Ahold Delhaize

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Food Lion said yesterday it is unveiling fresh makeovers at 26 stores in the tri-state area of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Food Lion said yesterday it is unveiling fresh makeovers at 26 stores in the tri-state area of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Food shoppers in the Washington, D.C. area have a new low-price option beginning today, as Food Lion unveils its newest retail brand, Bottom Dollar Food, to the market in Fredericksburg, Va.

QUINCY, Mass. -- Stop & Shop here is uniting technology with fresh fruit growers to come up with "Orchard Perfect" fruit, now exclusively available in all of the Ahold-owned banner's stores. The line's sun-ripened, hand-picked California summer fruits are gently layered by hand into single-layer cartons to prevent bruising. This process ensures that the fruit is ready to eat as soon as it arrives in the stores. The line includes peaches, nectarines, plums, white flesh peaches and white flesh nectarines.

QUINCY, Mass. -- After a "security breach" by one of its vendors, Ahold USA here sent letters last week to some former employees telling them that their personal information, including birth dates and Social Security numbers, could possibly be accessed by others.

QUINCY, Mass. -- The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. here, along with Oakland, Calif.-based Edy's Grand Ice Cream, will thank each Stop & Shop customer who donates $1 to pediatric cancer research and treatment organizations with a free scoop of ice cream at all of the Ahold-owned Northeast grocer's stores, which are in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey.

LANDOVER, Md. -- Giant Food, LLC has donated a total of $2 million in grants to more than 3,600 area schools that benefited from the Ahold-owned banner's 2005-2006 A+ "BonusBucks" program.

AMSTERDAM -- Ahold here yesterday posted sales of 14.1 billion euros for the first quarter of 2006, reflecting an increase of 8.6 percent over the year-ago period. Even excluding the impact of currency, net sales at the company rose 2.1 percent. Still, the retail conglomerate acknowledged that during the quarter "market conditions remained competitive and, particularly in the United States, energy costs continued to impact consumer behavior."