Albert Heijn starts trial with meal delivery service

Dutch Albert Heijn has started a trial with meal delivery service Thuisbezorgd.nl in Amsterdam. The announcement comes just two days after CEO Wouter Kolk announced his chain’s supermarkets would become more about convenience and experience, while ‘boring’ products would be ordered online.

First sign of new strategy

The Dutch chain has selected a number of popular products that consumers can get delivered for free, like soups, sandwiches, salads or fresh fruit juice. The products are collected from two ‘AH to go’ stores in Amsterdam’s city centre and (naturally) delivered by bike.

The supermarket chain sees a lot of opportunities: “Ordering a lunch or meal is already fairly common, but now we too can make our customers happy”, says general manager Jan-Willem Dockheer. “Working together with a retailer in this field is innovative, and innovation is what we are always looking for”, says Thuisbezorgd.nl’s sales director Silvie Cremers.

Cooperating with meal delivery services was one of the main items in the new Ahold Delhaize strategy, that CEO Wouter Kolk announced only this week. In his vision, supermarkets will have to sell a lot of normal products online and deliver them at home, in order to focus on experience on the freed surface.