Our Commitment

In the modern world, people often feel disconnected from each other, from food and from their environment. We aim to help them re-connect, by making it easy to choose healthy food and to rediscover the pleasure of cooking and eating, especially together with friends and family. And by focusing on product safety, sustainable trade and climate action, we help ensure the choices they make connect to the good of the planet as well.

Our philosophy

We identify and act in areas where we can link benefits for customers and stakeholders with benefits for the wider community and the planet.

In doing so, we support Ahold’s mission to help our customers choose the best for themselves and the people they care about. As a food retailer, we are uniquely placed to observe social developments and trends and translate them into inspiring consumer choices.

For our business, we aim to act on these trends in ways that help sustain the planet and supplier communities, while decreasing our risk and costs.

The key is to identify relevant trends early enough to take appropriate action, so we can offer the right solutions at the right time. In our quest to stay one step ahead, we listen closely to our customers and engage actively with governments, NGOs and industry bodies.

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Our CR Responsibility

We have made Corporate Responsibility a formal part of our business management. CR is now on the agenda of every quarterly Ahold Corporate Executive Board business review meeting, with quantified, measurable targets.

In addition, we are developing Ahold-wide guidelines and policies that our companies will use to shape their individual CR efforts. These include a group-wide policy on product safety and structures to check that our companies comply with the high standards we set ourselves.

These efforts are a continuation of our long-standing commitment to product safety.

As one of the pioneers of Global Food Safety Initiative, we work with other leading retailers to establish industry-wide standards in product safety. We are also working with industry partners and NGOs to develop agreed standards and processes for independent supplier sustainability audits.

Naturally, in keeping with our commitment to openness and transparency, we will continue to report the results of all our Corporate Responsibility activities regularly.

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CR at Ahold

If you are unable to find the information you need here on the website, in our Corporate Responsibility Report, or in our Annual Report, we are happy to help. We will answer your question as soon as possible.