Message from Dick Boer, Ahold CEO (continued)
7
Ahold at a glance
Our strategy
Our performance
Governan
Financials
Investors
Ahold Annual Report 2013
In the end, I believe it is all about connecting with
customers. We need to keep building deeper
relationships with them so that we know what they
want and can keep reinventing our offering to fit
their needs for years to come.
Transforming the shopping journey
Building an omni-channel shopping experience
is one way we are transforming to meet our
customers' needs. Today, our customers can
already buy whatever they want from us, whenever
they want it - either in our stores, for home delivery
or for pickup from convenient locations. Our omni-
channel strategy is seamlessly interweaving the
online and offline experience - and it is paying off.
This is where our relevance lies - and is what our
customers are telling us they want.
We continue to rapidly develop our online business,
and we see strong prospects for future growth in
our online markets in both Europe and the United
States. We have to keep up with the competition,
and with the customer herself, who is adopting new
shopping behaviors at astounding speeds. We've
operated online businesses - trusted brands like
Peapod, albert.nl1 and bol.com - for more than a
decade and we believe we have the infrastructure,
knowledge, expertise and capital to be successful
in the online space. We continue to innovate and
expand our online assortment and accelerated our
rollout of pick-up points in 2013 to give customers
another convenient way to collect their orders.
Our bol.com non-food online business delivered
the strongest growth year in its history. We opened
a digital innovation center in the U.S. to help
us continue to attract key online talent into our
company and keep making strides in this area.
Being a responsible retailer
As a major retailer we have a responsibility not
only to our customers but to all of those whose
lives are impacted by our business. Our stores play
a key role in the communities they serve, and our
relationships with suppliers - some of which span
many decades - have an even wider economic and
social impact. Our customers are concerned about
quality of life issues - eating more healthily but
also creating enjoyable experiences around food.
They are aware of the social and environmental
issues relating to global supply chains and they
want to be able to purchase products that are
produced in a responsible way. So I'm also proud
of the work we've done to become an even more
responsible retailer.
One of the areas we are most committed to is
supporting the well-being of children in our markets
- since children are our future. Our Albert business
is the first retailer in the Czech Republic to offer
a range of healthy own-brand products for kids.
Our U.S. divisions won a national Neighborhood
Health Improvement award from the Food
Marketing Institute in 2013 for hosting free Healthy
Kids Summits to educate children about leading a
healthy lifestyle. We are also working with partners
like the Consumer Goods Forum to ensure that
the products we sell are produced in a responsible
way, and critical commodities are sourced more
sustainably. And we are reducing the impact of
our operations on the environment, for instance
by installing LED lighting at almost all of our Dutch
distribution centers, to save millions of kilowatt hours
of electricity each year.
Bringing our leadership closer
to the business
In September, we put in place a new Executive
Committee leadership structure to make sure we
are closer to the business and to ensure that our
continental and functional leaders are represented
at the highest level. For the first time, our senior
leadership team includes our Chief Human
Resources Officer, because we recognize how
important our people are to the business. We are
pleased that Abbe Luersman has joined us in this
position, and also to welcome Hanneke Faber
as our new Chief Commercial Officer to lead
our global online and customer loyalty initiatives.
All of these changes will help us be a more
aligned organization and get the most out of our
scale and expertise as we roll out our Reshaping
Retail strategy.
In early 2014, we also announced organizational
changes in our European business and the decision
to dismantle Ahold Europe as a business division.
We are refocusing our operations and leadership in
Europe on building the Albert Heijn business in the
Netherlands and adjacent markets, as well as our
growing omni-channel offering. This will mean that
we are in an even better position to meet customer
needs and accelerate our growth.
We have had a number of important changes to
our Supervisory Board during 2013. René Dahan
stepped down as Chairman after nearly a decade
of service to our company. We thank him for
his leadership and good counsel - without him,
we would not be where we are today. We are
very pleased to have Jan Hommen return to the
Supervisory Board to succeed René. We would
also like to thank our former Vice Chairman
Tom de Swaan, who left the Board in September,
for his dedication and service to the company.
Outlook for the year ahead
While we expect economic conditions to gradually
improve, we remain cautious in our outlook for
2014. We will continue to focus on expanding our
online businesses, which we expect will show further
strong sales growth, and to look for ways to simplify
our business and reduce costs so that we can invest
in our value proposition and offer customers a
better shopping experience every day.
Our thanks
Along with my colleagues on the Management
Board and the Executive Committee, I am extremely
proud to be leading our company during such
an exciting time. Together with our over 220,000
associates around the world, we are reshaping
retail and bringing our pillars and promises to life.
We believe we have the right strategy to help us
meet the challenges that face us.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank and
commend our people for remaining passionate
about serving our customers and our communities
over the past year, and for pushing so hard to
make us better every day. I also want to thank all
our customers for shopping with us - you are why
we come to work every day and love what we do.
And finally, I am grateful to our shareholders for
your support over the past year - we are committed
to continue creating great value not only for our
customers but for you, the owners of our company.
Dick Boer
Chief Executive Officer
February 26, 2014
1 As of January 1, 2014, the albert.nl brand is part of Albert Heijn's online offering at www.ah.nl
