By Chelsey Dulaney

Supervalu Inc. on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected sales and profit for its latest quarter, sending shares of the company to their lowest level in more than a year.

Shares of Supervalu fell as much as 8% in early trading to $6.63 a share, their lowest point since April 2014. Recently, shares were down 7% at $6.71 a share.

Supervalu owns supermarket chains including Cub, Fresh Farm and Shop n' Save. Like many of its peers, Supervalu has struggled to distinguish itself in the highly competitive supermarket industry.

Supervalu has been left in an unappealing middle ground as low-price, no-frills chains have attracted cost-conscious customers and specialty chains led by Whole Foods Market Inc. have lured wealthier shoppers.

In July, Supervalu said it was considering spinning off Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery chain that has been a rare bright spot for the company.

For the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 12, Supervalu's same-store sales were down 3.3% amid a 1.6% drop at Save-A-Lot stores.

In all, Supervalu said earnings were flat at $31 million, or 11 cents a share.

Excluding severance costs and expenses related to the potential Save-A-Lot spinoff, per-share earnings were 13 cents.

Revenue ticked up slightly to $4.06 billion from $4.04 billion a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast 14 cents a share in earnings on $4.12 billion in revenue.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 21, 2015 10:34 ET (14:34 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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