Delhaize Group Announces New U.S. Structure to Streamline Support Functions for U.S. Banners

SCARBOROUGH, Maine; SALISBURY, N.C.; and TAMPA, Fla., -- Delhaize Group today announced a new organizational structure for its U.S. operations focused on creating a strong foundation for future growth.

Each of the Delhaize U.S. banners - Food Lion, Harveys, Reid's, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Hannaford and Sweetbay - will continue to operate in existing locations, continue to serve customers under their respective names, and there will be no changes that affect customers.

Support functions for the banners will be part of the Delhaize America organization, the U.S. division of Delhaize Group, while maintaining the unique go-to-market strategies of each of these banners.

The banner organizations will be supported by common U.S. shared services for corporate development, legal and government relations, information technology, finance, communications, organizational change management, human resources, strategy and research, and supply chain and procurement.

Pierre-Olivier Beckers, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delhaize Group, is also CEO of Delhaize America.

"By streamlining our U.S. operations, we will become a stronger and more efficient company," said Pierre-Olivier Beckers, CEO of Delhaize Group and Delhaize America. "This new structure enables us to eliminate redundancies in our operations, and provide efficient and effective support to the retail operations, while ensuring a strong focus on local customer needs. In addition, we believe this new simplified structure will create a strong foundation to better support future growth strategies, such as potential acquisitions."

Shared Services Organization
Rick Anicetti, currently CEO of Food Lion LLC, will serve as CEO of Delhaize America Shared Services and will have responsibility for the company's corporate shared services functions. The corporate shared services leaders include:

"Today's announcement will further strengthen our organization and enable us to provide a greater focus on customers through a more efficient operation," said Anicetti. "I look forward to leading the shared services organization that will serve our banner operations and identifying future business development opportunities to continue to propel the organization's growth."

Banner Operations Organization
Ron Hodge, currently CEO of Hannaford Supermarkets, will serve as CEO of Delhaize America Operations and will have responsibility for all U.S. retail banner operations. The banner organizations will be led by the following banner presidents:

Hodge also will also oversee the following support functions, headed by:

"We remain strongly committed to continuing to serve our customers locally and ensuring that all banners deliver the excellent quality and great prices that our customers have come to expect from our company," said Hodge. "I look forward to leading the U.S. banner operations while benefiting from the new organizational structure with efficient shared services."