ZAANDAM, The Netherlands, Nov. 30, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ahold (NYSE:AHO), the leading food retail and foodservice company, today announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Alliant Exchange, Inc., the parent company of Alliant Foodservice, Inc., a prominent operator in the foodservice market of the United States. Ahold is already owner of U.S. Foodservice, the second largest food service company in the United States with annual sales of approximately USD 12 billion. Together with Alliant, Ahold's foodservice operations in the United States now generate total sales of approximately USD 19 billion.
Jim Miller, President and CEO of U.S. Foodservice and Member of Ahold's Executive Board, said that the closing of the transaction means, "we will be able to incorporate Alliant's December results in our 2001 consolidated numbers and benefit from Alliant's contributions for full-year 2002. The synergies and cost savings are considerable and range from approximately USD 70 million to USD 120 million in the third year of operation. We are implementing plans immediately to streamline both operations in such a way that maximum efficiency will be achieved in both distribution and customer services. The U.S. Foodservice and Alliant accounts will benefit from additional services available to them in more locations as both companies excel in complementary fields of expertise. Jointly U.S. Foodservice and Alliant can now serve approximately 95% of the U.S. population. We're very proud of that."
Ahold in the United States and worldwide
In addition to its foodservice activities, Ahold owns five prominent supermarket companies along the eastern seaboard. The popular store brands include Stop & Shop (MA), Giant Landover (MD), Tops (NY), Giant Carlisle (PA) and BI-LO (SC). Jointly they operate over 1,400 stores of which 1,050 are supermarkets. Retail sales amount to USD 22 billion. The number of stores will increase to 1,600 following completion of the acquisition of Bruno's Supermarkets, expected for December 2001. Overall annualized sales from Ahold's retail and foodservice activities in the United States total approximately USD 34 billion. Worldwide Ahold has sales of over USD 60 billion in 27 countries. The company currently operates 8,600 supermarkets, superstores, hypermarkets and other store formats in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Ahold is listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam (symbol AHLN), New York (NYSE:AHO) and Zurich.
Ahold's Website is www.Ahold.com
This press release contains certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. These statements are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe-harbor provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements as more fully discussed in Ahold's Annual Report on Form 20-F. Many of these risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond Ahold's ability to control or estimate precisely, such as future market and economic conditions, the behavior of other market participants, the ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and achieve anticipate synergies and the actions of government regulators. These and other risk factors are detailed in Ahold's publicly filed reports. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Ahold does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of these materials.