For the first nine months of the year, meanwhile, A&P's loss was $182.4 million compared to $97 million last year. Sales rose by just 1.3% to $8.29 billion from $8.18 billion.

According to company officials, the results were impacted by a total of some $40 million in charges, including $35 million in impairment charges relating to long-lived assets in its Midwest operations. Pressed for details during an earnings conference call, A&P execs declined to reveal the specifics.

"Although we remained unprofitable overall, we maintained market share in a difficult sales environment," Christian Haub, A&P's chairman/CEO told analysts. "We achieved our second consecutive year-over-year increase in operating results. Our Canadian operations produced another profitable performance, with strong results from our fresh-food marketing initiatives, and an improving trend in our Food Basics discount operations."

Besides A&P and Food Basics, the company operates a total of 650 grocery stores under the Waldbaum's, Food Emporium, Super Foodmart, Super Fresh, Farmer Jack, Sav-A-Center, Dominion, Barn Markets and Ultra Food & Drug brands.

The results come on the heels of a major reorganization announced by company officials in early December, changes which involve the company's administrative, support services and operating staff in its US division. According to industry sources, eventual job cuts from the process will be "in the hundreds," although company officials declined to reveal the exact number or whether any positions have been eliminated yet.

Haub did confirm that "we have initiated significant organizational changes. This will strengthen central management control, substantially reduce costs and drive the implementation of our Fresh and Discount retail strategies."

"A major portion of the changes have already been made," Mitchell Goldstein, the company's CFO, told analysts during Friday's conference call. "And there are a few more changes that will be coming during the next year."

Goldstein estimated that the reorganization will cost the company $10 million, noting that the Q3 results included a charge of $4 million related to the changes. Goldstein also told analysts that he expects the result to be a $50 million reduction in overhead in FY 2005, followed by another $25 million reduction in FY 2006.

The Germany-based retail company Tengelmann, which Haub's family runs, currently owns a majority of A&P's stock, which prompted one analyst to ask whether there was any thought of taking the company private. Haub responded, "it's always been an option. It's something we can pursue or not pursue. But is that really going to help the company achieve its objective of making money?"

As far as the future, "our near-term outlook remains conservative as we expect no major upturn in consumer confidence in the US, and therefore no easing of competitive pressures," Haub told analysts. "We will continue to manage costs, investment and liquidity closely, maintain our growth course in Canada and implement our US retail strategies."