'Our planned acquisition of U.S.
Foodservice marks a significant
strategic step forward'
Michael Meurs
Executive Vice-President
and CFO.
Joined Ahold in 1992.
Board member since 1997.
Administration, finance
tax, internal audit and busi
ness development.
Jan Andreae
Executive Vice-President
European operations.
Joined Ahold in 1980.
Board member since 1997.
Cees van der Hoeven
President CEO.
Joined Ahold in 1985.
Board member since 1985.
Management development
organization, communica
tions, legal affairs, global
sourcing, corporate secretary.
Bob Tobin
Executive Vice-President and
President CEO Ahold USA.
Joined Stop Shop in 1960.
Ahold Board member since
1998. U.S. operations.
Allan Noddle
Executive Vice-President
Latin America and Asia.
Joined Giant-Carlisle in
1980. Ahold Board member
since 1998. Latin America
and Asia operations.
areas continues in various ways. This is
best demonstrated by our intention to
acquire U.S. Foodservice, announced in
early March 2000. U.S. Foodservice, with
annual sales of USD 7.0 billion, is a very
significant strategic step forward in the
US. It elevates us to the position of
national food provider in the United States
with distribution, sales offices and market
ing operations, including e-commerce and
internet shopping, across the country. It
provides us with an additional platform for
significant growth. With our economies of
scale, synergy benefits and expertise, we
can jointly build U.S. Foodservice into a
powerful and much larger operation. In
this way, we benefit from the food service
industry consolidation, which has only just
begun, leaving room for further improve
ments in performance. This acquisition
makes Ahold USA a true multi-channel
food company with a national presence.
We will be generating approximately USD
28 billion in annual sales, servicing an
average of 15-20 million loyal US cus
tomers every week through close to
1,100 stores, a nationwide food service
operation and the internet.
In Europe, we are also moving into top
gear. We strengthened our operations in
The Netherlands, where Albert Fleijn and
Schuitema boosted sales and results and
Deli XL reinforced its position in the
Dutch food service sector. We further
developed our position in Portugal and
Spain, and engineered a successful
turnaround in the Czech Republic and
Poland. In December 1999 we also
announced our intention to join forces
with the ICA Group, Scandinavia's num
ber one food retailer. ICA has sales of
Euro 6.7 billion and, jointly we are set to
grow in Sweden and Norway and in other
high potential growth markets in northern
Europe.
For Ahold, significant future growth in
Europe will come through the ICA joint
venture, sustained organic growth,
ongoing innovation in The Netherlands, a
wave of new acquisitions in Spain, grow
ing synergy between our central European
operations, and our intention to expand
the Portuguese joint venture with
Jerónimo Martins in Portugal and into
Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and
southern Brazil. Combined, we expect to
generate annual sales of approximately
Euro 20 billion in Europe.
The possibility of a major alliance with a
sizeable European company is still very
much alive. While we believe Ahold is in
an excellent position to make such a
move, we are also poised to become one
of Europe's strongest players through
organic growth and other mid-sized
acquisitions and joint ventures.
In Latin America, we have teamed up with
strong joint venture partners in nine
countries and are rapidly developing a
firm foothold on this continent, which
has impressive growth potential. We
strengthened our network and offer cus
tomers the products and services they
require through state-of-the-art super-
Royal Ahold Annual Report 1999 11
