Ahold, the world's third largest retailer, is to combine its operations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to create a new organisation, Ahold Central Europe (ACE), based in Prague.
The Dutch supermarket group said that Ahold Central Europe would combine the back-office functions and management of Ahold's Polish, Czech and Slovak businesses, while maintaining localised operations in the three countries.
Jacquot Boelen, previously CEO of Ahold Polska, has been appointed chief executive officer of ACE.
The decision to combine the three units will allow Ahold to better use economies of scale through the merger of functions such as sourcing, human resource development, marketing and formats, administration and IS&T (Information Systems & Technology).
Day-to-day operations for the store chains and distribution centres will remain localised through separate country organisations and support offices, each managed by a chief operating officer who will report directly to Boelen. The COOs will have full responsibility for operations (such as financial results and market position) at Albert and Hypernova formats in their countries.
Boelen joined Ahold Polska in January of 2001 as president and CEO, and operations there have improved significantly under his tenure, in particular the further expansion of Hypernova hypermarkets and the rebranding of the company's supermarkets to Albert.
Peter Ruzicka, current CEO of Ahold Czech Republic, has elected to return to his home country Norway to pursue other opportunities and will hand over responsibilities to Boelen as of 1 January 2003. Under Ruzicka's leadership the company has become the market leader in food in the Czech Republic and he has contributed greatly to the development of the new centralised organisation.
ACE will manage over 400 Albert supermarkets and Hypernova hypermarkets in Central Europe with combined 2001 sales of approximately €1.3 billion. The integration will begin on 1 January 2003 and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.