Supermarket group Ahold booked first quarter sales of €11.3bn as the strong dollar boosted the company’s performance in the US.

Ahold, which owns Dutch market leader Albert Heijn, currently generates two-thirds of its revenue in the US. Excluding currency effects and the impact of petrol sales, the rise would have been just over 3%, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Net profit quadrupled from €50m in the first quarter of 2014 to €213m but underlying operating income fell 0.5 % to €390m.

Sales in the Netherlands were up 5.7% at €3.75bn. This was largely due to Albert Heijn which showed strong growth following several successful marketing campaigns, Ahold said.

The company did not comment on its preliminary merger talks with Delhaize of Belgium.