Ahold Consolidates Fresh Formats Group as Small-Store Strategy Evolves

Ahold Delhaize confirmed this week that its Fresh Formats division, which pioneered the millennial-friendly Everything Fresh and Bfresh small-store concepts, would be rolled into its Stop & Shop store division.

The company also said it would close Everything Fresh—Fresh Formats’ first store, which opened in Philadelphia in 2014—and one of its three Bfresh stores in Boston this week. Additionally, it said it would open a store in Newton, Mass., originally slated to open as a Bfresh, under a revamped Stop & Shop small format.

Reports said the company had also decided not to proceed with three Bfresh stores planned for Philadelphia, but the company declined commenting.

In addition, Ahold Delhaize said Eastside Marketplace, the Providence, R.I.-based store known for fresh and service initiatives acquired by the company and assigned to Fresh Formats group in 2014, would convert to the Stop & Shop brand.

Fresh Formats was founded as an independent division of Ahold with responsibility for testing new store concepts designed to serve growing customer bases the company’s traditional supermarkets typically did not reach, including shoppers in dense urban markets and younger shoppers. Everything Fresh, the first such project of the group, opened in 2014 in Philadelphia and a larger evolution of that store, Bfresh followed in Boston a year later.

“The decision to close the Everything Fresh store was a difficult one, but the location was always considered a ‘learning lab’ and we intend to use those learnings going forward,” Ahold Delhaize spokesman Chris Brand told Winsight Grocery Business. “We are evaluating the best options for the Philadelphia sites and have no further announcements to make at this time.”

Stop & Shop division relayed a similar message for the future of the Bfresh brand. While locations remain in the Allston and Somerville neighborhoods, the company’s Brighton store will close over the weekend, Mark McGowan, Stop & Shop’s president, said in a statement.

“As part of our brand-centric strategy, Stop & Shop plans to develop new, small store format opportunities,” he said.  “Fresh Formats was specifically created to develop and test format opportunities to understand what works and what doesn’t work in urban and other small store locations.

“We will apply key learnings from Bfresh and the Eastside Marketplace—such as innovative technology, fresh prepared meals, a health focused assortment and exciting ways to engage customers digitally and online—to Stop & Shop stores more broadly and to future alternative and small format store opportunities,” McGowan added.

In support of its brand-centric strategy, Stop & Shop also announces plans to open a new small format store at the planned Bfresh location in Newton, Mass. in 2018. 

Bfresh stores emphasized a wide variety of fresh prepared meals and a larger mix of organic and fresh foods as part of its overall assortment. They utilized a modern design and presented an overt message to younger shoppers around addressing “compromises” of typical food stores.

The move to pursue a smaller version of the Stop & Shop brand could well have been influenced by Ahold’s acquired Delhaize banner, particularly Hannaford which crafted a small interpretation of its full-size store in North Berwick, Maine in 2015.