Merging cells with formatted data in Excel

Hello,

I have a spreadsheet where I need to merge the data from 4 separate cells in the same row into one cell. The problem I am having is that Excel will not merge the numbers as they are formatted. Here is an example:

A2 - 1996
B2 - 04
C2 - 01
D2 - 796

The cells in column D are set to Custom - which is 0000
So the data in D2 looks like 0796.

However, when I try to merge this data together where I need it to look like 199604010796, instead it looks like 19960401796 - missing the 0 in front of the 796 that was formatted in.

I use the formula =A2&""&B2&""&C2&""&D2

Is there a way to have the data merged where the final result includes the formatted data in column D using 4 digits, rather than the 3 it is originally input?

Thank you for your help!

Eric