Ahold Delhaize searches growth in acquisitions and retail media

Ahold Delhaize has released its new strategy: over the next three years, it wants to find an annual 4 % growth in data, omnichannel and private label products.

30 million online users

No major surprises in Ahold Delhaize’s new three-year plan, which rather is a further finetuning of the road ahead. The supermarket group wants to achieve 4 % net sales growth annually between 2025 and 2028, while the target operating margin is also 4 %. The main contributors should be a total of five billion euros in savings, three billion euros from new revenue sources and thirty million monthly online users.

CEO Frans Muller does not put the customer at the centre of the new strategy, but deliberately opts for a multi-stakeholder approach. This means that employees, local communities, products and “portfolio excellence” (courtesy of economies of scale) are also part of the six strategic priorities. Just being a supermarket is no longer enough, the proposed growth model clearly shows.

New business models

Digitisation, loyalty and private labels are the weapons of choice. An omnichannel shopper spends up to three times more in the most mature markets, Muller explains. Ahold Delhaize is therefore going all-in on loyalty apps and digital content. The retailer aims to achieve over 80 % of its sales with its (digital) loyalty card.

Customer card data is key to the additional revenue streams that Ahold Delhaize wants to grow to around three billion euros by 2028. The Dutch company want to market its retail media data and develop new business models, both B2B and B2C.

American innovation

Private label products should account for 45 % of sales in the group’s stores, whose price perception needs to improve at the same time, the supermarket group understands. Ahold Delhaize therefore continues to make savings: before 2028, the group wants to free five billion euros through joint sourcing, AI and automation, but also by “simplifying the business model” – restructuring, in other words.

“Portfolio excellence” is a key part of the renewed plan, Muller added, hinting acquisitions but also sales of superfluous subsidiaries. In the United States, the retailer will put a renewed focus on Food Lion and Hannaford, while Stop & Shop is also being revived. A thousand shops will be renovated, with more new supermarkets being added. In Europe, outgoing CEO Wouter Kolk sees new growth opportunities in the Central and Southeastern Europe region, partly through acquisitions such as Profi in Romania.