00 Ahold ANNUAL REPORT 2002 69
BOARD GOVERNANCE HIGHLIGHTS OPERATING REVIEW FINANCIAL INVESTOR REL AT IONS
In August 2001, ICA entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Dansk Supermarked to develop and operate discount stores
and hypermarkets in Sweden and Norway. Dansk Supermarked is the operator of several store formats in Denmark, Germany,
Poland and the United Kingdom. The joint venture is currently operating approximately 25 discount stores in the southwest
of Sweden, with the intention to expand into the Stockholm area.
ICA has a non-consolidated 50/50 joint venture with Statoil called Statoil Detaljhandel Scandinavia AB ("Statoil Retail").
As of the end of fiscal 2002, Statoil Retail operated and serviced approximately 1,300 Statoil gas stations and
convenience stores in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
In February 2002, ICA, together with our Dutch health and beauty care store chain Etos, opened two pilot stores selling
health and beauty care products in Stockholm. Another four pilot stores opened in the first half of 2003. ICA and Etos
plan to open additional stores and in the future may establish a chain of health and beauty stores in Sweden.
In the spring of 2003, all of the RIMI stores in Sweden were re-branded as ICA stores.
In March 2001, the ICA Group acquired an additional 0.1% of ICA Denmark A/S ("ICA Denmark"), bringing the ICA Group's
total ownership in ICA Denmark to 50.1%. As of the end of fiscal 2002, ICA Denmark owned 12 supermarkets.
In addition, the ICA Group owns 76 stores in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, along with Ekovalda, a supermarket
company in Lithuania operating 35 supermarkets.
In September 2003, ICA announced that it was adopting a clearer market stance by introducing a cohesive name structure.
In July 2003, ICA changed its name from ICA Ahold AB to ICA AB. Subsequently, the Norwegian company Hakon Gruppen
changed its name to ICA Norge. The Swedish company, ICA Handlarnas will change its name to ICA Sverige AB.
In 2002, ICA established ICA Banken A.B., a limited financial service provider, which was operational in 2002.
In 1992, we became a 49% partner with Jerónimo Martins SGPS, S.A. ("JMR") in Portugal. JMR owns both Pingo Doce,
a major supermarket chain, and the Feira Nova hypermarket chain.
As of the end of fiscal 2002, Pingo Doce operated 175 supermarkets and Feira Nova 23 hypermarkets in urban locations
in Portugal. The supermarket chain Pingo Doce is more active in the urban area, whereas the hypermarket operation is more
active in the rural areas of Portugal.
In mid-fiscal 2002, JMR started the process of strategically repositioning Pingo Doce to make the brand more price
aggressive to compete in a more effective way with the increasing number of discounters. Pingo Doce is now a fully
centralized organization. The traditional decentralized hypermarket organization of Feira Nova is now also in the process
of transitioning into a centralized organization. These transitions will allow JMR to operate in the most cost effective way.
CARHCO
In December 1999, we established Paiz Ahold, a 50/50 partnership with a company controlled by the Paiz family. Paiz
Ahold controlled an 80.5% stake in La Fragua S.A. ("La Fragua"), a supermarket and hypermarket company in Guatemala,
with a presence in El Salvador and Honduras.
