Albert Heijn owner Ahold Delhaize nominates Thierry Garnier as next CEO

Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of Albert Heijn, intends to appoint Thierry Garnier as its new CEO in 2027. He is expected to take over from current CEO Frans Muller in April that year. Muller will retire following his departure, after nearly nine years at the helm since mid-2018.

The French-British Garnier is an executive with "extensive international experience" in the retail sector, according to Ahold Delhaize. Since September 2019, he has served as the CEO of Kingfisher, a British DIY retail chain.

The proposed appointment of Garnier, born in 1966, will be put to a shareholder vote at Ahold Delhaize in April next year. Before his current role, he spent over two decades at French retailer Carrefour.

Wiebe Draijer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Ahold Delhaize, stated he is "pleased" with the nomination. Garnier himself expressed a long-standing "admiration" for Ahold Delhaize, adding that he is "honored" to be nominated for the role.

Ahold's 2016 merger with Belgian retailer Delhaize was overseen by Muller, who was then at the helm of the Belgian chain. Post-merger, the now 65-year-old executive spearheaded the integration process before replacing Dick Boer as CEO in 2018. According to Draijer, Muller’s leadership was "instrumental in transforming Ahold Delhaize into the resilient and highly focused entity it has become."

Ahold Delhaize reported lower revenue in the first quarter of this year due to unfavorable currency effects. The group has been struggling for some time with the decline in the value of the US dollar.

Total revenues amounted to 22.3 billion euros, a 4.3 percent decrease compared to the first quarter of last year. Excluding unfavorable exchange rates, this would have represented a 2 percent increase. The United States remains Ahold Delhaize's most important market, accounting for nearly 60 percent of total sales.

“Our private-label products are still growing faster than the rest of the assortment, both in revenue and volume,” said Muller in a statement on the results. Online channels once again stood out, with solid performance across the digital supermarket of Albert Heijn and e-commerce platform Bol, along with other online operations, which together grew by 8.3 percent.