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Message from our CEO (continued)
Our 2015 financial performance in brief
Fresh innovation and healthy choices
13
Online momentum
Renewing our commitment
to responsible retailing
Engaging associates and teaming
up across our businesses
Ahold at a glance
Business review
Governance
Delhaize and Ahold complement each other well,
with shared values, strong and trusted local brands,
aligned strategies and proud family legacies of
entrepreneurial success. We are thrilled about the
opportunities this proposed combination presents to
create an even better and more innovative company
for our customers, associates and communities - and
to create value for you, our shareholders.
Our Supervisory Board has been an enormous
asset and an active partner in this merger, and we
appreciate the tremendous guidance and strategic
advice its members have provided throughout
this process.
The Allerhande meal box
can be ordered for home
delivery or pickup at a
pick-up point or stores,
helping Albert Heijn's
customers make fresh
cooking effortless.
We reported strong financial results during the year,
reflecting good performance across our key markets
and multiple formats. This included net annual sales
of €38 billion, driven by excellent store operations,
especially during the holiday season, and a strong
increase in consumer online sales. In addition to
our robust sales performance, we achieved market
share gains and an increase in Group operating
income for the year. The progress we made in
supporting our great local brands and enhancing
our offering for customers was supported by
reinvesting the substantial savings achieved through
our company-wide Simplicity program.
We have invested our Simplicity savings directly
into our offering - improving seamless omni-channel
shopping across Ahold and making things easier and
better for local customers, with more fresh, healthy
and affordable choices.
In the U.S., our largest market, we are using Simplicity
savings to improve the shopping experience, offering
better quality and service and more competitive
pricing. We completed the first waves of our value
investment, reducing prices on thousands of products,
providing even greater appeal to value-focused
customers. We also invested in quality and service,
putting new produce departments into more than
470 stores and starting to roll out new, easier-to-shop
bakery departments.
We have piloted new store concepts in the U.S.
and opened our first two bfresh locations during the
year. Our bfresh format is focused on fresh foods,
smart value and local convenience and caters to
the shopping preferences of Millennials.
In the Netherlands, sales momentum remains
strong with Albert Heijn both in stores and online.
Its customers are benefiting from an even broader
product range and the expansion of healthy choices
in our Fresh departments. Albert Heijn has introduced
over 1,000 new products and customers can also
find more of the local and regional products and
seasonal produce they want.
We refreshed our Dutch Gall Gall and
Etos specialty brands to bring customers even
better quality, friendlier service and expert advice.
Gall Gall offered a broader assortment of
award-winning wines and Etos introduced a full
range of new own-brand products, including the
popular "Botanical Boost" line. This hard work is
being recognized, with Etos named Best Retail
Chain in the Pharmacy category and Gall Gall
named Best Retail Chain in the Food Specialty
Stores category in a vote by Dutch consumers.
Ahold
Annual Report 2015
Albert successfully rebranded
all the former SPAR stores,
marking the end of an
eight-month project and
making Albert a top player
in Czech market.
In the Czech Republic, we successfully finished
rebranding all former SPAR stores acquired in 2014.
We also rolled out our "Favorite" store concept, aimed
at making the stores more appealing to customers, to
all 240 supermarkets. We are seeing positive sales
trends as a result and are now implementing this
successful initiative in the Albert compact hypers.
The continuing momentum in our online business
is exciting and important. Our ongoing efforts to
complement our stores and let customers shop
however and whenever they want has been a
great success, with 2015 online consumer sales
up to €1.8 billion. The bol.com business is a true
success story, growing at a continued high pace
in the Netherlands and Belgium, with consumer
sales up over 30% in the last quarter of the year,
I want to emphasize how pleased we are to have
bol.com as part of our company. In addition to
the tremendous growth numbers, bol.com helps to
infuse our company's DNA with a commitment to
technology and data-based, rapid, customer-focused
innovation. Like Albert Heijn, bol.com - offering more
than 10 million products - has become one of the
most loved and trusted brands in the Netherlands.
Albert Heijn Online also had a great year, attracting
many new customers by improving service and the
overall shopping experience and expanding its
assortment. The team launched innovations such as
the Allerhande Box, which provides customers with all
the ingredients and recipes to make tasty and varied
meals in 30 minutes. We opened an online pilot
store on Alibaba's Tmall in China to learn from this
online market.
I am very pleased that Peapod, our leading online
grocery service in the U.S., returned to double-digit
sales growth in the second half of 2015. It also
accelerated its positive momentum this year with
the introduction of a modern new mobile app
while at the same time rolling out innovative
products, including new meal kits. In addition, to
better serve the important New York Metro market,
we improved capacity and service levels at our
NewJersey warehouse.
Being a responsible retailer remains a key priority
and a fundamental part of our approach to business,
and we are pleased with the progress we made in
2015. We completed our 2015 Responsible Retailing
strategy and were able to meet most of our previously
established targets and commitments.
We know that consumers are increasingly focused
on the health effects of a good diet and also on the
social and environmental impact of the products they
buy, and we are now working towards ambitious
new goals for the future in the areas of health,
products and communities. You can read more
about this, and our performance over the year,
in our Responsible Retailing Report 2015.
Across our companies, our people remain our most
important asset. In 2015, we further empowered
associates to make a difference for our company
and our customers. Associate engagement was a
key objective of our Albert Favorite program, as well
as the rebranding programs at Etos and Gall Gall.
These businesses prioritized service and empowered
associates through training to ensure they have the
knowledge and expertise to better assist customers
and make an even bigger impact in their jobs.
