Worldwide Ahold promotion in 6,000 of its supermarkets in 23 countries

Zaandam, The Netherlands; Chantilly, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bangkok, Thailand. September 11, 2000: Royal Ahold, the international food provider with more than 6000 supermarkets and hypermarkets in 23 countries, has announced a worldwide promotion for 30 million of its customers. The promotion, lasting 2 weeks, is scheduled for the September-October period, 2000.

“It is the first time an international supermarket company has run a worldwide promotion with so many of its stores participating,” says Hans Gobes, Senior Vice President Communications of Ahold. “Many of our suppliers from around the world are actively involved. In Guatemala where Ahold is 50% owner of the La Fragua supermarkets, customers can win a house each day of the promotion while in the United States at our store chains Tops, BI-LO, Stop & Shop, Giant Carlisle and Giant Landover, cruise vacations can be won.”

Best in Your Home
The theme of the promotion is “Best In Your Home” and has been translated into 13 languages. Ahold stores in Europe, the US, Latin America, Central America and Asia are participating in the promotion to leverage Ahold’s global scale of approximately Euro 50 billion in annualized sales. Over 20 million of the company’s customers are expected to benefit from the best buys in food and general merchandise. International Ahold suppliers have contributed special products to the promotion, on offer in practically all 23 countries Ahold has operations in. The promotion is supplemented with a great variety of products from local suppliers, as well.

Customers benefit from global size
“We’re excited about the excellent offers we have during the promotion and the enthusiasm of our suppliers is very encouraging. They contributed quality items at a highly attractive promotional price which we pass onto our stores, who in turn pass onto our customers. The considerable volumes we wanted to give all parties with clear economies of scale, make the promotion unique in size, dimension and customer reach.” said Gerard van Breen, Senior Vice President, Ahold Global Sourcing at corporate headquarters in The Netherlands.

Superb bargains
Customers will not only find food and general merchandise for a very low price in the stores, they also can participate in sweepstakes. In Guatemala in Central America customers can win a house every day of the two-week promotion.

In the US, Ahold’s customers not only enjoy sharp price-off’s during the promotion but are in the running to win cruises or free cola for a year. In non-food categories ‘hot’ specials are on offer including popular toys and domestic appliances in new design.

Participating countries
Ahold’s global promotion runs in the United States in over 1,100 popular supermarkets from
Stop & Shop, Giant Carlisle, Giant Landover, BI-LO and Tops. In Europe the promotion includes Albert Heijn in The Netherlands and ICA in Sweden/Norway. Also the Hypernova hypermarkets, Albert supermarkets in the Czech Republic and the operations in Poland and Spain are participating. In Central America, Disco in Argentina, La Fragua with operations in Honduras,
El Salvador and Guatemala and Santa Isabel stores in Paraguay, Peru and Chile are involved.
In Asia, TOPS stores in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are participating.

Royal Ahold
Royal Ahold operates approximately 7,000 supermarkets, hypermarkets and other store formats
in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia with annualized sales approaching
Euro 50 billion. The company is also active in foodservice and e-commerce home shopping. Ahold serves the food needs worldwide of over 30 million customers in 23 countries.

Ahold’s website can be found at www.ahold.com.