The management of Ahold Delhaize has ruled out any divestments in the near future, emphasising that the portfolio of the two merged operations is “healthy”.
At a press conference to coincide with the retailer’s Capital Markets Day in London, Dick Boer said that divestments “are not on our radar screen – first on our radar screen is to integrate the companies better”.
The combined Ahold Delhaize operation currently encompasses eight US retail brands, 12 European retail brands and an Indonesian-based business, and Boer explained that much of the work to streamline the Ahold and Delhaize operations took place before the merger, which was completed in July.
“One of the things both companies did over the past decade is work closely on what the portfolio should be,” Boer explained. “We always said we should have number-one or -two positions in the market, and as you can see with the overview, all the markets in which we operate, we have the number-one or -two positions. That’s proof to me that the portfolio is healthy.”
At the Capital Markets Day, Ahold Delhaize revealed that it was seeking to generate some €500 million of synergy savings between now and full-year 2019, which will lead to capital expenditure being made available – businesses that outperform the market will be first in line to avail of said investment.
“The money is not a problem. It’s a question of how to allocate it,” Boer noted.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
