and serving
customers through
our market-leading
brands.
@tos
Where and how we operate
The Netherlands
albert.
bot.com®
1,996 stores
93,000 employees
€11,054 million net sales
43.0
We operate strong local brands in Europe and the United States
that are well-known and popular with customers - and many of
which are leaders in their markets.
Gall Golf
Ahold Annual Report 2012 4
Ahold at a glance
Our strategy
Our performance
Governance
Financials
Investors
Europe
In Europe we serve a trading area of more than 40 million people in
five countries, with the greater part of our business in the Netherlands
and the Czech Republic. The food sector in the Netherlands showed
limited growth in 2012, but also significant consolidation in the
supermarket industry. Despite strong competition, Albert Heijn
continued to gain market share in 20121. In the Czech Republic the
food market is divided into several different channels: small traditional
trade stores and hypermarkets, which are declining; and discount,
compact hypermarkets and supermarkets, all of which are growing.
We operate supermarkets and compact hypers in the Czech Republic.
The competitive environment in the country remained intense in 2012.
Our Czech business succeeded in maintaining a share comparable to
last year in this competitive market1
United States
In the United States, we serve a trading area of 38 million people.
Though the grocery channel still represents nearly two-thirds of the
food market in the United States, food is being sold in an increasing
range of retail formats as more and more U.S. retailers use it to drive
traffic. For this reason, we measure our businesses in the United States
against the performance of not only the supermarket channel but the
all-outlets channel, which includes other retailers who also sell food.
Our U.S. businesses were able to gain market share - both in the
supermarket channel but also in the all-outlets channel - over the
past year, despite tough competition2.
For more information on
The Netherlands' performance CB
see page 40
The Belgium Germany
Netherlands
Our brands
Our online brands
Key facts:
Contribution
to underlying
operating incom
Contribution
to net sales
1 Based on Nielsen Scanning data
2 Based on Nielsen ScanTrack
