Koninklijke Ahold N.V.
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Ahold headquarters in Zaandam
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| Naamloze vennootschap | |
| Industry | Retailing |
| Fate | Merged with Delhaize |
| Successor | Ahold Delhaize |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Headquarters | Zaandam, Netherlands |
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Number of locations
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3,206 |
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Key people
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Dick Boer (CEO), Jan Hommen (Chairman of the Supervisory Board) |
| Services | Convenience/forecourt store, discount store, drug store/pharmacy, hypermarket/supercenter/superstore, other specialty, supermarket, online retailer |
| Revenue | €38.2 billion (2015) |
| €1.3 billion (2015) | |
| Profit | €0.85 billion (2015) |
| Total assets | €15.88 billion (2015) |
| Total equity | €5.62 billion (2015) |
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Number of employees
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236,000 (2015) |
| Website | www |
Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch international retailer based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize.
The company started in 1887, with the founding of an Albert Heijn grocery store in Oostzaan, Netherlands. The grocery chain expanded through the first half of the 20th century, and went public in 1948.
Under the leadership of the founder’s grandsons, Albert and Gerrit Jan Heijn, the company continued to make a significant impact on food retail in the Netherlands in the next four decades, pioneering self-service shopping, and the development of own brand and of non-food as a grocery store category. The company also influenced culinary development in the country, popularizing products such as wine, sherry and kiwi fruit, contributing to the introduction of the refrigerator in Dutch households and introducing convenience items, such as ready meals and frozen pizzas, to Dutch consumers.
Albert Heijn became the largest grocery chain in the Netherlands during this time, and expanded into liquor stores and health and beauty care stores in the 1970s. In 1973, the holding company changed its name to "Ahold", an abbreviation of "Albert Heijn holding".
In the mid-1970s, the company began expanding internationally, acquiring companies in Spain and the United States. Under a new leadership team, which for the first time did not include any members of the Heijn family, the company accelerated its growth through acquisitions in the latter half of the 1990s in Latin America, Central Europe, and Asia.
Ahold N.V. received the designation “Royal” from Dutch Queen Beatrix in 1987, awarded to companies that have operated honorably for one hundred years. That same year Gerrit Jan Heijn, Ahold executive and only brother of Albert Heijn, was kidnapped for ransom and murdered.
The company’s ambitious global expansion was halted by the announcement of accounting irregularities at some of Ahold’s subsidiaries in February 2003. The CEO, Cees van der Hoeven, and CFO, Michael Meurs, and a number of senior management resigned as a result, and earnings over 2001 and 2002 had to be restated. The main accounting irregularities occurred at U.S. Foodservice, and, on a smaller scale, Tops Markets, in the United States, where income related to promotional allowances was overstated. In addition, accounting irregularities were found at the company’s Argentine subsidiary Disco, and it was determined that the financial results of certain joint ventures had been accounted for improperly.
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Wikipedia