Greek retailer Alfa Beta Vassilopoulos, part of Ahold Delhaize, has named Nikos Lavidas as its new brand president, effective 20 August.
Lavidas joins the retailer from Upfield, a regional business unit of Unilever, as managing director, where he was responsible for the brand's operations in Greece, Cyprus and Albania and several other countries within Southeastern Europe.
Prior to that, he held a number of positions in food retail. In 2010, he left a managing director position with Kraft Foods to join Greek supermarket chain I&S Sklavenitis S.A, where he worked for close to nine years, through a period of reorganisation and a series of acquisitions. He was appointed chief operating officer of the business in 2019, before joining Upfield.
'A Positive Step'
“This appointment is a positive step for Alfa Beta, our prominent Greek food retailer," commented Wouter Kolk, CEO Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia. "Alfa Beta is strongly rooted in Greece, leads in food e-commerce and has a broad high quality and healthy offering and a successful customer loyalty program.
"With Nikos Lavidas on board, the team will be reinforced by someone with extensive experience in the supermarket sector as well as on the supplier side. Nikos is well able to weigh all interests and will ensure the best offer for customers, together with the Alfa Beta team."
'A Strong Team'
In his role, Lavidas will report to Jesper Lauridsen, COO Ahold Delhaize CSE Region and brand president at Albert Czech Republic, who said, “I am very happy to welcome Nikos as Brand President of AB. He will join a strong team of retail professionals in serving millions of customers every day.”
In the first quarter of its financial year, net sales in Ahold Delhaize's European business totalled €7.575 billion in the first quarter, compared to €7.526 billion in the same period last year.
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