Ahold Delhaize puts cyberattack cost at €200-250 million in revenue and cuts 2026 profit outlook

Third-quarter results and the revenue hit

Ahold Delhaize presented its third-quarter figures on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, with revenue of 23.1 billion euros. The group said the October cyberattack will cut fourth-quarter revenue by 200 million to 250 million euros. Reports differ on the growth figures: NOS puts revenue growth at 1.9 percent, or 2.6 percent without unfavourable exchange rates, and says operating profit rose more than 7 percent to 976 million euros. Telegraaf cites an underlying operating profit of 946 million euros and says results beat analyst expectations, with an underlying operating margin of 4.1 percent against the 4.0 percent analysts had expected.

How the attack unfolded

De Volkskrant reports that a computer intrusion hit the group on 11 October and kept it under pressure for at least twelve days. As a precaution, Ahold Delhaize took a large share of its systems offline. Supermarkets in the Netherlands and Belgium, along with chains such as Gall & Gall, could not be restocked for days, and shoppers faced empty shelves. Het Parool reports that websites and apps of Albert Heijn, Etos, Gall & Gall and other chains were unreachable for days, that several distribution centres stopped working, and that home delivery was halted for two weeks. According to Het Parool, the online subsidiary Bol was not affected, and the attack targeted store and supermarket operations in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States.

Outlook and guidance

Management expects the attack to reduce fourth-quarter operating profit by 75 million to 100 million euros. For full-year 2026, underlying earnings per share growth is now expected in the low single digits, according to NOS and Telegraaf, down from a mid-to-high single-digit forecast. Telegraaf notes that analysts had made their estimates before the company had to switch off systems, which makes the quarterly beat more notable. European like-for-like revenue growth reached 2.1 percent, against a consensus of 1.3 percent, while growth in the United States was 0.5 percent, slightly above the expected 0.3 percent.

A second hack and the response

Earlier in the same week, Belgian subsidiary Delhaize was hit by another hack, NOS reports, with intruders raising the temperature of refrigeration units. Het Parool describes the target as the supermarket freezers of Delhaize in Belgium, and NOS says other European supermarket chains were hit in similar attacks. In the results statement, Frans Muller said the largest part of the disruption was under control within two weeks but that work continues to restore normal operations.

“Although most of the disruption was under control within two weeks, work is still under way to fully restore our normal business operations.”

Muller announced special promotions and small gestures to win back customers, according to Het Parool. The group does not plan to change its digital strategy, even though its IT systems run tightly from store shelf to distribution centre and that linkage makes it vulnerable to attacks. Muller framed the wider risk in the same statement.

“Cyber threats are becoming an increasingly harsh reality for businesses.”

Timeline of the disruption

The sequence below shows the main dated and sequenced beats reported across the sources.

The full effect of the attack will appear in the fourth-quarter figures, which have not yet been published.