Ahold Delhaize Focuses on Doing a Better Job for Consumers
While food retail is an ever-evolving industry, catering to a shopper's desire for value, quality and convenience remains at the heart of the business. Ahold Delhaize CEO Frans Muller discussed those basic tenets of grocery, as well as the multinational company’s focus on omnichannel, retail media, private label and more, during a keynote at this week’s Groceryshop conference in Las Vegas.
In the United States, Ahold Delhaize operates more than 2,000 locations along the East Coast under its Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Co. and Stop & Shop banners.
When it comes to value, quality and convenience, Muller said each discipline needs to be looked at differently than it once was because of today’s changing consumer. “It's not only price, it's also value and price and it's also personal pricing or personalization when we talk about the value dimension. “And when we talk about the quality dimension, it's not only the product in itself, it's also the journey, the experience in itself, but also elements like healthy food, like sustainably sourced.”
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As for convenience, location is just part of the equation. “[I]t's also about the journey itself and what is convenient in foods,” Muller said.
Focusing on value and price sensitivity, Muller asserted that grocers can serve a lot of customers with better value. One aspect of that value proposition is private label, and the grocer has an ambitious goal of making those products 45% of total sales across food by 2028. In the United States, current private label penetration sits at 31%.
In a separate conversation with Progressive Grocer, Muller said he believes private label is poised to continue growing in the U.S., especially in the frozen and snacks categories. As for any tension between the grocer and its national brand partners as it grows its private label assortment, Muller said the most important aspect of the relationship is focusing on doing a better job for the customer.
“How can we grow the category, how can we grow the basket?,” Muller mused. “But in the end, also, how can we grow the omnichannel shopper as well? And that we do together with our CPG partners and that we do together with sharing the data and offering them all kinds of opportunities to get more primary data to compete as well on the same shelf.”
Data was a big topic of conversation for Muller, who told Progressive Grocer that good data is foundational to today’s grocery industry, especially in order to make better recommendations for shoppers, cross-selling and upselling, and to help build more complete baskets.
Good data is also imperative for a successful retail media strategy, Muller believes, and focusing in on the quality of its data has been a big move for Ahold Delhaize as of late. The company’s continuous investment in the practice, centralization of services, and creation of efficient and effective relationships with CPG partners have also been paramount to its continued success in the field.
Groceryshop is taking place from Oct. 7-9 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
