Looking back on Ahold Delhaize’s Q3 business highlights
November 6, 2024 – Today, Ahold Delhaize released its third quarter results for 2024. Throughout the quarter, Ahold Delhaize and its brands continued to put the needs of customers first by implementing price investments to ensure great value, leveraging loyalty programs, modernizing our brands’ stores, and much more.
Before we get into our third quarter highlights, we’d like to acknowledge the devastating impact of environmental disasters many of our teams and customers experienced throughout the quarter. From Hurricane Helene and Debby in the U.S., extreme floods in the Czech Republic and wildfires in Greece. Our local brands and their associates played a significant role in supporting their communities and we’re proud of their efforts. Food Lion, with support from its foundation and its customers, donated more than $3.8 million and over 1.1 million pounds of food and supplies; Albert in the Czech Republic sent six truckloads of humanitarian aid to be distributed through food banks and directly to crisis centers in the affected area; and Alfa Beta in Greece supported local authorities, fire brigades and volunteer fire fighters impacted by the wildfires of Northern Attica with product donations. Moments like these serve as a reminder of the vital role our stores play in the heart of their communities.
Throughout the third quarter, our great local brands and colleagues worked hard to be your trusted local food retailer guided by our Growing Together strategy. Learn more below.
Accelerating online sales
In the third quarter, we again saw online growth rates accelerate as we are attracting more customers to our online platforms. We are becoming more efficient and more profitable, for example throughout Q3, we saw a positive impact of our transition to native apps as conversion rates increased by almost 10% r. Additionally, U.S. customers are responding positively to our partnership with DoorDash; where we have seen a 40% increase in the number of orders in Q3 compared with Q2. Also in the U.S., we have increased our click & collect store locations by over 70 new locations over the past 12 months.
Our brands’ loyalty programs also continued to strengthen. In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn’s loyalty program now has over 1.2 million paying premium customers and today marks the 15th anniversary since the launch of the AH app.
In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn experienced its sixth consecutive quarter of online sales growth. To keep up with growing demand, it has enhanced its logistics network and expanded capacity at their Home Shop Centers. Its second mechanized Home Shop Center in Zwolle is exceeding expectations, allowing the brand to serve more customers in the northeast. Now, 20% of Albert Heijn orders in the Netherlands are processed in an automated way.
Improving customer shopping experience
Our brands on both sides of the Atlantic are investing in new stores with fresh and modern shopping experiences. Not only does this allow us to introduce expanded assortments, we can also leverage technology to operate more efficiently and more sustainably.
This quarter, Delhaize Belgium completed its store transitions under its Future Plan with the last store converting this week. Affiliates and associates have worked hard over the past 18 months and thanks to the entrepreneurial mindset of our affiliates combined with the expertise of associates, stores that have been converted for a year or more have experienced double-digit sales growth compared to pre-conversion. Many of the converted stores are already reaching the performance levels initially forecasted for their second, third or even fourth year. Market share has also recovered to over 22%, surpassing pre-announcement levels.
In the U.S. Food Lion completed its 167-store remodeling program in the Raleigh-Durham market, and remodel construction of their 152 stores in the Charlotte market will be set for completion in 2025. In Europe, year to date, we have invested in 261 new stores and remodels. Our modernized stores offer an expanded ecosystem of integrated products and services that align with customers’ evolving preferences, as well as featuring upgraded facilities with new cooling and heating installations.
Ahold Delhaize USA also now offers enhanced in-store audio solutions to further empower consumer packaged goods partners to engage customers with personalized, real-time messaging to create a multi-sensory in-store experience.
As announced in July, Stop & Shop just completed the closure of 32 stores and has begun to roll out our revitalization strategy including price investments as mentioned in May at our strategy day. We're committed to enhancing the customer experience through price investments, store remodels, and improved in-store service. Starting with 25 stores in Rhode Island, Stop & Shop has lowered prices on 3,500 items across national and private brand products and introduced in-store saving kiosks for easier digital coupon redemption and loyalty rewards.
Healthy communities & planet
As part of Ahold Delhaize’s purpose to inspire everyone to eat and live better, for a healthier future for people and planet, one of our key priorities is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable supply chains. To this end, Ahold Delhaize USA has entered into various partnerships with suppliers to support regenerative agriculture, most recently with General Mills. This cooperation aims to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in our value chain (scope 3 emissions).
Throughout the third quarter, our brands also continued to enhance their food donation and food waste reduction programs and also promoted healthy initiatives. In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn already has the largest organic assortment of regular supermarkets in the Netherlands, and the recent introduction of organic fresh packages will make shopping for these items even easier and more convenient. Additionally, Albert Heijn has further developed their dynamic markdown technology to also include non-perishable products. This is a great example of how our investments in technology and innovation can contribute to our health and sustainability ambitions by reducing food waste. Lastly, bol our Dutch e-commerce brand, joined forces with second-hand stores in the Netherlands and Belgium to give returned items a second life.
Leading into the holiday period, our teams will be working hard to fill our brands shelves and apps with exciting offerings to provide you with everything you need for the holiday season. Stay tuned for more updates!