Ahold betting on e-commerce for growth
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Supermarket News] By Jon Springer - November 18, 2014 -
Ahold on Monday said that it was seeking to grow online sales by nearly 80% over the next three years, citing an expectation that sales of food and general merchandise would continue to shift online in the years ahead.
The online growth — which would take Ahold from an estimated $1.7 billion in online sales this year to $3.1 billion by 2017 — will be supported by additional investment of $75 million in global e-commerce capabilities between 2015 and 2017, Dick Boer, Ahold’s CEO, said in a presentation in the Netherlands.
In the U.S., for example, Peapod intends to open a new warehouse to better serve the Indianapolis market next year, while a new distribution site in New Jersey has helped expand the range of items available for shoppers in the New York metro area to 18,000 SKUs. Peapod sales in 2014 are expected to total $590 million, Boer said, reflecting compound annual growth rates of 11% over the past five years.
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