Delhaize Group SA (, ) was a Belgian multinational retail company headquartered in

Molenbeek-Saint-Jean ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, from which it is separated ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and operated in seven countries and on three continents. The principal activity of Delhaize Group was the operation of food supermarkets. On 24 June 2015, Delhaize reached an agreement with

Ahold Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Belgium-based Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize. History Growth in the Netherlands The company started in 1887, when Al ...

to merge and form a new parent/holding company headquartered in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Ahold Delhaize Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (in Dutch literally "Royal Ahold Delhaize"), commonly known as Ahold Delhaize, is a Dutch multinational retail and wholesaling company. Its name comes from a merger between Ahold (Dutch) and Delhaize Group (Belgia ...

History

Delhaize was founded near

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

, Belgium, in 1867 by Jules Delhaize and his brothers Auguste, Edouard and Adolphe. He was helped in this endeavor by his future brother-in-law, Jules Vieujant. For their new company, they chose the lion, the symbol of strength, as their logo. They also chose a motto: unity is strength. In 2005, Delhaize Group completed the acquisition of the Belgian supermarket chain Cash Fresh for 118.6 million euros. Delhaize paid an additional 51 million euros to acquire real estate assets of Cash Fresh. As of 31 December 2014, Delhaize Group had a sales network (which includes directly operated, franchised, and affiliated stores) of 3,402 stores and employed approximately 150,000 people (excluding the stores and related associates of divested and discontinued operations). Store formats are primarily supermarkets, which represent 85% of Delhaize Group's sales network. Delhaize Group's sales network also includes other store formats such as neighborhood stores, convenience stores, and specialty stores. The company is actively engaged with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program to manage energy efficiency across its U.S. facilities. In addition to food retailing, Delhaize Group engages in food wholesaling to stores in its sales network and in nonfood retailing of products such as pet products and health and beauty products. In 2014, Delhaize Group recorded revenue of €21.4 billion and underlying operating profit of €762 million. Delhaize Group's operations are located primarily in the United States (

Food Lion LLC Food Lion is an American regional grocery store chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1100 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States (Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North ...

Hannaford Brothers Company Hannaford is an American supermarket chain based in Scarborough, Maine. Founded in Portland, Maine, in 1883, Hannaford operates stores in New England and New York. The chain is now part of the Ahold Delhaize group based in the Netherlands, and ...

) and Belgium. Other operations are located in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Delhaize entered the U.S. market through its acquisition of Food Town Stores in 1983, renaming it

Food Lion Food Lion is an American regional grocery store chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1100 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States (Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North ...

due to name conflict with other stores, and expanding from 22 stores to 226. In 1985, it became a franchisee for

Cub Foods Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu Inc., based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. History Beginnings Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hooley ...

and opened the first of many stores in the Atlanta area and in 1996, acquired

Kash n' Karry Sweetbay Supermarket was a chain of American supermarkets located in Florida. The first Sweetbay Supermarket to open was in Seminole, Florida, in November 2004. The company's headquarters was located near Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida. ...

, a

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

grocery chain. Both its Cub Foods stores, and the Kash n' Karry chain have since been sold by Delhaize. In 2007, the company left the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

market after 16 years and sold all of its 97 supermarkets to

Billa Billa may refer to: Films *Billa (1980 film), ''Billa'' (1980 film), 1980 Indian Tamil film *Billa (2002 film), ''Billa'' (2002 film), 2002 Pakistani Punjabi film *Billa (2007 film), ''Billa'' (2007 film), 2007 Indian Tamil film, remake of ''Bil ...

. On January 19, 2009, Delhaize announced on request that the branches in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

should be sold. In 2009, the company left the German market after 6 years and sold all of its 4 supermarkets to

REWE Group The REWE Group is a German diversified retail and tourism co-operative group based in Cologne, Germany. The name REWE comes from Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften", meaning "Western Buying Co-operatives Auditing Association". The mos ...

. In 2011, Delhaize acquired Serbian retailer Delta Maxi. In May 2013, Harveys was sold along with sister supermarket chains Sweetbay and Reid's to BI-LO, LLC for $265 million. The locations in

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

were sold in 2013. The locations in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

were sold in 2014. In November 2014, Delhaize Group signed an agreement to sell its Bottom Dollar food store locations in the U.S. to

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

, Inc. The stores were closed on 12 January 2015, and the transaction was completed early 2015. On 24 June 2015, Delhaize reached an agreement with

to merge, forming a new parent company,

. The merger agreement was signed after approval by shareholders and competition authorities on July 23, 2016. Ahold CEO

Dick Boer Dick Boer (born 31 August 1957) is a Dutch businessman. From 2011 to 2018, he was the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize. Early life Boer was born on 31 August 1957. Career Boer joined Ahold in ...

became CEO of the merged company until his retirement in July 2018, with

Frans Muller Frans W. H. Muller (born 1961) is a Dutch businessman, and the CEO of Ahold Delhaize, since July 2018, having been deputy CEO. Education Muller earned a master's degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Career Muller sta ...

, CEO of Delhaize initially as deputy CEO and chief integration officer. Frans Muller took over as CEO in July 2018.

Sales divisions

Europe

* Delhaize * AD Delhaize * Proxy Delhaize * Shop & Go * Delhaize.be * Caddyhome.be * Delhaizewineworld.com

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

* Delvita (1991–2007)

* Delhaize * Proxy Delhaize

Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos (Άλφα-Βήτα Βασιλόπουλος) or simply AB is a supermarket chain based in Greece.Basic ...

* City AB * AB Shop & Go * AB Food Market * ENA

Mega Image Mega or MEGA may refer to: Science * mega-, a metric prefix denoting 106 * Mega (number), a certain very large integer in Steinhaus–Moser notation * "mega-" a prefix meaning "large" that is used in taxonomy * Gravity assist, for ''Moon-Eart ...

* Shop & Go

* Maxi * Shop & Go (formerly: Mini Maxi) *

Tempo Centar Tempo Centar (formerly: Tempo Cash & Carry) is a Serbian hypermarket chain and a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize. History Tempo was founded in 2003, with headquarters located in Belgrade, Serbia. The first Tempo store, with 8,000 m2 of floor space, o ...

(formerly: Tempo Cash & Carry) * Mega Maxi

North America

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Operated as Delhaize America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delhaize Group: *

Hannaford Hannaford may refer to: People * Alf Hannaford (1890–1969), South Australian inventor and industrialist * Ann Hannaford Lamar (born 1952), American jurist * Charlie Hannaford (footballer) (1896–1970), English footballer * Clive Hannaford (19 ...

Bottom Dollar Food Bottom Dollar Food was an American soft-discount grocery chain. It was a subsidiary of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of international food retailer Delhaize Group. Its headquarters was in Salisbury, North Carolina. Bottom Dollar Food sold ...

Asia

* Super Indo (51%)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Ahold Delhaize 1867 establishments in Belgium Retail companies established in 1867 Companies established in 1867 1867 establishments 2016 disestablishments in Belgium Retail companies disestablished in 2016 2016 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Brussels Convenience stores Supermarkets of Belgium Companies of Belgium Supermarkets of the United States Supermarkets Belgian brands Publicly traded companies Food retailers Wholesalers