ZAANDAM, The Netherlands, July 22, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ahold NV (NYSE:AHO):
The European buying and marketing alliance AMS today announced that prominent Spanish retailer Caprabo is to become its 11th member in September 2002.
Caprabo, based in the Catalonian city of Barcelona, has annualized sales of approximately Euro 1.6 billion. The company has nationwide retail operations comprising 500 supermarkets and 25 gas stations. Caprabo was founded in 1959 and employs approximately 12,000 people.
AMS, the second largest buying alliance of European food retailers, was established in 1988 with the purpose of realizing benefits for its members, suppliers, and more than 100 million customers who shop the 22,000 AMS member stores every week. The AMS retailers generate annualized sales of more than Euro 100 billion.
Comment by Felix Fernandez, AMS Managing Director: "We are delighted to welcome Caprabo into our buying and marketing alliance. Having Caprabo as a new partner will enhance the Southern European presence of the alliance. Caprabo's expertise and experience will add big value to the AMS association."
Comment by Xavier Argente, Caprabo CEO: "Our integration in AMS offers us big supply opportunities and improvement of the procurement capacity for our private label products under the Caprabo brand."
With 14 years of experience, AMS is well positioned to safeguard the interests of leading international and domestic food retailers. In recent years, AMS has developed a range of international sourcing and marketing initiatives including the EURO SHOPPERO brand, European private labels, internet auctions and many joint marketing agreements with suppliers of branded goods.
The AMS international team operates from the Netherlands. AMS also runs an office in Switzerland for EURO SHOPPER trademark activities. Current AMS members are: Ahold The Netherlands, Dansk Supermarked Group Denmark, EDEKA Germany, Hakon Norway, ICA Sweden, Jeronimo Martins Retail Portugal, Kesko Finland, OPERA France, Safeway United Kingdom and Superquinn Ireland.