FOCUS
"Bottom Dollar Food is price with energy! Our
customers can find unbelievably low prices on
their core weekly grocery needs in a clean, bright,
friendly, lighthearted environment."
16 DELHAIZE GROUP ANNUAL REPORT '11
V Meg Ham,
President of Bottom
Dollar Food
What are the advantages of being smaller,
both in assortment and store size?
MH: The Bottom Dollar Food operating model is
based on the premise of delivering unbelievably
low prices to our customers. In order to deliver
unbelievable prices, we need to be fanatical
about lowering costs. In our case, lower oper
ating costs result from the smaller size of the
store and the corresponding lower operating
expenses such as depreciation, utilities and
rent. We also design our stores to be extremely
efficient from a labor perspective. For this for
mat, smaller is better in terms of efficiency and
presentation of the assortment and concept.
Why Philadelphia and Pittsburgh? Why not
in your historic areas of concentration in
the Northeastern and Southeastern United
States?
MH: We began Bottom Dollar Food in North
Carolina in 2005. We initially converted 28 Food
Lion stores to Bottom Dollar Food stores, and
continued to refine our model. We have found
that smaller size formats present our banner
most appropriately. What makes Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh so attractive is the fact that the
smaller store fits into in more densely populated
urban areas. These areas are also within the
reach of our current supply chain and represent
organic growth for Delhaize America.
Delhaize has announced its intention to
open a couple of hundred Bottom Dollar
Food stores. Is there room for them and
where do you go after Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh?
MH: As I said at the outset, the growth profile of
the discount segment is higher than traditional
supermarkets. We believe consumers will con
tinue to focus on good products at great prices.
So yes, I think there will be room or demand for
our concept. In terms of where we go next, we
would seek to find other urban areas with similar
demographics to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh and
within the regional scope of our existing supply
chain network, but for now we have plenty of
work to do in those areas to increase our brand
awareness and fully realize the potential of
those two markets.
