“Albert Heijn has already overtaken Lidl in Flanders”

(Update) Albert Heijn will open three more supermarkets in Belgium this fall, bringing its total number of stores in the country to 91. The Dutch retailer has already surpassed Lidl in market share in Flanders.

Three store openings planned

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.

Update: it has since emerged that another store is set to open in Lommel in December, in the premises of a former Delhaize. The retailer will therefore end the year with 91 stores in Flanders.

Despite “only” five 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. This confirms the ambition expressed last year by Raf Van den Heuvel, Director for Belgium, namely that Albert Heijn aims to become one of the top three players in Flanders.

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.