After the merger of mega-grocery holding firms Ahold USA and Delhaize America, the two companies have announced plans for how they will handle their U.S. supermarket chains, including Stop & Shop and Hannaford.
Stop & Shop’s New York Metro and New England divisions will be consolidated into one brand organization, while the other chains will maintain their current office locations.
The Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, Giant/Martin’s, Peapod, Food Lion and Hannaford brands will each have distinct commercial strategies that are tailored to local markets with dedicated resources, including category merchandising, assortment, pricing, promotions, marketing and format teams.
“This brand-centric structure, which we expect to be complete by early 2018, will better position the Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands to be even more closely connected to their customers and communities,” the statement said.
In addition, Ahold and Delhaize have created Retail Business Services LLC to provide support services to all of Ahold USA’s and Delhaize America’s local brands.
“Retail Business Services will leverage its scale to drive synergies and best practices as well as provide industry-leading expertise, insights and analytics to the Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands to support their respective strategies,” according to a statement from the two grocery giants.
Ahold and Delhaize have not said how the merger will impact seafood purchasing and other executive positions for its member grocery chains.
“We have no announcements at this time in regard to meat and seafood purchasing and merchandising directors,” Christopher Brand, a spokesman for Ahold USA, told SeafoodSource.
However, Chris Lewis, executive vice president of supply chain, and J.J. Fleeman, executive vice president of commercial services and strategy, will now report to the newly formed Retail Business Services unit.
