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Message from our CEO continued
Investing in the future
In the midst of this very busy
year, and while delivering strong
performance, I’m proud of what
the people across our great local
brands have already achieved
towards our strategic goals.
To further satisfy and entice
customers, we are improving
our offering with better quality
and more healthy choices, both
at affordable prices.”
Overview
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Ahold Delhaize Annual Report 2016
As you read our Annual Report, you will see
sustainable retailing embedded throughout
Better Together, in everything we do. It is one
connected story, showing sustainability as a
core business driver linked to how we save for
our customers, drive growth, make promises to
our stakeholders, live our values, and achieve
our purpose as a company. For more detail on
all the elements of our new strategy, please
see Our Better Together Strategy.
In the midst of this busy year, and while
delivering strong performance, I’m proud
of what the people across our great local
brands have already achieved towards our
strategic goals. To further satisfy and entice
customers, we are improving our offering with
better quality and more healthy choices, both
at affordable prices. In the United States, the
Ahold USA brands finished rolling out new
bakery and produce departments, as part
of their continuing program to enhance the
customer proposition and focus on fresh.
To build on this success, we have used our
knowledge of customers and changing trends
as the foundation for developing our new
strategy: Better Together. It is driving our entire
company forward with a shared purpose:
together we build great local brands, bringing
fresh inspiration every day. Our brands are
embracing Better Together and implementing
it locally to further deepen connections with
both customers and communities.
Food Lion is improving its offering with its
Easy, Fresh Affordable strategy - focused on
customer service, convenience, freshness and
prices - and completed its deployment in the
key Charlotte, North Carolina, market during
the year.
Our own-brand ranges remain an important
way to differentiate by giving our customers
affordable, innovative and healthy choices they
can’t find elsewhere. Albert Heijn continued to
significantly improve its own-brand ranges and
reduce the level of salt, sugar, fat and other
additives during the year.
To fund our investments, we are making smart
choices aimed at simplifying and saving money.
Our Delhaize supermarket brand in Belgium
finished implementing a new store organization
that is helping it run more efficiently while
simultaneously improving service to customers
and creating a better working environment for
associates. Stop Shop opened a cutting edge
facility in Massachusetts that converts food
waste from the stores into energy to power a
distribution center.
We continue to drive our leading eCommerce
brands by investing in their growth - and
customers clearly appreciated our efforts in
2016. Online consumer sales grew by more than
278', and more than 30% in the Netherlands.
Some notable examples of our progress over
the year were bol.com’s launch of same-day
and Sunday home delivery, giving customers
even more flexibility and faster service.
Ah.nl expanded to serve 25% more customers,
and Peapod launched an own-brand line
of fresh meal kits to help make it easier for
customers to put a home-cooked dinner
on the table. Our Better Together strategy
sets ambitious 2020 growth targets for our
eCommerce businesses as we keep capturing
opportunities across our brands.
In our core business of supermarkets, we
continue to fund development and grow sales,
notably in Greece and in Romania, where
Mega Image opened their 500th store in
October. Even with advances in eCommerce,
our stores will continue to be important
because they will give us a physical location
to welcome and inspire customers - they
serve as gathering places for people in our
neighborhoods and hubs to connect local
communities, with initiatives like collecting
donations for local food banks. In 2016, for
example, our Hannaford brand donated more
than 25 million pounds of food to food pantries,
meal programs, and food banks across its
five-state footprint. At the same time, we need
to offer a seamless shopping experience where
our customers feel the same level of personal
attention online and offline.
Leadership is essential to delivering Better
Together. We have a strong leadership
team, with a new Executive Committee and
Supervisory Board in place since July.
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