Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Close to 1,800 Ahold associates from seven countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Poland, Argentina and the Czech Republic, gathered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on Sunday September 17 to participate in the 15th annual Dam to Dam running race, sponsored by Royal Ahold, the international food provider.
The Dam to Dam is one of the Netherlands most popular running races. For the first time, runners this year could choose for the traditional 16 kilometer run from AmsterDAM to the neighboring town of ZaanDAM (hence Dam to Dam), the more leisurely 7 kilometer run or for the super-fit, the 21 kilometer run. Zaandam is Ahold’s base in the Netherlands where Albert Heijn first began operations and it now houses both Albert Heijn and Ahold’s headquarters.
Ahold first became involved in the Dam to Dam when it began sponsoring the race in 1985. In just 15 years it has quadrupled in size, attracting more than 23,000 keen participants in 2000. “The participation of so many Ahold associates every year displays a true sign of international team spirit and makes for a fantastic day,” said Hans Gobes, Senior Vice President of Ahold Corporate Communications. “Along with hundreds of staff from our Dutch subsidiaries including Albert Heijn, we had excellent representation from Ahold Poland, Ahold Czech Republic, Argentina and even Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia where we operate the popular TOPS supermarkets. Next year we also expect store teams from the United States where Ahold has five large supermarket companies. These days we not only see that many of our customers are more and more concerned about their health but also Ahold associates worldwide are in excellent physical condition, capable of running 16 kilometers in less than one and a half hours. That’s impressive!”
Ahold’s best performer was Thai runner, Mr. Veerapan Choeakool, an associate of Bangkok’s popular TOPS supermarket, who finished the race in 1 hour 10mins. An excellent result! “We all had a wonderful time during our stay in The Netherlands,” said one Ahold Thai associate. “We were very happy to meet other Ahold team members – it made us really feel part of the family and we managed to improve our fitness as well!”
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 also has significant experience in the foodservice industry and through its e-commerce activities. Ahold employs over 350,000 associates and serves the food needs of over 30 million loyal customers in 23 countries every week. Ahold’s website: www.ahold.com.