Jumbo cuts top in preparation of "next phase"

Jumbo is scrapping its board of directors and radically reforming the management. The Dutch supermarket group wants to simplify its structure to better focus on the store concept of the future, acquisitions and e-commerce.

Major reshuffle

Jumbo’s new long-term plan should primarily make the top layer of the company more flexible. The current board of directors will cease to exist, but current CCO Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd and current CFO Ton van Veen will get a seat on the overarching supervisory board. As such, they will no longer have to perform day-to-day operational tasks but will focus on more strategic matters.

Ton van Veen will therefore, as a member of the supervisory board, supervise “Hema‘s development, the collaboration with Gorillas and new potential acquisitions”. CCO Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd will focus on developing a store concept of the future and sustainability.

New management team

The day-to-day management will be in the hands of a new management team from 28 March, featuring CEO Frits van Eerd along with Cees van Vliet (Operations), Frances Franken (Commercial), Ralph Bertrand (Formula), Tim Hehenkamp (Tech & Data), Claire Saes (HR) and Peter van Erp (Finance). This reform would also affect other layers in the organisation.

“With these changes, we are entering the next phase at Jumbo”, Frits van Eerd says: “In a relatively short timeframe, we have worked our way up to a financially healthy organisation with a strong market position. We want not only to hold on to this, but also expand it further.” The family van Eerd also notices the food retail landscape changing rapidly, and feels a “robust, enterprising organisation with short lines of communication and unambiguous management” is needed to respond to this.

New online ways

The next phase must include, among other things, e-commerce. After all, Jumbo – the second-largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands after Albert Heijn – is not the uncontested number two online, Ton van Veen told Dutch newspaper FD. Online supermarket Picnic is a feared rival in that area. Jumbo wants to invest more in online shopping, especially now that the retailer sees that consumers are not prepared to pay a premium for home delivery. Thus, the company is looking at other models, such as subscription formulas and free delivery at certain times.

To cover the costs, the food retailer is also working with data. Like increasingly more supermarket groups, Van Veen hopes to generate income from online advertisements and selling customer data to suppliers – as Carrefour also did earlier when it launched its Link platform.

Jumbo’s collaboration with Gorillas is another way to grow online: Jumbo is considering opening up supermarket warehouses as ‘dark stores’ for the express grocery delivery service, now that several cities are banning new warehouses because of disturbances. The Dutch family business also hopes to “educate” Gorillas’ youngsters a little bit.