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Ahold sells off one third
of its operations - United States, Poland, Slovakia and Portugal will be
directly affected Netherlands-based retail multinational will sell its Tops stores in New York and Pennsylvania, as part of its ongoing restructuring process. The company will also let go its food service subsidiary in the United States, pull back from Poland and Slovakia, and end its participation in Portugal's Jeronimo Martens. Altogether, this means a cut of more than one third of its EUR 45 Billion (USD 57.7 Billion) turnover. 11,000 UFCW members affected, UFCW says The sale of the New York and Pennsylvania Tops stores will affect nearly 11,000 UFCW members, the large UNI Commerce affiliate says. - The UFCW will continue to aggressively represent our members and enforce all union contract provisions while the company seeks a buyer for its Tops stores, UFCW president Joe Hansen says. - We will actively engage with and impress on all potential buyers the necessity that UFCW members working at Tops stores maintain their union voice and good union wages and benefits. Union will not sit idle and wait, Joe Hansen says The UFCW president, who is also president of Union Network International, says that his union will not sit idle and wait what will become of the store chains. – We will actively support the best situated and most enlightened bidders to actively engage in the bidding process for the betterment of the company, its future shareholders/owners, and for the more than 84,000 Ahold employees represented by the UFCW, Joe Hansen says. - If Ahold attempts to sell its Top stores without regard for what becomes of the workers and the community post-sale, the company risks tarnishing its reputation at every banner operating in the U.S. - The UFCW intends to protect all Tops’ employees and the community members that make up Tops’ customer base by ensuring that their interests are well served. Ahold leaves Poland and Slovakia, remains in Scandinavia, Czech Republic and Baltics Ahold has already sold many of its stores in Poland, and will continue with a sale of its Polish and Slovakian Hypernova stores. Instead it will focus on its operations in the Czech Republic. The Dutch retail giant will also give up also its 49 per cent share in Portuguese retailer Jeronimo Martens. It will keep its 60% majority shareholding in leading Swedish retailer ICA, which has operations in Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. UNI Commerce is consulting with its affiliates in the countries concerned about the announced changes. These company sales are expected to bring in 4 Billion Euro, half of which will be used to reduce the debt that was related to problems with US Foodservice some years ago. The other half will be paid to shareholders, the company says.
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