4-WALL DIFFERENTIATION
Assortment
Private Brand
Although Delhaize Group oper
ates as an international food
retailer, the company believes
that the importance of a strong
local identity cannot be overesti
mated. This belief comes to life
within each operating company
as it tailors its local assortment
as well as price and promotion
strategy to the needs and tastes
of the local customers. The suc
cess of this local approach of
Delhaize Group can easily be
measured when looking at its
performance in Greece.
Although fully owned by Del
haize Group, Alfa Beta remains
first and foremost a Greek
retailer. Alfa Beta perfectly
understands what its custom
ers desire, especially during
difficult economic times, like
the ones currently experienced
in Greece, when shoppers are
looking for ways to control their
budgets. In addition to a wide
range of affordable products,
the assortment in our Alfa Beta
stores offers a great number of
local products as well, giving
not only to customers the best of
what they need but also offer
ing opportunities to local sup
pliers. In the United States, DG's
Hannaford banner uses the
same approach with its "Close
to Home" campaign. The cam
paign is well received by cus
tomers and continues to gain
traction.
In addition to using local man
agement to understand the
local customer and offer the
right assortment, several oper
ating companies within the
Group also devote significant
attention to data analysis.
These data come, where avail
able, from loyalty programs and
give banners the possibility to
identify the shopping behav
iors of their customers. With
this information DG operating
companies, like both Food Lion
and Delhaize Belgium, can per
sonalize promotional offerings
and optimize the individual cus
tomer's shopping experience.
Within the assort
ments, one of the strong
est differentiators are the
Delhaize Group Private Brands.
They give the Group the oppor
tunity to offer tailor-made solu
tions to different customer seg
ments, balancing both quality
and price. In Belgium top chefs
recognize the quality of many
of the private brand items,
including 365. This feedback
should come as no surprise
since Delhaize Group does not
compromise on product qual
ity, even in the value range 365
product line. And being able to
offer these quality products at
affordable prices demonstrates
a deep knowledge of the entire
production cycle reflecting the
expertise within the Delhaize
Group that makes a difference.
In addition to the 365 value line
in Europe and MyEssentials in
the U.S., the DG private brand
assortment includes a house
brand at most of our banners,
the Taste of Inspirations gour
met brand, and some cate
gory-specific brands that tar
get specific assortments, such
as Care (health beauty), Bio
(organic), Kids (children), and
Baby (infants).
Every year DG operating com
panies develop new products
to better meet the needs and
satisfy the demands of our cus
tomers. For example, at Del
haize Belgium, 11 new vegetar
ian products were launched in
the Bio assortment in 2012. In
the U.S., Hannaford became the
first grocery chain in the coun
try to document that all 2,500
private brand seafood prod
ucts - no matter where they are
located in the store - have been
sustainably harvested. The
company can trace every sea
food product back to its source
fishery and provide that infor
mation to customers when they
request it.
