The first 100 days as CSO of Ahold Delhaize

04-02-2025 | Interviewer: Arjan de Draaijer | Author: Emely Nobis
Who Alex Holt | What Since May 2024 Chief Sustainability Officer at Ahold Delhaize
You always worked in food retailing, most recently as chief sustainability officer at Woolworths Group. What attracted you to Ahold Delhaize?
‘To me, purpose is extremely important. Ahold Delhaize has an intrinsic commitment to inspire everyone to eat and live more healthily. As a leading retailer in the markets in which we operate, we want to play a significant role in the transition to a healthier and more sustainable food system and have open, challenging conversations about what this means and what is needed to achieve this. We focus on three main pillars: health, climate & nature and circularity including food waste. In my role, I want to inspire and mobilize teams and people from all parts of the organization as well as external partners to contribute to that goal.’
Ahold Delhaize is a multi-national with 7,700 stores and 400,000 employees. How do you get to know such a business thoroughly?
‘I was invited already in March 2024 to participate in the final evaluation of the new Growing Together strategy for the period 2025-2028. My first days then coincided with the launch of that strategy, with the top 300 leaders from across the organization present. So, I was able to meet them in person. That helped to accelerate my onboarding. Subsequently I had the great fortune to go on a tour of nine countries to get to know and understand all our brands and the different customer needs in depth.’
What stood out on that tour?
‘On the one hand, the differences. Hannaford in Maine, for example, is strongly committed to working with local producers. Food Lion in North Carolina is particularly dedicated to working with partners to reduce hunger in the local community. Albert Heijn in the Netherlands focuses on improved foods, supported by extensive innovation, such as the plant-based Terra assortment. At the same time, I saw passionate, engaged teams who want to make a meaningful contribution to local communities, everywhere. For me, the question is how to support and strengthen all these initiatives and to share the lessons learned broadly, so we can accelerate and realize even more impact.’
What are the biggest sustainability opportunities and challenges for Ahold Delhaize?
‘One of the biggest challenges is reducing emissions in our value chain, which in our case includes thousands of suppliers, producers and farmers around the world. Particularly for small and medium-sized suppliers, often family-owned businesses, it can be difficult to map the emissions from all their products and create long-term plans to make their business more sustainable. That is why, among other things, we have launched open-source climate hubs, with tools that can help them achieve this.
But also, I see challenges as opportunities. As a CSO, you have to be a ‘the glass is half full’ kind of person. There are great opportunities in harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence. And we are already starting to see some impressive applications. For example, the scan and cook feature in the Albert Heijn app uses AI assistance to help find a recipe that matches the ingredients inside your refrigerator based on a photo of the interior. This can help reduce food waste. We have similarly interesting experiments being done across all our brands, but the question is how to quickly scale up the successful initiatives.’
You moved from Sydney in Australia to Amsterdam for this job. How do you ensure you settle well and manage to make a success of it?
'I am British Australian and because of this move I now live closer to my family in Britain and Italy. To me this is important. I am also fortunate to have a husband who supports me, a little dog and wonderful Dutch neighbors. Having my own place with our own stuff is crucial for me to feel at home. Furthermore, I meditate daily. This is of enormous value to me both privately and in my work as it helps me to stay in the moment and to stay grounded and curious.’
Is there anything about the Dutch themselves that stands out?
Jokingly, ‘I was surprised by how much they love their sandwiches with cheese at lunch. Furthermore, the Dutch turned out to be a little less direct than I had expected based on their reputation. There certainly are other cultures where people are more direct. My experience so far is that people are considerate of others, give their opinions but do not want to be offensive. I really enjoy being here.’
This interview was published in Management Scope 02 2025.
This article was last changed on 04-02-2025