OUR VALUES
DEVELOPING OUR CORE CAPABILITIES
OUR BUSINESS MODEL
OVERVIEW OF OUR RETAIL STRATEGY
Act customer. Customers are our lifeblood. We make every
day easier for them, bringing innovative and interesting
shopping experiences.
Engaged associates. We value our diversity and are
committed to developing our people and giving them
opportunities to grow (internally, we refer to our employees
as 'associates' reflecting their role as partners in achieving
our objectives and serving our customers).
Integrity always. We act openly and honestly. We say what we
mean and we do what we say.
One team. We are greater than the sum of our parts. We
cooperate to leverage our capabilities, scale, strengths and
knowledge.
Innovative mindset. We constantly challenge ourselves to find
better ways and better results.
Passion for our business. We love being in the food business.
We set high standards and are never satisfied in our search
for excellence.
Applied customer insight. We work to understand consumer
needs better and faster than our competitors.
Superior category management. We strive to be the best at
maximizing sales growth and shelf profitability because we
provide customers with the right balance of value, choice
and quality within any given product category.
Strategic sourcing. We want to enhance our influence over
the value chain as a product moves from producer to
customer.
End-to-end supply chain. We are working to leverage our scale
and to maximize efficiency in the delivery of products from
the time they leave the supplier to the moment they reach
our shelves.
Excellent store operations. We strive to provide an easy,
convenient and appealing shopping experience through
continuous customer focus and best-in-class operational
efficiency.
The strategies of our companies are based on one shared
business model. It is designed to enable our group of
companies to apply relentless efficiency and simplicity to
everything we do. By working as one team we benefit from
group synergies and innovation that serve to further reduce
costs. Improving our efficiencies and lowering our cost base
enable us to invest in providing our customers better value
for money and an easier shopping experience.
The intention is to drive our volume of sales to generate
cash that can be invested in new stores, new services and
innovation. Cash generated can also be used for acquisitions
in both the supermarket and foodservice businesses to build
our position in certain markets. The overall goal is to make
our offering more appealing to customers, improve our
bottom line, and create value for shareholders.
Our value repositioning programs at Albert Heijn and ICA
- and soon to be launched at Stop Shop/Giant-Landover -
are based on this business model and have succeeded in
further enhancing our market share and growth.
Our customers' needs define what we do. We make it easy
for them to make the best choices for themselves and those
they care about.
Our common set of values and core capabilities will help us
act as one company and capitalize on our scale, scope and
expertise. At the same time, our businesses maintain strong
individual identities to best serve customers at a local level.
We are looking for consolidation opportunities in our
operations and are increasingly streamlining processes.
Being highly skilled in category management and
understanding our customers enables us to provide a more
targeted range and assortment of products and services in a
cost-efficient and convenient way.
We have several group-wide initiatives in place, some of
which involve both our retail and U.S. Foodservice
businesses.
Through next generation sourcing we take a more global
approach to sourcing and more closely link it to category
management. We are reinventing the value chain to
eliminate inefficiencies and lower cost of goods. This entails
a detailed, critical look at costs in the chain that runs from
raw materials to the finished products on our store shelves.
Our group-wide initiative in general merchandise is designed
to build our sales through an integrated approach and make
us more competitive in this category.
AHOLD ANNUAL REPORT 2005
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