(251
Our strategic pillars (continued)
Simplicity
Responsible M
Retailing
22
People
perfOrmance
Ahold at a glance
Business review
Governance
We are leveraging our capabilities and
resources as an international company and
working on better processes and systems
across our businesses. The savings we unlock
with Simplicity will be reinvested into our
offering for customers to drive our successful
business model.
Our ambition
a Reduce costs by €350 million in 2015.
Our progress
We set an ambition to deliver €600 million
in Simplicity savings in the period 2012-2014.
We have realized savings of €865 million,
exceeding our target. For 2015, we will
continue to drive improvements and we aim to
deliver a further €350 million in savings to be
reinvested back into the business.
Ahold
Annual Report 2014
We support the health and well-being of
our customers, associates and communities,
source our products responsibly and care
about the environment. Associates - throughout
our businesses - are engaged in putting
responsible retailing into practice, every
day. We have five priority areas under our
responsible retailing pillar: healthy living
choices made easy, contribution to community
well-being, responsibly sourced products, care
for the environment, and our people.
Our ambition
a We have ambitions in five priority
areas: healthy living, community well-
being, responsible products, care for the
environment and our people, measured by
nine targets. Please see our Responsible
Retailing Report 2014 for further detail.
Our progress
We are well on track towards realizing
our Responsible Retailing targets for 2015.
Please see our Responsible Retailing Report
2014 for further detail.
We are continuously investing in and
supporting the development of our associates.
At the same time, we are hiring new people
with new skills, so that we have the capabilities
we need to grow - and sharing these
capabilities across our businesses. We will
continue to build diverse workforces - in terms
of both personal background and professional
experience - to better serve our diverse
customer base and help us successfully cross
cultures and borders. We want to be a better
place to work for our associates, and provide
good working conditions, development
opportunities, managerial support, recognition
for performance, and an atmosphere of
mutual respect.
Our ambition
a We have ambitions in and measure our
performance across five areas: respect
for each other, good working conditions,
development opportunities, support from
managers and recognition for performance.
Our progress
Our increasing associate engagement score
(measured annually) shows we are making
progress on our ambition to motivate and
inspire our associates and enhance our
performance culture. A uniform rating system
based on both pre-set targets and on specific
values-driven behavior has been developed
and is currently being rolled out.
