Food Lion 2012 Annual Report Download - page 24

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22 //
STRATEGY
FREE CASH FLOW GENERATION
Strong cash fl ow generation is the life blood of any business and Delhaize
Group is no exception. Facing the diffi culties in 2012 and preparing for the
coming challenges ahead, Delhaize Group has emphasized the creation of
strong free cash fl ow. “The importance of this key fi nancial indicator cannot
be overestimated. It is crucial in assessing both the current health of the com-
pany and securing the performance going forward. The initial target at the
beginning of the year was set at generating €500 million of free cash fl ow by
the end of 2012. At the end of the year, Delhaize Group largely overachieved
this target and even set aside €772 million in free cash fl ow”, comments Del-
haize Group Chief Financial Offi cer Pierre Bouchut. Going forward Delhaize
Group aims at creating an average annual free cash fl ow of around €500
million for the next three years. “This should give the company suffi cient
fi nancial breathing space to further implement its strategy of achieving profi t-
able top line growth and creating added value for all its stakeholders in both
the short and long term”.
Finally, for many customers the real
frustration in grocery shopping is
checking out and paying. Custom-
ers do not like to wait too long and
prefer to minimize their time spent
on this tedious part of their shop-
ping trip. Improving this aspect of
the customer’s experience is why
Delhaize Group offers a wide vari-
ety of check out systems at most of
its stores. One of the most innova-
tive and award-winning check-out
systems is at the discount format,
Red Market, in Belgium. There the
checkout already starts when enter-
ing the stores. Customers “check as
they shop” using a handheld device
to scan the products they buy. Then
when they are fi nished shopping
they cue in an airport-like single
line to then pay at the fi rst available
checkout desk. No extra manipula-
tion, like moving products from one
basket to another, is needed.
500 mio €
€ 772 million
Free Cash Flow generated in 2012