* To focus on discounting, promotions
* Says "very competitive" Dutch market to continue
* To refurbish 60 stores in 2009
* Does not anticipate a "price war"
(Adds CEO comment, analysts, shares)
By Aaron Gray-Block
AMSTERDAM, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Dutch supermarkets group Super de Boer said on Tuesday it will focus on discounting, store refurbishments and promotion this year after sales growth slowed in the fourth quarter due to the economic downturn.
"The Netherlands is a very competitive playing field and, due to the economic development, this environment will definitely not ease up," Chief Executive Jan Brouwer told Reuters.
Super de Boer saw its identical sales growth slow to 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter compared with 4.0 percent in the year-earlier period as it reported unchanged sales of 638 million euros ($848 million).
In a lower Amsterdam market, Super de Boer shares were down 3.2 percent at 2.67 euros at 1550 GMT.
"I think they're doing the right things. It's not a very spicy story, but they definitely have a plan and are performing it well," Theodoor Gilissen analyst Jan Meijer said.
Super de Boer, formerly called Laurus, and the Netherlands' second-biggest food retailer by sales after Ahold, completed a key restructuring in 2007 by selling lossmaking stores and streamlining distribution and logistics facilities.
It returned to profitability in 2007 after a 45 million euro loss in 2006, but CEO Brouwer declined to give a forecast for sales growth in 2009, blaming the slowdown in growth at the end of the year on the economic slowdown.
Brouwer said Super de Boer, in which French peer Casino owns a 57 percent stake, will refurbish 60 stores in 2009 and place a greater emphasis on private label products.
"We also have to lower our prices further. What we see now in the Netherlands is a strengthening of the position of discounters, but we don't predict a price war," he said.
Analysts at Rabo Securities do not expect a price war either, but still expect supermarkets to aggressively compete for market share and in a recent research note they pointed to a newspaper advertisement from Ahold in December that compared its prices with rivals such as Super de Boer.
However, with a market share of 33 percent, Rabo analysts said Ahold's Dutch supermarket chain, Albert Heijn, dictates the market and that other smaller, full service chains, such as Schuitema, Sperwer and Super de Boer are price followers.
Super de Boer now has a market share of 6.8 percent compared with 7.3 percent at the end of 2007 as it sold off on average 30 stores last year.
Due to Super de Boer's smaller market share, analysts have also said the company is a likely player if consolidation starts in the Dutch supermarket sector, with Schuitema suggested as a logical partner, but CEO Brouwer declined to comment.
"Market share is not our first priority. Our first priority is to strengthen our format and to improve profit and as far as that is concerned we are on the way up," he said. ($1=.7520 Euro) (Editing by Simon Jessop)