During the same quarter last year, profit was SEK 1,059 million.
Analysts had on average expected an operating profit of just under SEK 1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Net sales rose 1.9 percent to SEK 22.7 billion.
"Axfood continued to grow and improve its results and has now turned City Gross from a loss to a profit," CEO Simone Margulies writes in the quarterly report.