Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (in Dutch literally “Royal Ahold Delhaize”), commonly known as Ahold Delhaize,[3] is a Dutch multinational retail and wholesaling company. Its name comes from a merger between Ahold (Dutch) and Delhaize Group (Belgian), the two predecessor companies that merged to form the present-day Ahold Delhaize. Its business format includes supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, online grocery, online non-food, drugstores, and liquor stores. Its 21 local brands employ 375,000 people at 6,500 stores in 11 countries, predominantly the Netherlands and Belgium.
Ahold Delhaize’s international headquarters is in Zaandam, Netherlands; it is the former headquarters of the predecessor company Ahold.[4] Its brands are active in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, Romania, Serbia, and the United States. It also participates in joint ventures in Indonesia and Portugal.[5][6]
Ahold Delhaize shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels (ticker: AD).[7] Ahold’s former CEO, Dick Boer, was the CEO of Ahold Delhaize until his retirement in 2018, and Frans Muller, former CEO of Delhaize Group, became CEO after previously having served as the deputy CEO, chief integration officer and acting chief operations officer (ad interim) of Delhaize America.[8][9] Operating more than 2,000 stores across 23 states, Ahold Delhaize is among the largest food and consumables retailers in the United States via their subsidiaries.[10]
Ahold Delhaize was formed in July 2016, from the merger of Ahold and Delhaize Group.[11][12] Delhaize Group dates back to 1867, when the Delhaize brothers opened a wholesale grocery business in Charleroi, Belgium. Ahold started in 1887, when Albert Heijn opened a first store in the Dutch town of Oostzaan.
In 2018, the company experienced significant growth in the United States (Food Lion), the Netherlands, and online.[13] Growth in Belgium has been minimal.[13]
With around 380,000 employees in almost 7,000 stores, the company achieved a turnover of 66 billion euros in 2019.[14]
Beginning in June of 2020, Ahold Delhaize implemented a partnership with Instacart to provide home delivery from more than 750 stores operated under the Hannaford, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop brands.[15] The company further expanded in the United States with the acquisition of a majority stake in FreshDirect, an online grocer. As of 2021, Ahold Delhaize has plans to establish Ship2Me, an online marketplace featuring food and merchandise items, in the second half of the year. [16]