With a decision due any day by the Federal Trade Commission on the $24.6 billion Kroger, Albertsons merger, Albertsons reported strong net sales and revenue figures in its Q3 report on Tuesday, Supermarket News reports.  

Albertsons reported $18.6 billion in net sales and revenue for the 12 weeks ended Dec. 2, 2023, up 2% from the $18.2 billion reported for the same quarter in 2022, the company said. 

Net income was up $361 million, or $0.62 per share, for the quarter, Albertsons reported. Adjusted net income was $462 million, or $0.79 per share, while the adjusted EBITDA was $1.1 billion. 

Albertsons said the revenue boost was driven by growth in its digital and pharmacy operations. Identical sales – a metric typically based on repeat performance at stores in operation for more than a year – grew 2.9% for the quarter, and digital sales were up a whopping 21% for the quarter. 

“While we are benefiting from our productivity initiatives, we expect to continue to see the impacts of investments in associate wages and benefits, cycling significant prior year food inflation, customers receiving less government assistance, the resumption of student loan payments, and other types of payment deferrals, inflationary cost increases and the outsized growth of our pharmacy and digital businesses as we continue to lean into increased customer engagement in our ‘customers for life’ strategy,” said Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran in a statement. 

The grocer also said loyalty members increased 17% over the quarter to 38.5 million.