 13.9 percent to 467.1 million euros, against a Reuters Estimates average estimate of 437 million euros, boosted by cost savings that increased price competitiveness.
Operating profit dropped 3.5 percent to 904.1 million euros, beating the average market expectation of 885 million euros.
Delhaize had forecast operating profit growth of up to 3 percent at identical exchange rates. In fact, the 2008 figure was 3.4 percent.
Delhaize said it would propose to pay out a net dividend of 1.11 euros per share for 2008, up 2.8 percent from 2007.
The company has held up relatively well in the past year.
The DJ Stoxx European retail index is down about 35 percent from a year earlier, while Delhaize shares have lost just over 10 percent.
Dutch peer Ahold, which also makes more than half of its sales in the U.S., reported strong results last week after it rebranded and cut prices in the U.S., but warned it would not escape the economic slowdown.