Ahold Delhaize said Nov. 4, 2026, that an October cybersecurity incident is expected to reduce fourth-quarter sales by 200 million to 250 million euros, lowering its annual earnings and cash-flow expectations. The disclosure puts an initial financial range on disruption to the grocery group’s operations.
The company estimates a fourth-quarter reduction of 75 million to 100 million euros in both underlying and IFRS operating income. Additional response and remediation costs are expected to have a marginal effect on full-year IFRS operating income, it said.
Full-year expectations move lower
Ahold Delhaize now forecasts free cash flow around 2.1 billion euros, compared with at least 2.3 billion euros previously. It expects low-single-digit growth in diluted underlying earnings per share at constant exchange rates, down from a mid- to high-single-digit outlook.
Its third-quarter sales were 23.1 billion euros, up 1.9% at constant exchange rates. The new incident-related impact estimates concern the subsequent quarter, not a loss already recorded in those third-quarter sales.
In an Oct. 19 update, the company said it had taken systems, including websites and apps, offline as a precaution and was restoring services in phases. It said its stores had remained open.
The financial disclosure makes recovery an operating and forecasting issue, not only an IT task. The ranges remain company estimates: they do not establish a final incident cost, identify an attacker or demonstrate the outcome of the investigation.