Albert Heijn first Dutch supermarket to start offering hot meal delivery

Supermarket chain Albert Heijn will start offering hot meal delivery from Friday - the first Dutch supermarket to do so. Initially Albert Heijn will only deliver freshly made meals in a certain area in Amsterdam. Deliveries will be handled by Thuisbezorgd.nl and Deliveroo, NU.nl reports.

"We see an increasing demand among our customers for good meals, like you would make yourself, without having to go into the kitchen", said Marit van Egmond, Albert Heijn's director of commerce. The company described this as the next step in food service.

Albert Heijn wants to modernize its shops and services in response to declining visitor numbers at its traditional stores. The supermarket chain already has a detailed plan for further roll-out of its meal delivery. When and where this will happen, the company did not say.

This week furniture giant IKEA also announced that it is starting with meal delivery from its own IKEA kitchen, also through a partnership with Thuisbezorgd.nl, according to the newspaper. IKEA will test this service in Groningen, and if it is successful, roll out meal delivery to other cities.