RETAIL FOODS Company finds errors in accounting at Tops

The company says it has overstated profits by $909 million over three years.
WASHINGTON POST
Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch company that owns several large U.S. retail food chains, said that it had found $29 million in intentional accounting errors in its Tops Markets subsidiary, which operates several hundred supermarkets and convenience stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
No Tops executives have been asked to leave, because the investigation has not been completed, said Sharon Christians, Ahold's senior vice president for corporate communications. She declined to give details of the problems discovered at Tops Markets.
Monday's announcement increased to $909 million the amount that profits were overstated for three years.
U.S. Foodservice
Earlier this month, Ahold had said it would restate its earnings for the past three years by $880 million because of misstatements relating to promotional rebates received from suppliers of its U.S. Foodservice subsidiary in Columbia, Md. U.S. Foodservice sells food to schools, restaurants and numerous institutions.
Ahold first disclosed its accounting problems in February, when it announced a $500 million restatement. The company subsequently launched an internal investigation into problems at U.S. Foodservice, which resulted in the resignation or firing of U.S. Foodservice's top management team.
The chief executive at the Dutch multinational was also replaced.
In addition to U.S. Foodservice and Tops, Ahold, which had worldwide sales of $73.7 billion, also owns Giant Food, Stop & amp; Shop and other supermarket chains. There has been no indication of any similar accounting mistakes involving Landover, Md.-based Giant, according to Christians.
The Ahold announcement said that "forensic accounting" investigations were "substantially complete" at 14 of its operating and joint-venture companies worldwide.