Quincy, Mass. and Salisbury, N.C., 2017-Feb-07 — /EPR Retail News/ — Ahold USA and Delhaize America, proud companies of Royal Ahold Delhaize, are each announcing plans to further strengthen their brands to ensure they will remain customer-focused, close to their communities and positioned to win in their markets. This follows the merger of Ahold and Delhaize Group on July 24, 2016, which created the largest grocery retailer group on the United States East Coast, and furthers its strategy centered on building great local brands while capturing the benefits of scale.
As part of this strategy, Ahold USA and Delhaize America in December announced the creation of Retail Business Services LLC, led by Roger Wheeler, President. Retail Business Services will leverage its scale to drive synergies and best practices as well as provide industry-leading expertise, insights and analytics to the Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands to support their respective strategies. Services provided by Retail Business Services, in addition to commercial support, will include financial services, not-for-resale procurement, legal services, information technology, and people systems and services.
With the creation of Retail Business Services, the Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, GIANT/MARTIN’S, Peapod, Food Lion and Hannaford brands will be able to dedicate full focus on building on their leading positions in their respective markets and delivering even more for their customers. Each of the brands will have distinctive commercial strategies that are tailored to local markets with dedicated resources, including category merchandising, assortment, pricing, promotions, marketing and format teams. This brand-centric structure, which we expect to be complete by early 2018, will better position the Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands to be even more closely connected to their customers and communities. “Positioning the Ahold USA brands to be even closer to their customers will not only help them deepen their connection in their local communities and win in their markets, it will ensure that associates have exciting and rewarding opportunities to make meaningful contributions to each brand’s success,” said Kevin Holt, chief operating officer of Ahold USA.
“Today’s announcements will further strengthen Food Lion and Hannaford’s strong brands,” said Frans Muller, acting chief operating officer (ad interim) of Delhaize America. “The brand-centric structure will enable our Food Lion and Hannaford associates to build even stronger relationships with existing customers and communities in the markets they serve, and win new customers to grow their businesses.”
Ahold USA also announced that its Stop & Shop New York Metro and Stop & Shop New England Divisions will be consolidated into one brand organization. Having a single brand organizational structure dedicated to Stop & Shop will strengthen the brand and will ensure it can better leverage its brand to serve the unique needs of customers in the different markets that Stop & Shop serves.
Delhaize America and Ahold USA brands will maintain their respective office locations in:
Stop & Shop, Quincy, Mass.
Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C.
GIANT/MARTIN’S, Carlisle, Penn.
Hannaford, Scarborough, Maine
Giant Food, Landover, Md.
Peapod, Skokie, Ill.
Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands that have regional support offices now will continue to have brand support offices throughout their market areas.
In addition, Holt announced the following Ahold USA brand executive leaders will continue in their roles:
Mark McGowan, President, Stop & Shop
Tom Lenkevich, President, GIANT/MARTIN’S
Gordon Reid, President, Giant Food
Jennifer Carr-Smith, President, Peapod
“I’m very excited about the brand-centric model at Ahold USA and its brands, which puts the customer at the center of all we do,” said Holt. “Mark, Tom, Gordon and Jennifer all have proven track records and they are the right leaders for our great local brands.”
Muller announced the following Delhaize America brand executive leaders will also continue in their roles:
Meg Ham, President, Food Lion
Mike Vail, President, Hannaford
“I am extremely pleased that Meg and Mike will continue to lead and drive the successful strategies of Food Lion and Hannaford,” said Muller. “We have every confidence in the continued success of Food Lion and Hannaford under their leadership.”
In addition, the following executive appointments in the U.S. will become effective when the brand-centric organization is complete, which is expected by early 2018:
Reporting to Royal Ahold Delhaize:
o Greg Amoroso, Executive Vice President, U.S. Chief Financial Officer
o Linn Evans, Executive Vice President, U.S. Chief Legal Officer
Reporting to Retail Business Services:
o Kathy Russello, Executive Vice President, People Systems and Services
o JJ Fleeman, Executive Vice President, Commercial Services & Strategy
o Chris Lewis, Executive Vice President, Supply Chain
o Paul Scorza, Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
The Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands will continue to operate as independent companies in the U.S. and will continue to serve their local customers’ needs and be strong community partners in their respective markets.
About Ahold USA
Ahold USA is a proud company of Ahold Delhaize, one of the world’s largest food retail groups, a leader in supermarkets and e-commerce, and a company at the forefront of sustainable retailing. Ahold USA supports four regional Divisions – Stop & Shop New England, Stop & Shop New York Metro, Giant Landover, and Giant Carlisle – that together operate approximately 780 supermarkets with 115,000 associates in 14 states and the District of Columbia along with Peapod, the nation’s leading e-commerce grocery shopping/delivery service. For more information, visit www.aholddelhaize.com.
About Delhaize America
Delhaize America companies include Food Lion and Hannaford, operating more than 1,200 stores along the East Coast. Each banner has a distinct identity and well-established brand image within its respective markets across 16 states, offering market-specific products and services to meet the unique needs of its customers. The companies of Delhaize America employ more than 96,000 fulltime and part-time associates. The company is part of Ahold Delhaize, an international grocery retailer based in Zaandam, Netherlands.
Media Contacts:
Christopher Brand
for Ahold USA
717-240-1513 (office)
717-448-5835 (cell)
Christy Phillips-Brown
for Delhaize America
704-310-2221 (office)
704-245-3317 (cell)
Source: Ahold USA