Message from Dick Boer, Ahold CEO (continued)
Ahold Annual Report 2012 10
Ahold at a glance
Our strategy
Our performance
Governance
Financials
Investors
Our promises to get better every day describe specifically how we
want to be a better place to shop, a better place to work, and a better
neighbor. By articulating them so clearly, we want to make transparent
what we stand for - both within our company, but also outside of it.
We're confident this transparency will help us be a better retailer
for years to come. You can read more about our promises in the
Our strategy section of this report.
Our commitment to being a responsible retailer runs through all three
of our promises, because without it we cannot achieve our ambition to
get better every day. In 2012, we made considerable progress on our
responsible retailing targets in our five priority areas of making healthy
living choices easy, contributing to community well-being, sourcing
responsible products, caring for the environment and our people.
You can read more about our achievements in our 2012 Responsible
Retailing Report.
Our people make the difference
Retailing is fundamentally about people. Our success over the past
125 years is a tribute to our employees, and their passion for the
business. We believe that we can only meet our customers'
expectations and be good neighbors if our employees feel
appreciated and fulfilled in their jobs.
We have incredible employees in all our businesses who are deeply
committed to serving our customers and our communities. They
drive our local charitable efforts and they create strong and lasting
relationships with our customers. When Hurricane Sandy struck
several of our markets in 2012, our U.S. colleagues showed the
lengths they will go to for our customers, when, even in the face of
their own personal challenges, they worked hard to keep our stores
open and operating.
We're committed to providing employees with good working
conditions, competitive wages and benefits, fair treatment and respect,
and opportunities for professional growth. We work to foster a positive
work environment and an engaged team of employees whose ideas,
knowledge and skills are valued and respected.
In the past several years, we've been strengthening our leadership
across all our businesses, to ensure we have the capabilities we need
to carry out our reshaping retail strategy. We have a leadership culture
based on trust, transparency, openness and diverse viewpoints and
experiences - and we have a team of leaders whose skills complement
each other well.
We made some key leadership changes in 2012. We announced that
Carl Schlicker would be retiring as of February 2013, after 25 years
with Ahold. I would like to thank Carl for the tremendous contribution
he has made to our company, particularly in positioning our U.S.
businesses for the future. We were very pleased to find Carl's
replacement within the Ahold family. James McCann, formerly
Chief Commercial Development Officer, has taken over as head
of our U.S. businesses, bringing years of international retail experience
to this role.
Our thanks
None of this would be possible without the efforts of employees across
our stores, offices and distribution centers. We have some of the most
hard working, dedicated, customer-focused people in the business,
and I want to thank them for all they do each day to make the
shopping experience special for our customers. I would also like to
thank our customers for their loyalty to our brands - and you, our
shareholders, for your confidence and support over the past year.
Sincerely,
Dick Boer
Chief Executive Officer
February 27, 2013
We also made changes to the structure of our European leadership
team, to put the Albert Heijn business in a more central position for the
future growth of Ahold in Europe. These changes included appointing
Sander van der Laan as CEO of Albert Heijn, in addition to his role as
COO Ahold Europe.
The year ahead
We remain cautious in our outlook but are committed to deliver
on our Reshaping Retail strategy. We will keep working to simplify
our business to reduce costs so that we can invest in our offering
and further improve the value we provide to our customers.
We will continue to focus on keeping our day-to-day business
strong by living up to our promises, and on building our
competitiveness for the future by delivering on our six
strategic pillars.
