Albertsons cuts 2026 outlook and launches restructuring plan

Albertsons Companies reported a decline in first-quarter grocery sales and cut its full-year financial outlook Tuesday, as the Boise-based grocer announced a sweeping operational restructuring aimed at reversing slowing growth.

Identical sales ― a key retail metric that strips out newly opened and closed stores ― fell 0.8% in the 16 weeks ended June 20. Net income dropped to $84.7 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $236.4 million, or 41 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Net sales edged up 0.2% to $24.9 billion, driven by higher fuel sales. Digital sales grew 13% and pharmacy continued to expand despite headwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act‘s Medicare drug price negotiation program.

“In the first quarter, our digital and pharmacy businesses continued to deliver strong growth, while core grocery faced increasing pressure from softer industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer,” said CEO Susan Morris. “While these results did not meet our expectations, they underscored the need to move faster.”

Albertsons announced a restructuring initiative called ACI Edge, which consolidates the company’s 11 divisions into four regions and centralizes center-store merchandising under a single enterprise team. The changes are designed to speed up decision-making, improve supplier relationships and drive more consistent execution across the company’s store banners.

“These actions are designed to deliver sharper value, greater differentiation in fresh, and an elevated customer experience across our stores and markets,” Morris said.

The company revised its fiscal 2026 outlook downward across several metrics. Albertsons now expects identical sales to range from negative 1.5% to negative 0.5%, compared with its previous guidance of flat to up 1%. Adjusted EBITDA guidance was cut to $3.55 billion to $3.625 billion from a prior range of $3.85 billion to $3.925 billion. Adjusted earnings per share guidance dropped to $1.75 to $1.85 from $2.22 to $2.32.

“We are moving decisively,” Morris said. “We are choosing to accelerate investments in our customer value proposition and the customer experience ahead of expected productivity benefits because we believe these actions will improve our growth trajectory and strengthen our competitive position.”

Capital expenditures in the quarter totaled $522.1 million, funding 15 store remodels and four new store openings. The company repurchased 13.4 million shares for $226.5 million during the quarter and increased its quarterly dividend 13% to 17 cents per share in April.

This story was written using artificial intelligence with human oversight.