Welcome to the annual stockholder meeting for Albertsons Companies Inc. Our host for today's meeting is Susan Morris, Chief Executive Officer of Albertsons Companies. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host. Ms. Morris, you may begin.
Thank you. Welcome fellow stockholders. I'm Susan Morris, Chief Executive Officer of Albertsons Companies Inc. On behalf of everyone at Albertsons, it's my pleasure to welcome you to our 2026 annual meeting of stockholders. This meeting is being webcast live and a recording of the webcast will be posted on our website for a period of time after the meeting. Before proceeding to the business of the meeting, I would like to welcome our directors and members of our senior leadership team in attendance. Also attending the meeting are representatives from our independent registered public accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche. They will be available to answer any pertinent questions later in the meeting. I will preside over the annual meeting, and Tom Moriarty, our Executive Vice President of M&A and Corporate Affairs, will serve as the secretary.
Following the conclusion of the annual meeting, I will provide a general business update. I hereby call the meeting to order. Tom will now conduct the formal portion of the meeting.
Thank you, Susan. Welcome everyone. We have posted the agenda and the rules of conduct for the meeting on the online meeting platform. In order to allow for an orderly meeting, we ask that you abide by these rules. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device. The company has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions as the inspector of election. Ms. Beth Van Der Beek from Broadridge is with us today, and she has taken the oath of the inspector of election. The board fixed June 9th, 2026, as the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting. We have an affidavit from Broadridge certifying that stockholders of record as of June 9th, 2026, were mailed proxy materials on or about June 22nd, 2026.
Our inspector of election has advised me that we have a quorum. Accordingly, the meeting is duly constituted and may proceed with business. The polls are now open for voting. They will close after the presentation of the proposals and the conclusion of the Q&A session. The main business of the meeting is to address the six proposals set forth in the proxy statement. I will present each proposal contained in the proxy statement and the board's recommendation regarding each proposal. Following the presentation of all six proposals, we will answer questions submitted by stockholders pertinent to the proposals in accordance with the rules of conduct. We have allocated 15 minutes for stockholder questions. In case we are unable to answer all questions duly submitted due to time constraints, we will post our responses on the investor relations section of our website as soon as practicable.
The first proposal is the election of 10 directors. Information about each director nominee can be found in our proxy statement. The board has recommended that you vote for each of the 10 director nominees. The second proposal is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP, as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2026 fiscal year. Information about this proposal is contained in the proxy statement. The board has recommended that you vote for this proposal. The third proposal is a non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation paid to our named executive officers during the 2025 fiscal year. The vote on this proposal is advisory. The board will consider the results in evaluating our executive compensation program. The board has recommended that you vote for this proposal.
The fourth proposal is the approval of amendments to the company's certificate of incorporation to eliminate certain supermajority voting requirements. Information about this proposal is included in the proxy statement. The board has recommended that you vote for this proposal. The fifth proposal is to limit certain liability of officers as permitted by Delaware law. Information about this proposal is included in the proxy statement. The board has recommended that you vote for this proposal. We will proceed with the stockholder proposal. This year, one stockholder proposal was included in our proxy statement. We have carefully reviewed the proposal and shared our statement in response in the proxy statement. Proposal number six was submitted by Oxfam. Presenting on behalf of the proponent is Gina Cummings.
Good morning. My name is Gina Cummings, Vice President of Policy and Program at Oxfam America. I'm here to make the case for proposal number six. I will highlight how, one, Albertsons faces significant human rights abuses, which are creating serious financial risk. Two, Albertsons is significantly performing worse than its peers in how it is addressing human rights risk. Three, how ineffective Albertsons' approach is. One, what are the abuses and risks to Albertsons? Albertsons stands out for grossly high level of abuses in its own operations and supply chain, which in turn increase risk of serious financial harm to Albertsons.
This is not hypothetical, with clear harms to the company already borne out, including OSHA fines over high rates of workplace injuries at Albertsons-owned stores, votes to strike by Albertsons workers in California over the company's alleged labor abuses, New York Times investigations into illegal child labor at Albertsons milk suppliers, and suppliers suddenly dropped following New Yorker's coverage of forced labor in Albertsons seafood supply chains. Two, how is Albertsons performing worse than its peers? Here I quote the investor group, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Start quote, "Albertsons is the poorest performing supermarket of those we surveyed, and has not made any commitments to address its own human rights impacts. It has not published a human rights policy, outlined an HREDD process, or committed to conduct HRIAs in high-risk sectors." End quote. Competitors, including Costco, Kroger, Target, Ahold, and others, already have comprehensive human rights policies.
All we are asking is that Albertsons reaches these same baseline expectations. Three, why isn't Albertsons approach fit for purpose? Though Albertsons claims to have policies in place, it has not published a human rights policy, nor has it clarified whether or how the company conducts human rights due diligence, a key risk management process to avoid costly human rights scandals. What Albertsons currently publishes includes significant shortcomings that fall short of investor expectations. It relies on vendor self-verification against its code of conduct for potentially most of its purchases. Social audits are used on its own brand goods but are widely discredited. Albertsons commendably has a more developed policy for seafood, but it has no answer to why it has no comparable policy for other high-risk commodities, despite the growing number of recorded abuses in other sectors.
Thank you, Ms. Cummings. The board recommends a vote against this proposal for reasons explained in our proxy statement. Cody Perdue, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Treasury, and Risk Management, will now read questions received from stockholders on the proposals, and Susan Morris will provide responses. Cody, have we received any questions from any of our stockholders?
Thank you, Tom. We have received no questions on the proposals at this time. General business questions will also be addressed during Susan's business update.
That concludes our Q&A session for the annual meeting portion. In a moment, we will close the polls. Please make any final votes online now in the Vote Here button at the bottom of your screen. We will pause here briefly so that voting can conclude. The polls have now closed. I have received from the Inspector of Election the preliminary voting results. Votes received during the meeting will be tabulated by the Inspector of Election and included in the final tally, which we will report on a Form 8-K within four business days from today. The preliminary results are as follows. Each of the 10 nominees has been elected to the Board of Directors by a majority of the votes cast. The appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2026 has been approved.
The compensation paid to the named executive officers during fiscal 2025 has been approved on an advisory basis. The fourth proposal to amend the company's certificate of incorporation to eliminate certain super majority voting requirements has been approved. The fifth proposal is the approval of an amendment to this company's certificate of incorporation to limit certain liability of officers, as permitted by Delaware law, has been approved. The stockholder proposal on a report on human rights policy and human rights due diligence failed to receive a majority of votes cast and therefore did not pass.
Thank you, Tom. There being no further business to come before the meeting, I hereby adjourn the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will now give an update on the company's business. Before I begin, let me remind you of our safe harbor language that you will have seen before. I would refer you to the risks outlined in our filings with the SEC for further information. In this presentation, I'll provide you with a brief company overview, provide an update on our ambition to be the most loved grocer, leadership and initiatives, and recap our fiscal 2025 results. We have a great story to tell at Albertsons Companies. We're not just one company. We're 22 companies stretching from coast to coast. Seven of our banners are over 100 years old.
Our oldest banner, Shaw's, started before the Civil War, and our newest banner, Pavilions, started in 1985, which doesn't seem like that long ago. We have a new leadership team structure that will accelerate our ambition to be the most loved grocer in every community that we serve. Michelle Larson expanded her role as EVP Chief Merchandising Officer to include digital. She now has oversight of our overall merchandising function, including our own brands portfolio, as well as pharmacy and many of the growth-driving areas of our strategy, including digital experiences, marketing and loyalty, and the Albertsons Media Collective. Evan Rainwater is our Chief Supply Chain Officer and oversees our distribution centers, manufacturing plants, and enterprise-wide procurement. His portfolio also encompasses e-commerce fulfillment and end-to-end quality and service levels from the supply chain. Tom Moriarty continues to oversee the functions of M&A, business development, government relations, sustainability, and legal.
Mike Withers also expanded his responsibilities and now leads operations across a vast network of more than 2,200 stores across 35 states as EVP of Operations. Allison Pinkham joined our leadership team this spring as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, bringing global HR experience to lead our HR teams as well as corporate and external communications, public affairs, and the Albertsons Companies Foundation. Anuj Dhanda continues as the EVP, Chief Technology and Transformation Officer, including our data science team and product management teams. We wish Sharon McCollam, our current President and CFO, all the best in her upcoming retirement, and are grateful for her incredible contributions over the years. Sharon will remain in her role until a successor is named. Thereafter, she'll remain with the company in an advisory capacity until the end of the fiscal year.
Our ambition to become the most loved grocer in every community we serve is our North Star. All of our associates across Albertsons Companies, whether they're serving customers in our stores, fulfilling digital orders, supporting our supply chain, or building the tools that help us operate better every day, this is their focus, this is their goal. Our purpose is how we bring that ambition to life for our customers every day. It's a simple promise, and it's what customers should feel every time they shop with us. We make it easy. That starts with being close to home, whether customers come into one of our stores or shop with us through e-commerce. It means having the products they need in-stock, getting orders right and on time, and helping them move through the store quickly, and making our app simple, useful, and personalized.
Ultimately, we want Albertsons Companies to be the place where customers can get what they need in one trip with clear prices, great variety, and strong value. We make it fresh. This is an area we believe we must lead. Fresh is how we become a destination. When customers know they can count on us for great produce, quality meat and seafood, trusted sanitation and food safety, and that food is merchandised in a way that inspires them, they have a reason to choose us first. From custom cakes to beautiful displays, hot cases, and fresh prepared offerings, this is where we can create real differentiation and give our customers a reason to keep coming back. We make it worth it. Customers are watching every dollar, and we know value matters.
For us, that means delivering the right balance of quality, price, promotions, and choice, including strong value across our own brands portfolio. It also means taking costs out of the business where we can, so we can reinvest in the value customers feel every day. We make it for you. We have a tremendous base of our customer data and insights, and the opportunity ahead of us is to use it in ways that help make shopping feel more personal, more relevant, more helpful. By creating more customized experiences and offers, we can deepen loyalty, strengthen engagement, and take the customer experience to the next level. We operate over 2,200 retail stores, over 1,700 pharmacies, and 405 fuel stations.
We also have 22 distribution centers, 19 food and beverage manufacturing plants, and a $16 billion own brand portfolio with differentiated brands like O Organics, Open Nature, and Signature, just to name a few. We currently have approximately 280,000 employees and serve over 36 million customers per week. We ended FY 2025 with $83.2 billion in sales, $3.9 billion in adjusted EBITDA, and a $2.06 billion adjusted free cash flow. We serve customers across 35 states and already have deep neighborhood connections through our banners, our stores, and through our associates. Our opportunity is to turn those strengths into towering strengths. We're choosing to act now than waiting for the cycle to change. The decisions we're making today are designed to build momentum now, so we're ready to accelerate when conditions improve. The grocery industry is changing.
We're facing one of the most challenging and competitive environments in recent memory. Customers are under pressure. Industry unit growth is slowing, and competition continues to intensify. That said, we're built to win. We're acting from a position of strength. We have national scale, trusted local banners, and strong neighborhood relationships. We're choosing to act rather than waiting for better conditions. We're taking action now to create our own momentum. The goal is simple: strengthen our business today so we're positioned to win tomorrow. The retail landscape keeps evolving, and standing still is not an option. To keep growing, we're moving faster and operating more effectively. We will win by pairing genuine local connections with the advantages of our national scale. That's why we're making two connected changes: a new operating model and an evolved merchandising model. We call it the ACI Edge.
It combines the scale and capabilities of a national retailer with the accountability and local focus that have long distinguished our banners. By consolidating 11 divisions into four regions and centralizing center store merchandising, we can make decisions faster, improve in-stocks, move accountability closer to our stores where fresh service and local execution matter most to our customers. Together, they simplify how we work, improve performance, and bring decision-making closer to our customers. Each region will include multiple markets dedicated to deepening customer connections in the communities that they serve. The new regional structure will include the California region, which is Southern California and Northern California markets; the West region, Mountain West, Portland and Seattle markets; the South region, Southwest, Southern, and United markets; and the East region, Jewel-Osco, Mid-Atlantic, and Shaw's markets.
Regional leadership will simplify decision-making, clarify accountability, and better align resources to support our stores and our customers. Regions will serve as a critical link between enterprise priorities and frontline execution, identifying opportunities, shaping regional focus areas, and ensuring the consistent delivery of company-wide initiatives. The new model will also help us standardize and expand high-impact capabilities and best practices across the entire organization that create incremental capacity, improve productivity, and unlock greater value across the organization. What makes Albertsons Companies different is our ability to combine national scale with a local feel. Our customers should feel like their store belongs in their neighborhood because it does. Moving from 11 divisions to four regions helps us scale where it makes sense while empowering our teams to make localized decisions closer to our customers. Faster decisions matter. Better leverage of our scale matters.
Keeping the right decisions closest to our customer matters most. We can invest where our customers will see it most while benefiting from the efficiencies and buying power that comes from operating as one company. What truly sets us apart isn't just our scale or our local presence. It's the people who turn those advantages into an exceptional customer experience every day. We're creating a company that pairs the strength of a national retailer with the heart and soul of a neighborhood grocer. Consistent progress against a clear plan. Sharper execution, stronger margin, lasting shareholder value. The road ahead is built to compete, to adapt, and to win. Turning to capital allocation, let me reiterate our capital allocation priorities. First, invest in the business to drive growth for our business and value for our customers and shareholders.
Next, maintain and grow our dividend over time, including the announcement of a 13% increase in our dividend rate to $0.68 per share in fiscal 2026. Finally, opportunistically repurchase shares while maintaining a strong balance sheet. In keeping with these priorities, we invested $1.84 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal 2025 to, first, modernize our store fleet, to advance our AI, digital, and technology capabilities, and elevate our supply chain. In the store fleet, we remodeled 94 stores and opened nine new stores. In AI, digital, and technology, we accelerated our investment in our four big bets as we create greater structural cost advantages, deepen customer loyalty, and unlock new profit pools.
Also in fiscal 2025, from a cash return to shareholders perspective, we returned approximately $1.8 billion of capital to shareholders, including $323 million in dividends and nearly $1.5 billion in share repurchases, including the completion of our $750 million accelerated share repurchase program. Finally, our outlook for 2026. As we look to the balance of the year, we're planning prudently around a softer unit environment while continuing to invest in actions that strengthen our competitiveness and our customer value proposition. Our view reflects ongoing pressure on lower-income consumers, softness in the grocery industry unit trends, and the potential for additional affordability pressure from supplier cost increases. Accordingly, our outlook reflects both a more challenging near-term demand environment and increased investments in customer value.
While these actions will pressure near-term earnings, we believe they are strategically necessary to strengthen customer engagement, accelerate unit growth, and improve the long-term trajectory of the business. With these actions, our confidence in the long-term earnings power of the business remains unchanged. Pharmacy trends remain healthy. Digital continues to deliver outsized growth. We are moving with urgency to improve execution across our core grocery operations. As such, our fiscal 2026 outlook is as follows. Identical sales are expected to be in the range of -0.5% to -1.5%, or flat to 1%, excluding the 150 basis point expected full-year headwind from Pharmacy IRA. This assumes a gradual improvement in grocery IDs as our investments in the customer value proposition accelerate, offset by lower pharmacy IDs as we face IRA headwinds.
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $3.55 billion-$3.625 billion as we accelerate investments in our customer value proposition. Adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.75-$1.85 per share, including approximately $600 million of share repurchases during fiscal 2026, consistent with our capital allocation priorities. The effective income tax rate is expected to be in the range of 24%-25%. Capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $1.9 billion-$2 billion. Lastly, before we conclude our call today, I want to take a moment to thank our associates for their commitment to our customers, communities, and each other. You are what makes this company special. Every day, you bring our strategy to life, and we are committed to giving you the tools, support, and clarity you need to succeed.
To all of you on this call, we look forward to updating you on our progress, and we thank you for your support of Albertsons Companies. Thank you for joining us today.
The meeting has now concluded. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.