NETHERLANDS: Ahold CEO sees 50% increase in US food sales

Cees van der Hoeven, CEO of Dutch supermarket giant Ahold , has said that sales at the company’s foodservice divisions should rise more than 50% within the next three years, to reach US$30bn. Ahold currently gernerates about 60% of its turnover from US sales, and several recent acquisitions in the US market have created a US grocery chain with annual sales of US$25bn. Ahold’s US foodservice business meanwhile generates annual sales of US$19bn.

January 25, 2002

Cees van der Hoeven, CEO of Dutch supermarket giant Ahold, has said that sales at the company’s foodservice divisions should rise more than 50% within the next three years, to reach US$30bn.

Ahold currently gernerates about 60% of its turnover from US sales, and several recent acquisitions in the US market have created a US grocery chain with annual sales of US$25bn. Ahold’s US foodservice business meanwhile generates annual sales of US$19bn.

Van der Hoeven told the Financial Times that further takeovers were likely: “There are lots of companies we have been following for a long time.”