“Delhaize wants to sell two American chains”

Sweetbay and Harveys on display

Delhaize is working hard on cleaning out
its American branch: under the leadership of Roland Smith
the distribution group cut heavily in the bonuses of management last year and
it upped profit margins. He also closed down over thirty (unprofitable) shops of
Sweetbay this year.

Now it seems Delhaize wants to divest the
Sweetbay chain completely, as well as Harveys, says Reuters: the group is said
to have asked business bank Lazard to look for possible buyers for the chains.

Both chains are relatively small in the United
States and are setting poor results. Harveys has 73 supermarkets in the states
of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, where it focusses on regional and fresh
products. Last year Sweetbay had 105 shops in Florida, focusing on
Hispanics in the region.

At the general shareholders’ meeting CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers denied nor confirmed the rumours. “We closed about
thirty shops in the US this year”, he said, “and we are seeing if more
supermarkets will have to close.”

“Made Delhaize an integrated group”

At the shareholders’ meeting, it was said that the search for a new CEO for the
group was still not concluded. There are said to be three internal candidates for
the position, but the retailer is also looking at external candidates.

Pierre-Olivier Beckers, who
is resigning as CEO of Delhaize after fifteen years at the end of the year, was applauded for his services to
the company. “I have made mistakes, but having done nothing would have been
worse. I have made Delhaize an integrated group and that is the most important
for me”, was the final statement of Beckers as CEO of the Belgian retail group.