Albert supermarkets in the Czech Republic saw their profits triple in the first quarter of 2016 to €6m. Their operator, Dutch Ahold, increased its overall operational profit to €449m in Q1, up 15 percent y-o-y. The results exceeded the expectations of the analysts who had predicted an operational profit in the vicinity of €430m, according to Reuters. Total revenues rose 4 percent to €11.8bn overall, with Czech revenues increased by 2.5 percent to €528m. Ahold decided to merge with Delhaize in 2015, which would make it number four among European retail chains. The merger should be finalized in mid 2016.