SALISBURY, N.C. — Delhaize America, which a month ago talked about a “new game plan” for 2010, is also creating new teams to play.
The company last week unveiled a new corporate structure that will merge support functions for all of its U.S. banners. Rick Anicetti, currently CEO of Delhaize's Food Lion banner, will become CEO of Delhaize Shared Services, effective Feb. 1, and will oversee corporate development, legal and government relations, information technology, finance, communications, organizational change management and human resources for all of the retailer's U.S. stores.
Ron Hodge, currently CEO of Hannaford Bros., will be CEO of Delhaize America Operations and will oversee all Delhaize banners and four banner presidents: Cathy Green (Food Lion including Bloom, Reid's and Harvey's); Meg Ham (Bottom Dollar); Beth Newlands Campbell (Hannaford Bros.); and Mike Vail (Sweetbay). Hodge will also oversee strategy and research, and supply chain and procurement shared services, the company said.
“By streamlining our U.S. operations, we will become a stronger and more efficient company,” Pierre-Olivier Beckers, president and CEO of Delhaize Group and CEO of Delhaize America, said in a statement. “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.”
Christy Phillips-Brown, a spokeswoman for Food Lion, told SN the company is in the process of determining the optimal structure for the new organization, which she said would maintain its current offices here in Salisbury; in Scarborough, Maine; and in Tampa, Fla.
The company also said it would close 15 Food Lion stores and one Bloom location that it described as underperforming. The company reiterated plans to open 120 to 130 new stores during the 2010 fiscal year.
Delhaize said total revenues during the fourth quarter grew by 1.5% at identical exchange rates, with comparable-store sales in the U.S. down by 2.8% and up by 2.6% in Europe. The company said the comp decline was due mainly to deflation. For the fiscal year, U.S. comps declined 0.4% amid overall revenue growth of 2.6%.
