Food Lion 2001 Annual Report Download - page 5

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|3
4.9%. Alfa-Beta became the second largest
Greek food retailer with the acquisition of
Trofo. Delvita focused on an in-depth store
concept renewal in its Czech and Slovak
operations resulting in very positive sales
growth in the first remodelled stores.
Promising Outlook | This
year will mark the 135th year of Delhaize’s
recognized expertise in food sales. We
believe our never-ending commitment to
make Delhaize Group the best place to
work and shop has been the driver of our
continued success.
Building upon the changes of 2001,
Delhaize Group looks forward to
continuing its successful trend of sales and
profit growth. The combination of the local
strengths of our companies with the
development of Group expertise, will
enable Delhaize Group to continue, amid
economic uncertainty and a challenging
competitive climate in our main markets, to
grow our sales network, implement new
sales and margin initiatives, and integrate
our various acquisitions.
These initiatives will strengthen Delhaize
Group’s position as a high-performing
international food retailer. We expect an
expansion of our sales network by 136
stores in 2002 to a total of 2,580. Delhaize
Group plans capital expenditure of
approximately EUR 715 million in 2002.
The modern store portfolio and
infrastructure, and the disciplined approach
to capital expenditure will allow the Group
to continue its sales and profit growth,
while also focusing on decreasing the
leverage of the balance sheet through the
ongoing generation of strong free cash flow.
Acknowledgements | Our
success is the result of the continued support
we enjoyed throughout 2001 from all of our
stakeholders.
We want to thank our 147,000 associates
throughout the world for their endless efforts
to continuously improve our product
offerings, customer service and efficiency. We
are proud of their work, and we assure them
that because of our commitment to excellence
and thanks to our successes, they can remain
proud to work for Delhaize Group.
We also thank our millions of customers on
three continents for their loyalty, their
appreciation of our work and their valuable
feedback. They can count on our
commitment to continue to offer them the
most valuable shopping experience.
And finally we want to thank our
shareholders for their belief in our business
approach and our management teams.
Chief Executive Officer
important structural changes, from the share exchange
Delhaize Group is ready for more years of growth.”
Pierre-Olivier Beckers,
President and Chief Executive Officer
Gui de Vaucleroy,
Chairman of the Board of Directors