The CEO of Albertsons (ACI) is confident — despite the grocery and pharmacy giant’s forecasted comparable sales falling between 6% and 7.5% in fiscal 2021 — as it continues to engage with its new and existing customers.
“We know the economy will open. We know that we won't sustain the same levels of sales as we did in 2020, but our challenge and our confidence is that we'll be able to keep a good portion of those sales so that we finished 2020 better than we would have without a pandemic. That is the game … and we're seeing that play out in our first several weeks of this quarter, like we imagined,” CEO Vivek Sankaran told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday.
On Monday, Albertsons, which operates 2,277 retail stores and 1,727 pharmacies across brands such as Safeway, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, and others, reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings results. The company also provided guidance that comparable sales would be lower year-over-year, sending its stock down more than 5.7%.
For the fourth quarter ended Feb. 27, the grocer delivered adjusted earnings per share of 60 cents, beating expectations of earnings per share of 51 cents. Revenue also topped estimates, coming in at $15.8 billion compared to forecasts of $15.64 billion.