Ahold Delhaize’s ‘Annual Report 2024’ Outlines Successful Year
Ahold Delhaize has published its “Annual Report 2024,” which provides an overview of the retail conglomerate’s financial and nonfinancial performance in the past year.
“A proud moment in 2024 was when we launched our new Growing Together strategy, which includes an even stronger focus on the customer experience,” noted Ahold Delhaize President and CEO Frans Muller. “We have shared our ambition to accelerate growth for our company and drive sustainable value creation in the years to come. I’m pleased that our solid performance in 2024 provided us with a strong foundation for this future roadmap. I would like to thank my colleagues across all our brands, for their passion, dedication and care, which contributed to these results.”
Inspired by Ahold Delhaize’s current strategy, the theme of this year’s report is “Growing Together,” which spotlights how the company’s brands serve local customers and communities by focusing on their particular needs. “This deep local expertise and understanding is paired with scale and best practices shared across Ahold Delhaize,” explained Muller. “This is what ‘being big, starts small’ means, and it really is the foundation of our company.”
Included in the annual report is a strategic report featuring a message from Muller, an overview of the Growing Together strategy, the performance review, and a message from the supervisory board chair. There’s also a dedicated sustainability statements section that contains copious information on environmental, social and governance topics, in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), an EU directive.
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Among the key highlights from the annual report:
- The Growing Together strategy encompasses six strategic priorities: thriving people, healthy communities and planet, vibrant customer experiences, trusted product, driving customer innovation, and portfolio and operational excellence. These priorities are fueling and shaping the growth model that drives the company’s targets.
- Achieving or exceeding all of its key financial goals for the year, Ahold Delhaize delivered a solid and consistent financial performance in 2024, with growth in its comparable sales, excluding gas, of 1.2%. The company achieved an operating margin of 4.0% and free cash flow of €2.5 billion (US $2.6 billion).
- The company invested €2.3 billion (US $2.4 billion) in such areas as the expansion, remodeling and maintenance of its stores; online platforms; supply chain; and IT infrastructure. Ahold Delhaize also made investments to lower its carbon footprint, such as replacing refrigeration systems, improving energy efficiency in its facilities, investing in green buildings and solar panel installations, and gradually transitioning from fossil fuel vehicles to electric alternatives.
- In 2024, the company significantly surpassed its original Save for Our Customers goal, generating more than €1.35 billion (US $1.42 billion) in cost savings – well above the company’s target. This move enabled Ahold Delhaize to reinvest in its customer value proposition and keep prices as low as possible.
- The Ahold Delhaize brands grew their own-brand assortments of fresh, healthy products at competitive prices. In Europe, the brands increased the number of Price Favorites to 7,700 products at entry-level prices. Additionally, Ahold Delhaize’s local brands in central and southeastern Europe added 500 high-quality products to their harmonized own-brand assortment last year. The U.S. brands have focused on raising the awareness of own-brand quality and price relative to national brands.
- Ahold Delhaize is successfully attracting more customers to the brands’ online platforms and has boosted its online grocery sales by 10.4%, excluding FreshDirect. Ahold Delhaize’s brands brew personalization and loyalty offerings, backed by the integration of AI and predictive analytics.
- In 2024, the company reduced greenhouse-gas emissions in its own operations by 36% compared with the 2018 baseline. The total tons of food waste per food sales was 35% lower than the company’s 2016 baseline. Ahold Delhaize is reporting a 10% reduction in virgin own-brand primary plastic packaging compared with 2021. The brands also grew the percentage of own-brand healthy food sales, which reached 52.4% last year.
- In 2024, Ahold Delhaize’s brands collectively donated a total of 75,000 tons of food, actively collaborating with local food banks and nonprofits to make a meaningful impact. Ahold Delhaize also embarked on a partnership with The Global FoodBanking Network.
- Ahold Delhaize and the majority of its brands were recognized as top employers, certified by the Top Employer Institute, in 2024.
2025 marks the first full year of Ahold Delhaize’s Growing Together strategy. Focusing on its financial expectations, the company aims to deliver both organic and inorganic sales growth. The company expects to deliver a margin of around 4%, Save for Our Customers cost savings of at least €1.25 billion (US $1.31 billion) and gross capital expenditures of around €2.7 billion (US $2.8 billion). This is expected to result in sustained free cash flow generation of at least €2.2 billion (US $2.3 billion). Further, Ahold Delhaize has pledged to continue to advance its purpose of inspiring everyone to eat and live better for a healthier future for people and the planet.
Ahold Delhaize’s “Annual Report 2024” will be on the agenda of the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders, which will take place on April 9.
Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize is one of the world’s largest food retail groups. The company’s family of local brands serves 63 million customers each week, both in stores and online, in the United States, Europe, and Indonesia. Together, these brands employ more than 402,000 associates in 7,716 grocery and specialty stores. The Ahold Delhaize USA division is No. 11 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century.
