Empty shelves as Albert Heijn clashes with manufacturers and brands
Some shelves at Albert Heijn are rapidly running empty due to disagreements with several major manufacturers. The Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain is at loggerheads with coffee and tea firm JDE Peet's, which counts Douwe Egberts, L'Or, Pickwick and Senseo among their many brands, sources in the market told Distrifood. The food industry publication also cited sources claiming Albert Heijn was also in a tense negotiation with Kraft Heinz, which the conglomerate later denied, while RetailDetail reported that the supermarket chain was struggling to reach supply agreements with Mondelez.
According to Distrifood’s sources, JDE Peet's and Kraft Heinz have stopped supplying products to Albert Heijn until an agreement is in place. A sample survey by the trade medium at five Albert Heijn stores showed gaps quickly appearing on the supermarket shelves. People looking for Douwe Egberts Coffee or De Ruijter chocolate sprinkles have been out of luck. Mondelez products are also increasingly missing from the Albert Heijn shelves.
A spokesperson for Kraft Heinz told NL Times by email that they were not actually preventing the distribution of their products to Albert Heijn. They claimed that "some empty shelves" this month were the result of a "successful promotion" in December. However, it could take "a few weeks" for their products, including hagelslag sprinkles, to return to store shelves.
The food conglomerate owns both the De Ruijter and Venz brands of hagelslag. The supermarket chain did run a promotion where consumers who purchased two name brand products typically used on breads, such as hagelslag, would get a third for free. The ten-day promotion ended nearly a month ago on December 26.
RetailDetail also stated that JDE Peet’s was in a clash with Albert Heijn's main Dutch competitor, Jumbo, as well as Colruyt in Belgium, and both Aldi and Edeka in Germany. The magazine for the retail sector said it was not much of a surprise that the coffee and tea giant is now also at loggerheads with Albert Heijn.
Jumbo CEO Ton van Veen told RetailDetail last week that the annual negotiations with brand manufacturers have been even harder than usual this year. The manufacturers see growth declining and want to increase margins. At the same time, the fierce competition between supermarkets means that they can’t hike prices.
Albert Heijn, Kraft Heinz, and JDE Peet's did not respond to Distrifood’s questions on the matter before the article was published by the media outlet.
