'The ongoing exchange of best
practices brings positive results'
r -wit***;
Giant-Landover
Rochester. In the course of the year, Tops
divested several non-core business ven
tures including 12 Vix Deep Discount
Drug Stores.
Ahold USA Support Services
Ahold USA developed and sustained
various initiatives to extract further
benefits from economies of scale and
drive down costs. Through benchmarking,
synergy programs, cooperation in private
label procurement and development, best
practice exchanges and other cost-saving
efforts, the competitiveness of all opera
tions was significantly enhanced. The
synergy groups, chaired by one of the
CEOs, addressed key business issues
ranging from technology to trade rela
tions and from category management to
private label development and distribu
tion. In addition, horizontal transfer of
know-how among sister companies is
being accelerated by a worldwide
knowledge exchange initiative known
as Ahold Networking (see the Associates
section elsewhere in this report).
A good example of centralizing efforts is
the recent consolidation of accounting
functions in the Ahold Financial Services
Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. These
financial services were previously done
separately by each operating company.
Other centralized initiatives include
human resources for recruitment and
development of top management, and
domestic and international assignments.
Ahold Information Services (AIS) facili
tates and coordinates the IT operations
of US sister companies from its data
center in Greenville, South Carolina
and satellite locations in Braintree,
Massachusetts and Landover, Maryland.
The systems provide instant exchange of
information for comparison and for use
in daily operations. The American Sales
Company (ASC) provides centralized
purchasing and distribution services in
general merchandise and health and
beauty care items for all US operating
companies from locations in Lancaster,
New York and North Haven, Connecticut.
The benefits are considerable.
Lifestyle, the quarterly magazine for local
customers at each operating company,
continued to be published jointly, providing
recipes, price-off coupons and other
information. Customer interest remained
high and operating companies decided
to increase circulation and step up publi
cation. The Ahold USA Real Estate
department continued to assist operating
companies in selected projects.
Giant-Carlisle
Royal Ahold Annual Report 1999 21
