Six pillars
that help
us achieve
our growth
ambitions
o.
BsimEiHHta
Our strategic pillars
Increasing
customer loyalty
Broadening
our offering
21
Expanding our
geographic reach
Ahold at a glance
Business review
Governance
Our six strategic pillars outline how we aim to
accelerate the growth of our company. While our
promises stand for the continuous improvements we
are making in our businesses each day, the pillars
are designed to drive and enable step-change
innovations and, where possible, to leverage the
scale of the Group. They will also ensure we stay
ahead of customer behavior and retail trends.
In today's world, consumers have more choice
than ever before. They also have growing
expectations of retailers. To gain their loyalty,
we have to understand them better than anyone
else so that we can offer them the products and
services they want, the quality and value they
expect, and a shopping experience that makes
their daily lives a little easier.
We are working to build more personal
relationships with our customers so that they will
want to keep coming back to shop with us.
Our associates are key to this - the friendly and
helpful service they provide builds our customers'
loyalty and trust. We are also using our insights
and innovative technologies to develop
personalized communications and offers to
customers on the products and services they
need and want.
Our ambition
a Add 1-2% to sales growth through
our customer initiatives.
Our progress
We remain pleased with the progress of
our company-wide initiatives. Both in the
U.S. and the Netherlands, our loyalty card
programs are showing satisfactory impact in
terms of incremental sales.
Ahold
Annual Report 2014
We are broadening our offering by growing
our online businesses, developing our store
formats and improving our assortment - to give
our customers shopping alternatives that meet
their changing needs.
We are accelerating the growth of our
online businesses so our customers can shop
when, where and how they want - either in
our stores or online, for delivery or pickup.
We are building an even better, more relevant
assortment, with a broader range of products
and services, including new and innovative
own-brand products and a growing assortment
of non-food products. We continue to
strengthen our successful supermarket formats,
while developing additional formats to better
serve our customers' needs.
Our ambition
a Increase our online consumer sales
to €2.5 billion by the end of 2017
and drive profitability.
a Increase own-brand penetration
to approximately 40% in our U.S.
businesses by the end of 2016.
a Open a minimum of 150 convenience
stores in Europe by the end of 2016.
Our progress
Our online consumer sales in 2014 were
€1.4 billion. Own-brand penetration in the
U.S. grew by 0.5% to 376%. Moreover, we
are pleased with the performance of our new
Albert Heijn to go format, showing double-digit
sales growth.
Acquiring stores in our current markets enables
us to make the most of our existing operations
and better leverage our scale. We are also
looking for opportunities to move into markets
that are adjacent to where we operate, so
we can apply our skills and build our scale
even further.
Our ambition
a Continue to focus on current and
surrounding markets and evaluate
new geographies.
a Open 50 supermarkets in Belgium
by the end of 2016.
Our progress
In 2014, we completed the acquisition of
49 SPAR stores in the Czech Republic, which
we are now in the progress of integrating into
our existing Albert business. We remain on
track to achieving our ambitions in Belgium.
In 2014, we opened nine new stores, now
operating 28 stores in this market.
