Good health is the key to a happy, active and fulfilling life. But many of us have such busy schedules that we don’t have time to work on our health. Instead, we stick to unhealthy diets and hurried meals.
That’s where all Ahold’s retailers are providing a helping hand – by making healthy choices easy. Healthy eating doesn’t mean giving up convenience and pleasure. Nor does it have to be expensive. At Ahold, we believe all our customers should be able to enjoy healthy choices.
A tradition of helping customers choose the best
For us, making healthy living easy is part of our tradition of helping customers make the right choices. Today, all our operating companies run programs to help inform and guide consumers.
In Sweden, for instance, ICA offers Gott Liv (Good Life products) and uses the Green Keyhole labelling system to indicate healthy products. While in the Netherlands, shoppers at Albert Heijn can look for the Healthy Choice Clover symbol. In the United States, customers can even ask Giant-Carlisle’s in-store nutritionists for tips. And in the Czech Republic, Albert and Hypernova have made healthy eating for children a big focus.
Ahold Healthy Living team
There’s so much going on that Ahold set up a Healthy Living team to share ideas among our various companies. The team helps us make the most of our combined expertise in areas like quality and nutrition. It also creates broad programs that the companies can adapt for their local consumers.
“We’re working to help all our customers live more healthily in an affordable, convenient way. After all, feeling good is something everyone wants.”
“We base our approach on the World Health Organization’s guidelines: eat more fruit, vegetables and fiber, less salt, sugar and fat, and exercise regularly,” says Ahold Healthy Living team leader, Onno Franse.
“When we eat well, we feel better and perform better, and life is more enjoyable. The challenge comes in changing our habits. Governments can give advice and food producers can improve their recipes, but we as retailers are in the ideal position to help people take action. It’s in the supermarket that people make choices for all the day’s ‘eating moments’, so we can help customers achieve a total balanced diet.”
Concerted effort
The Ahold Healthy Living team addresses all sorts of issues from the assortment offered to in-store services, the shopping & eating experience and programs for employees. But it currently has four focus areas: healthier family meals and giving children a better start in life; weight management; how to stay healthy day-to-day, and re-connecting people with good food, good eating habits and the social pleasures of eating together.
The Ahold Healthy Living Team and our various companies also work closely with government bodies and public health organizations. By aligning our efforts with wider public health programs, we aim to help make these initiatives easier for our customers to understand and follow.
As Onno says, “We’re working to help all our customers live more healthily in an affordable, convenient way. After all, feeling good is something everyone wants.”