Ahold unveils new-look logo for Stop & Shop, Giant stores

QUINCY, Mass. (Aug. 21) Stop & Shop’s long-standing logo will soon become a thing of the past.

The supermarket chain announced Thursday that it would redesign its logo and introduce new in-store features and technologies, saying it would “offer a peek into the grocery store of the future.” The changes will appear throughout the chain over the next year.

New technologies will include a hand-held scanning device that allows customers to scan and bag groceries while they shop, stations in the produce department for pricing and bagging fruits and vegetables and ordering kiosks in the deli section.

Another banner, Landover, Md.-based Giant Food, is also making changes, altering its logo and rolling out new store offerings. The changes will take place over the next two or three years; the first store affected will be in Bethesda, Md.

The Dutch company Ahold operates both chains. Giant Food operates 181 stores in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Stop & Shop, based in Quincy, Mass., operates stores throughout New York, New Jersey and the New England states.

Source: Drug Store News

New head of Giant-Landover stores, Stop & Shop

Carl Schlicker was named president and CEO of Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and its sister company Giant-Landover, marking his leap from a $4.3 billion to a $16.7 billion entity of Dutch food retailer tycoon Royal Ahold.

Schlicker, formerly chief executive of Ahold’s Giant-Carlisle group of supermarkets, will replace Jose Alvarez, who is ending his two-year chief executive role to become executive vice president of global business development for Amsterdam-based Ahold.

In February 2007, Schlicker took the reins of the 145-store Carlisle group from his role as executive vice president of sales and marketing of the Carlisle, Pa.-based group. . . more

$35M TIF Furthers $260 MXD Project

WASHINGTON, DC-DC developer Roadside Developer has closed on a financing package with the District that will launch a one-million-sf adaptive reuse project in the Shaw community. The city is giving Roadside $35 million in tax incremental financing. That money will allow the company to break ground on the $260 million project a year from September, Susan Linsky, project manager, tells GlobeSt.com. The TIF, she says, "means CityMarket at O will actually happen now. Getting this financing was always crucial to our plan." There is $44 million of public infrastructure-related investment connected to the project, she explains. "That is what the city money will cover." CityMarket at O is a mixed-use project that will eventually deliver 100 units of senior affordable housing, 385 market rate rentals, 160 condos, a 200-room limited service hotel, 560 parking slots, 460 of which are below ground, 87,000-sf of retail, including a 71,000-sf Giant grocery store--the largest in DC, according to Linsky. These plans are still preliminary, she says, as the company is still in the schematic phase. As of right now, there will be five buildings all together: two multifamily buildings, a condo, the hotel and the Giant grocery store. It is the grocery store that is the adaptive use portion of the project. Roadside is restoring the O Street Market, a historic building, and incorporating it into the Giant. Built in 1881, the O Street Market served not only as a market but as a place for residents to meet and socialize.

Source: GlobeSt.com

Ahold says vigilant on economy, food prices

AMSTERDAM, April 23 (Reuters) - Dutch supermarket group Ahold (AHLN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it would keep a close watch on economic developments and rising food prices, and it expected its U.S. operations to improve in the later part of 2008.

"We will remain vigilant on the changing economic situation and rising food prices," Ahold Chief Executive John Rishton told shareholders at a meeting.

Ahold, the world's seventh largest retailer by sales, makes more than half its revenue in the United States, and the rest in Europe. The U.S. share has declined in recent years after the sale of some assets, but the company is trying to boost its U.S. operations.

By 1255 GMT shares traded down 1.6 percent, underperforming the DJ Stoxx European retailers' index , which traded down 1.0 percent.

In 2006, Ahold began a two-year overhaul of its two main U.S. chains, Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover, cutting prices and offering more own-brand products and greater variety. It also sold its catering supplies unit U.S. Foodservice.

Half of Ahold's operating profit comes from Dutch grocery chain Albert Heijn. It is also present in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and has joint ventures in Portugal and Sweden.
Rishton said he expected to sell Ahold's 49 percent stake in Portugal's Jeronimo Martins Retail (JMR) this year.

"We are confident we will sell JMR Holdings this year," he said at the shareholders meeting.
Scandinavian joint venture ICA, in which Ahold holds 60 percent, will continue to be part of the group, Rishton said, as it has a very strong market position. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Writing by Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Quentin Bryar)

Source: Reuters

Safeway, Giant workers OK contr

Safeway Inc. and Giant Food LLC employees in the region approved a new labor contract Tuesday after more than a month of negotiations.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents about 26,000 employees in the D.C. and Baltimore areas, reached agreement with the leaders over the weekend. D.C. Giant and Safeway employees, represented by the UFCW's Local 400, voted at the D.C. Armory Tuesday.

The primary issues at the bargaining table were wages, pensions and health benefits. Under the new contract, the stores provided wage and pension fund increases.

As for health care benefits, new employees will now have to pay modest contributions under the contract, he said.

Source: Washington Business Journal