“Albert Heijn has already overtaken Lidl in Flanders”

Albert Heijn will open two more supermarkets in Belgium this fall, bringing its total number of stores in the country to 90. The Dutch retailer has already surpassed Lidl in market share in Flanders.

Two openings in October

By the end of this year, Albert Heijn will have 90 stores in Belgium, Marketing Director Els Lagrou said last week at RetailDetail’s Retail Marketing Day, which brought together more than 170 marketing professionals in Brussels. Following the recent opening of its 88th store in Haacht on July 8, two more store openings are scheduled for October: one in Bilzen (which will be the nineteenth for franchise partner Peeters-Govers) and one AH XL at the former Makro site in Machelen.

Despite “only” four store openings this year, Albert Heijn continues its rapid rise: in terms of market share, the retailer has already overtaken Lidl in Flanders, as Lagrou showed on a slide that, however, did not include specific figures. But the most important KPI in marketing is whether your brand would be missed if it were no longer around, she says. She then showed footage of the unprecedented massive turnout at the opening in Leuven, where Albert Heijn had been absent for years because it had to divest a store there following the merger with Delhaize.

You can read a full report on Retail Marketing Day here.