Ahold Delhaize chief executive Dick Boer reiterated the retailer's sustainability strategy at the company's annual general shareholder meeting, which recently took place in Amsterdam.
"Being a sustainable retailer is embedded in our strategy," Boer explained. "It's on our minds as we grow, innovate and save."
At the meeting, shareholders approved Ahold Delhaize's 2016 financial statements and determined the dividend over 2016 at €0.57 per common share, to be paid on 26 April 2017.
Shareholders also approved a number of other agenda items, including the reappointment of Jan Hommen and Ben Noteboom as members of the supervisory board, and the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V. as the external auditor for the financial year 2017.
Future Strategy
In his address, Boer outlined the retailer's strategy to have 45% of its own-brand sales come from healthy products by 2020, as well as efforts that the company has made to reduce its food waste by 20%.
In terms of delivering a healthy product offering, Boer explained, "Across our brands, the teams are working hard in this respect, with product reformulation, cutting back on salt, sugar and fat. Ahold USA took out more than 272,000 pounds of sugar from products – the equivalent of 30 school buses – during 2016. Delhaize cut 25% of salt from 11 varieties from bread."
He also pointed to in-store innovations that encourage shoppers to make healthy choices, such as the living herb garden at the new Albert Heijn XL store in Purmerend, and fresh-cut vegetables on request at a new-look Hannaford store in Bedford, New Hampshire.
Better Together
Elsewhere, Boer pointed to the e-commerce goals of the 'Better Together' strategy: "to double online sales as we continue to capture opportunities across our brands," noting that its online platform, Bol.com, has been able to "build a unique experience for each customer, based on browse-buy-and-response behaviour, demographic and socio-economic data, and timing and trigger events.
"Keep in mind, they have seven million active customers in the Netherlands and Belgium, and 47 million customer visits per month, and over 15 million products, so they have a lot of data to build on. We are already sharing some of their capabilities across our supermarket brands now. That is just one example where we are already reaping the power of Ahold Delhaize."
The meeting was attended by 231 shareholders, representing approximately one billion shares.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
