🛒 Frans Muller on Small-Scale Impact & Big-Picture Retail at CGF 2025 | Ahold Delhaize CEO 🌍
In this special closing interview from the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at CGF 2025 in Amsterdam, Frans Muller, CEO of Ahold Delhaize, joins Omni Talk Retail (0:10). He opens with reflections on the value of the Consumer Goods Forum and his time as co-chair (1:15), before diving into Ahold’s strategy of acting small at scale by empowering local stores and embracing community-specific solutions (2:15). He discusses how loyalty data and AI are reshaping personalized experiences (4:00), and how technology makes it easier to remain locally relevant while capturing operational efficiencies (5:30). Frans shares thoughts on sustainability, collaboration across the value chain, and lessons from peers on issues like plastic waste and human rights due diligence (6:30). He wraps with reflections on leadership, vulnerability, and the importance of staying humble and curious—even as a global CEO (9:00).
#FransMuller #AholdDelhaize #cgf2025 #retailleadership #SustainableRetail #foodwaste #groceryinnovation #retailtechnology #omnitalkretail
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Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker B:And I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker A:And we are coming to you live from the Fusion Group booth at the Consumer Goods Forum in Amsterdam.
Speaker A:It is the last day of the conference and for the last day.
Speaker A:We always save the best for last.
Speaker A:And so we have the man about town, the man of Amsterdam, the CEO of Ajo Delez, Franz Muller.
Speaker A:Franz, welcome back to omnitalk.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's very nice to be here.
Speaker C:Last time we saw each other and Chris in Vegas.
Speaker C:So it's nice to host you now a little bit here.
Speaker B:I'll say what a great job.
Speaker B:This event has been.
Speaker B:So, so well organized.
Speaker B:It's been so much fun.
Speaker B:And Amsterdam, what a great city.
Speaker B:Thanks for having us.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And talking about the organization, I'm very fortunate to have Dirk Vanderpoet as my colleague on the manufacturing side from Mondelez as a partner.
Speaker C:A good CGF organization and also event organization here.
Speaker C:And you have noticed we also organize the weather, right?
Speaker B:Yes, it's been spectacular.
Speaker C:Those are the five days in the.
Speaker B:Year where the weather come to Minneapolis and help us organize our weather.
Speaker B:Is that possible?
Speaker C:I think for everything is a price.
Speaker A:You do your best.
Speaker A:You do your best.
Speaker A:Well, talk just a little bit before we get into the interview here too talk a little bit about Consumer Goods Forum and your tenure and what it's all about and why it exists.
Speaker C:The forum is a unique association bringing CEOs of manufacturers and retailers together, a very nice geographical spread in all the continents in the world.
Speaker C:And it's about collaboration and it's about how do we make sure that this industry, this food and non food retail industry and manufacturing industry is getting a better future and what our contribution is here to make this a better planet and that we also work hard for our people.
Speaker C:So a lot of topics which are pre competitive where we need to find collaboration because a lot of things are big.
Speaker C:You know, if you look at technology, food waste, climate, human rights, due diligence, data standardization, you can't do this as a company alone.
Speaker C:So that's why we have the forum here to do this together.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, tell us a little bit about Ahold.
Speaker B:Let's, let's focus on your business specifically.
Speaker B:One of the things that I think you do a really good job here of showcasing is how you really focus on being small and focused on the communities that you serve in, despite how big Ahold is as a, as an organization.
Speaker B:Tell us how you really think about and do that in your day to.
Speaker C:Day I don't like the word big.
Speaker C:I don't like the word.
Speaker A:You just don't like the word.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:We are not a small retailer, as we know, both in Europe and the U.S.
Speaker C:as you know, with 400,000 team in the company, $19 billion, 19 billion euro sales.
Speaker C:But in the end, for our consumers, our customers, it's that only store which must be right.
Speaker C:365 days a year.
Speaker C:Those communities who would like to see us giving things back and to nourish the communities and to make sure that we are there for the families and the households.
Speaker C:And that makes you humble.
Speaker C:And that if we don't have a view to be small and to be small in 9,500 stores, every store, again, I think they would make a big mistake.
Speaker C:That's why on one hand, scale and leverage and very good teams.
Speaker C:But in the end, it's about small and the details.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Taking that and figuring out a way to scale that and so that it feels unique in each community.
Speaker C:Yeah, and our communities are unique.
Speaker C:That's the beauty of this business.
Speaker C:We are serving 70 million customers a week.
Speaker C:And you know, in the communities in the U.S.
Speaker C:we have quite a good presence in the U.S.
Speaker C:as you know.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:All those communities have their own personality, their own DNA, their own, their own ethnicity, their own income levels.
Speaker C:And we have to be there for everybody.
Speaker C:And that is our goal.
Speaker A:So, you know, part of what you're saying too is also the consumer is different and partly because of the digital interactions that the consumer is having with everything in their lives.
Speaker A:So how do you think about the concept of being small, but yet adapting the store and the digital presence of a hole to the everyday consumer?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think we learn a lot from our consumers to start with.
Speaker C:And the second thing is to be very good in your digital proposition, in your personalization.
Speaker C:You need scale to be investing in technology, AI and data.
Speaker C:And that's why that skill helps.
Speaker C:But we invest a lot in understanding our customers better data.
Speaker C:We are very rich on data.
Speaker C:75, 80% of our sales is going through our loyalty systems.
Speaker C:So we know a lot about our customers and that gives us the opportunity and the obligation at the same time to have a personalized, personalized offer, which is really making sense for them.
Speaker C:So that is what we try to do.
Speaker C:And our African American communities in Charlotte ask for different type of menus and recipes and these kind of things than our Hispanic communities in Raleigh, for example.
Speaker A:Does technology make it easier to be small?
Speaker C:It's easier to be small because it connects to the Communities.
Speaker C:It's for our people in the stores better to understand.
Speaker C:Our people in the stores are also a representation of our community so that our customers feel home.
Speaker C:And it's nice also to be for.
Speaker C:To understand for who you work.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker C:And to focus on your customers every day and to be unique for them.
Speaker C:And that is not always working.
Speaker C:We're not always perfect.
Speaker C:But I think it's a big excitement for our customers and for our folks, our associates to serve those communities, those local communities in the best possible way.
Speaker B:And I imagine using technology to collect that feedback also from your stores so that you can continue to make sure that you're refining that.
Speaker B:Like you're talking about for the Charlotte store, for the Raleigh store.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And the customers are very smart.
Speaker C:Smart and even more vocal and they would like to connect.
Speaker C:And the thing is, that's true.
Speaker A:The feedback comes faster and faster too every day.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:If you have very honest feedback, which is really to make that mission better and if you have a good relationship with your customer base, then they give the feedback out of something for us to make ourselves better.
Speaker C:Also for them, shopping experience and shop journey is getting better.
Speaker C:So it's very constructive.
Speaker B:Well, Franz, I want to talk about some of the key themes quickly that are coming out of Consumer Goods Forum.
Speaker B:Sustainability being one the focus on collaboration.
Speaker B:How do you take these things that it seems like everybody's keen to start to work on when they leave here and go home?
Speaker B:How are you really doing those things right now at ahold on a day to day basis?
Speaker C:Right now, yeah.
Speaker C:So we always come back here because we have so many good speakers here on different topics.
Speaker C:It always is energizing and you come away with a lot of inspiration.
Speaker C:What you learn from other companies, what you hear from experts where people challenge you on certain topics to say, shouldn't you do more there?
Speaker C:And of course we're all in business, but you see that a lot of those sustainability topics also have a very strong business component.
Speaker C:If I can save energy, if I can have better refrigerants, if I have a better allocation of our truck and our network and demand forecasting.
Speaker C:Because AI is helping us.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:That is a business item.
Speaker C:Saves money, is better for food, waste and all these kind of things.
Speaker C:So we come back away here with a lot of positive things and.
Speaker C:But also a few things where wow.
Speaker C:I learned from other companies, they do more than we do in the space of human rights, due diligence, for example, or in the space of plastics and recycling and a better philosophy, how to use plastic how to design.
Speaker C:And we have of course also our own brands.
Speaker C:We are very proud to the partnership with the national brands.
Speaker C:But we also have a strong own brand offer and for that we also can learn a lot.
Speaker C:What can we do better there?
Speaker A:Yeah, we have an expression that we use a lot.
Speaker A:You probably get a good sense of how good is your good when you come to a conference like this.
Speaker A:It probably helps with that.
Speaker A:All right, well, let's get you out of here on this because I know you're a busy, busy man.
Speaker A:A lot of things to do, a lot of appointments to make.
Speaker A:So as you look back, your tenure's come to a close.
Speaker A:You've been heading up the CGF here for the past couple years.
Speaker A:Your tenure's coming to a close.
Speaker A:You passed on the torch to the CEO of Tesco earlier this morning.
Speaker A:What do you hope your legacy both at CGF and Ahold is number one and then number two, what advice would you have for other global retail executives that are trying to figure out the best way to succeed or make an impact in this world of, you know, where global sustainability is a top priority?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think it's a tough question, Chris.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's why, that's why you're the big guy.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's why, that's why I'm here to here to answer that question.
Speaker C:But on the Friday morning, I think I have to still to process a number of things.
Speaker C:What are the next steps here?
Speaker C:What I'm very happy with is that we had a good two years together with my partner Dirk from Mondelez Strong CGF Organization and I think we made a nice next level of collaboration and that we talk amongst those topics which are not always easy to understand within vulnerability to say things are going well, but a few things still to be done that we can share with the membership.
Speaker C:400 members.
Speaker C:Those are not only big companies.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker C:Those are also mid sized, smaller companies super in their local markets and retail manufacturing that we can share these kind of things and say just pick up the learnings from what we designed and what we invented ourselves and the mistakes we made and see how the whole industry gets better because we have to get better.
Speaker C:When you talk about food waste, when you talk about plastic waste, all the other topics where we are an economic effect, but also something for our planet, something for our people.
Speaker C:You heard this morning there's a lot of things what technology can do not only for customers, but also for associates.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:So a lot of things forward looking.
Speaker C:I'm super happy that Both Ken from Tesco and Ramon from PepsiCo are taking over.
Speaker C:Very strong leaders, strong companies, but also strong believers in collaboration and improvement and always strong fans of CGF as well.
Speaker B:Well, I think that's a really important thing and something that you deserve kudos for because I think that you really model what it looks like to be collaborative, to get in front of and be vulnerable in front of partners.
Speaker B:And you're one of the largest retail organizations in the world.
Speaker B:So I really appreciate that and want to make sure that we give you our thanks, Franz, and thank you from to all the people here at CGF who are willing to participate in that way, because I think that's how the change happens.
Speaker C:That's how the change happens.
Speaker C:And thanks for having me.
Speaker C:And it was a pleasure to serve cgf and I go away with an humble feeling.
Speaker C:What we all still have to learn and have to do, but that's also a good feel.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:That keeps you young at the same.
Speaker B:Time, keeps you curious.
Speaker B:Well, thank you so much, Franz.
Speaker B:Thank you to the Fusion Group for making our coverage here at Consumer Goods Forum possible.
Speaker B:We'll be around for just a couple more interviews today, but until then, be careful out there.
