Good afternoon. Welcome, everyone. My name is Maria Verheij. I'm responsible for communications at Ahold Delhaize. Before we start with the annual general meeting of shareholders, I would like to take you through some important safety and practical instructions that apply at this venue at this meeting. We kindly ask you to take a seat at the assigned seat. As you will notice, there are empty rows in between to allow support staff to walk by with a microphone. I will switch to Dutch now, so please ensure your headset is working if you require translation. Kindly raise your hand if you need assistance. U zult tijdens deze vergadering door de voorzitter in het Engels worden toegesproken.
You are going to be addressed by the chairman in English. Others on stage will speak either Dutch or English. Everything will be simultaneously translated into English or Dutch via the headphones. Those were provided at the entrance. If you haven't received one but would like one, or if yours is not working properly, please let our staff know by raising your hand. They'll help you immediately. Questions may be asked in either English or Dutch. The questions and answers will also be translated simultaneously. I would like to point out to those present in this hall of the Zaan Theater that voting is only possible for shareholders and proxies who have logged in in time before we start voting. If you haven't already done so, please check your device now.
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May I ask you to pick up your phone or voting device and to see if you can read the first question? It's a very important one. If you could only have one, which would you choose, chocolate or cheese? It can also be vegan cheese. After you've made your choice, a confirmation will appear on your screen. If necessary, you can ask one of the support staff members present for help by raising your hand. The test question is now closed. The chair will indicate as soon as voting is open during the meeting. Either no one voted or no one has an opinion. Now the meeting will start shortly. I have a few final announcements to make. Smoking is not permitted inside. If you, at any time, observe an unsafe situation, please report it immediately to one of the employees and staff present.
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This audio and video recording will also be available on our website after the meeting. For privacy reasons, the faces of those present, except for those seated on the stage, will not be shown in the webcast. Thank you for your attention. I wish you all a good and fruitful meeting, and I will now hand over to Peter Agnefjäll, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, to begin the official meeting.
The floor is yours.
Thank you, Maria, and a warm welcome to the annual general meeting of shareholders of Ahold Delhaize. My name is Peter Agnefjäll. I'm the chair of the Supervisory Board. I will be chairing this meeting, and I'm very pleased that you have joined us today. With me here on the stage are the Management Board, the CEO, Frans Muller, the CFO, Jolanda Poots-Bijl, the CEO of Ahold Delhaize USA, JJ Fleeman, and the CEO of Europe and Indonesia, Claude Sarai. Representing the Supervisory Board, next to myself, we have the three committee chairs, the chair of the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee, Robert Jan van de Kratz. We have the chair of the Governance and Nomination Committee, Helen Weir, and the chair of the Remuneration Committee, Pauline van der Meer Mohr. Next to me is Corné Grayling, our company secretary.
Last but not least, we have Reinier Kleipool, who is the notary and is also present on the stage. Also present is the external auditor from KPMG. On behalf of KPMG, Erik van Leuven will give a short presentation and answer questions you may have about the audit and the audit report. This is solely a physical meeting. Shareholders who were not able to attend in person were offered the possibility to provide voting instructions or voting proxies and questions before the meeting to enable that all shareholders have the ability to participate. During today's meeting, we will look back at 2024, and as we reflect on the year, we are reminded of the incredible people who make Ahold Delhaize and its brand so exceptional.
The people, the associates, the coworkers who open up the stores every morning, who work in distribution centers and/or make home deliveries to customers each day, as well as all of those who work in one of our support offices. Maintaining a high level of retail excellence day in and day out is an incredible job. As you are aware, the agenda contains several proposals to appoint and reappoint members of the Supervisory Board. Amongst many things, we will cover the proposal to appoint Per Bank as new member of the Supervisory Board, as well as the proposal to reappoint Jan Zijderveld as member of the Supervisory Board. During this meeting, we will also say farewell to Bill McEwen, who will step down from the Supervisory Board as per the closing of this meeting.
Before I start with the agenda item two, I would like to say something about the order of today's meeting. As you can see, we are in this meeting today with a large group of shareholders. As you have noticed, we have also taken additional safety and security measures to ensure that everyone feels safe during the meeting. We do appreciate that you take your time to join us in this meeting, and we look forward to having an open dialogue with you. What you can expect from us is that we will engage in a meaningful and respectful dialogue, and we ask you to do the same.
Shareholder democracy is important, and we really appreciate the dialogue and the interaction with you, but we kindly ask you to maintain a respectful meeting order in which all shareholders will get the opportunity to ask their questions during the meeting. As the Chair of this meeting, I'm responsible for maintaining that order. If needed, I will take action and can, for instance, limit your speaking time and/or the number of questions, or when needed, stop a discussion. Registration details for this meeting are currently being processed, and once all information is available, our notary, Reinier Kleipool, will announce how many shareholders are present or represented, the percentage of outstanding capital they represent, and how many votes can be cast. After these announcements, the voting will be opened.
We will now turn to the agenda of this meeting, which was published on the website on February 26 of this year. I would like to take note that we have complied with all statutory requirements to hold this ADM. First, our CEO, Frans Muller, will talk about the company's performance during 2024, followed by our CFO, Jolanda Poots-Bijl, who will present the 2024 financial results, the policy on additions to reserves and dividends, and the dividend proposal for 2024. Lastly, Erik van Leuven from KPMG will join us for the audit presentation. After those presentations, we will cover the questions on agenda item two, being the questions from the participants here in Zaan Theater, as well as those questions that were posed to us ahead of this meeting. As usual, please note that we will bundle questions and we will answer them together.
With that, I would like to turn it over to you, Frans. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Peter. I will now switch to Dutch. Let me welcome you all very warmly here in Zaandam. I would like to look back with you on the past year and also look ahead. Let's start. Where do we stand today? Ahold Delhaize is in a strong position, driven by clear core values that are about respect, caring for each other, integrity, and collaboration. This is how we remain relevant to our customers, our colleagues, our neighborhoods in the Netherlands and in other markets. 2025 is now behind us, but the impact is still being felt. This isn't news to you, but it is important to mention it. We live in complex times, in times of political polarization. This is a concern for me on a personal level, and also whenever I look at the context in which we work.
These are times of geopolitical tension, with the recent introduction of large-scale import levies, wars, and relentless inflation, which continues to put a strain on household budgets. In addition, tech innovation has a greater impact on our lives. With the rapid rise of AI, we are once again faced with new challenges and also opportunities. You can rest assured that we have the knowledge, experience, and teams to deal with this adequately. The daily reality is that I see the hardening of our society and our company when I visit our shops in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Baltimore, and New York, when I look at social media and when I talk to my colleagues in stores, in distribution centers about their experiences. Because we are an open company. We're not a closed shop, ice cream, or airplane factory. We're a company where anyone can walk into our shops.
Every week, we welcome 72 million customers online and in over 9,400 shops with more than 3,900 colleagues. Our motto is, "We are open for everyone." Such as customers who want to cook a healthy meal for themselves or their family, but are worried about whether they can still afford it. We're here for them. Such as customers who want to eat vegetarian more often, but have no idea where to start. We're here for them. We wish to advise them. And customers who voted for President Trump, as well as customers who voted for candidate Harris. We're here for them. All these developments make our role in the neighborhoods and communities where we work ever more important. We aren't waiting for things to happen. We take a proactive role. We are doing this by focusing extra attention on safety and security for our associates, colleagues, and customers.
We still see too many incidents in our stores involving aggression and theft. This is never okay. We will not tolerate this. We will continue to draw attention to it and take action. Moreover, we proactively try to keep up with the times to help our customers. I recently visited a new Food Lion store in Troutman, North Carolina. The Carolinas, as you know, are an important growth market for us. This was already the second store in a relatively small city such as Troutman. I spoke to Erik Bell, the store manager, about their formula for success. Customers have a new deli with more meal kits and ready-to-eat. Their affordable own brand has also been greatly expanded. The new refrigeration equipment makes shopping more pleasant and is, on top of everything, more energy efficient. Food Lion is showing that they know what their customers want.
I already mentioned our role in local communities. Our oldest roots are in so many places in 1867 with the Delhaize brothers in Charleroi, Belgium, in 1882 with Hannaford in Portland, Maine, and of course, in 1887 with Albert Heijn here in Oostzaan in the Netherlands. Our stores, our roots are in the family businesses that gave our company a strong set of values and a long-term vision from the start, and that inspires confidence in us. It is no coincidence that this is a key theme in our renewed vision. Together, we are your trusted local food retailer. Customers can be sure that we will do what we've been doing well for decades: get the retail basics in order, which will allow us to keep costs as low as possible, respond to their changing needs. This is how we distinguish ourselves in the retail landscape.
I'm just one person standing here, but of course, it's our teams and the teams of our brands that work hard for this day in, day out. I'm very proud of the results we achieve together. Let me take a look back at the previous year with respect to what I just mentioned now. The three things you could count on in 2024: a continuous focus on the customer and on prices of groceries, a further simplification of our organization and reduction of our costs, and finally, the launch of our Growing Together strategy. How did things go? Let me focus first on customers and on the prices of groceries. Our customers feel the pressure of inflation on their household budgets: food, energy, interest, all of that accumulating. This is when you want to be there for the customer. How do we do that?
By more personalized offers offered and tailored to what customers really buy. In the U.S., for example, brands such as Giant Food and Stop & Shop lowered the prices of thousands of store-brand products with a broader own brand assortment. In Europe alone, the range of entry-level prices grew to 7,700 items. Their popularity of those brands and of those articles is growing with clever, healthy solutions such as recipes, fresh food packages, meals for less than EUR 2.50 per person, and with tough negotiations with large international suppliers. We try to reduce our costs. Thanks to our membership of the Euroleg Purchasing Alliance, we benefit from additional volume advantages. Of course, by absorbing increased costs where possible. This requires financial discipline, especially with an underlying profit margin of only 4%. That's EUR 0.04 , as you know.
We expect not only us, but also other companies in the chain to fight hard to bring those costs down. This has to happen before the customer stands at the checkout with their basket. Even when disaster strikes, we're ready to help. Our customers in various regions were confronted with major natural disasters, such as the devastating hurricanes Debbie and Helene in the U.S., With many stores in the affected areas, Food Lion immediately took action. They donated $4 million, supplemented by large quantities of food and water to support the affected communities. We also showed our commitment in the Czech Republic. Albert, our local brand there, sent lorries full of humanitarian aid to villages and towns which were affected by local flooding. Offering help, though, does not stop at emergencies. We want to make a difference in everyday life as well.
That is why we are one of the largest donors to food banks in many countries. In 2024, simplification of our business processes was also on our agenda. I already mentioned it as the second point of what you could expect from us. With the world in flux, it is important that you remain critical of your own organization and costs. Are we still working in the best way for our customers? Are we still making the right investments, or should we be investing elsewhere? Can we simplify our offices, make them more efficient? By being critical, we achieved a cost reduction of more than EUR 1.35 billion in 2024. 2024 also saw the first results of our transformation efforts. Last- year, we talked about this, but in Belgium, an important milestone was reached with the Future Plan.
In November, the last remaining Delhaize store was transferred to a local entrepreneur. The impact of their entrepreneurship is immediately visible. The local approach is bearing fruit. Customers are coming back more often. We are also making progress in the U.S. At Stop & Shop, the first steps have been taken towards a more stable and successful future. This required difficult but necessary choices. We had to close 32 stores in order to be able to invest more specifically in the locations with the most potential. To increase our effectiveness, the support services for all our American brands have now been brought together under one umbrella: Ahold Delhaize USA. In Central and Southeast Europe, we've also streamlined our organization and slimmed down our offices. Efficiency is essential in a rapidly changing playing field.
We're doing all of this with a clear goal in mind: to move with a dynamic market and technological progress. This allows us to create space to partially absorb rising costs and to invest in a targeted manner in the shopping experience, in digitization, and sustainability. In a time of inflation, high energy prices, and increasing labor costs, it's a considerable challenge to remain financially healthy. Our teams have worked incredibly hard to keep costs under control, and Jolanda will go into more detail on this later. My third promise to you at the start of 2024 was to launch our new strategy, Growing Together. This, in my mind, was the highlight of the year. I assume you followed the presentation with interest. The name says it all. Growth is the heart of the strategy for the next four years.
Other core components are price investments for our customers, growth of our own brand, investments in digitech, and value creation for you as co-owner of our company. Changes in the wishes of our customers and macro shifts in the market were the reason for renewing our strategy and customer value proposition. What we saw was an increasingly strong trend towards affordable, healthy meals that are easy to buy and prepare. We also saw customers expecting a more personalized approach with smart loyalty programs and digitization. We saw technology changing at lightning speed. With it, the increased expectations for a seamless online and offline omnichannel shopping experience. We saw the expectation that companies will make sustainability part of their daily business. This has led to a very customer-oriented strategy for our Delhaize, Growing Together. We have six clear priorities, which you can see here on the screen.
They are describing as strategic priorities how, and the growth model is describing the what and the where. We need all of them to realize our ambitions. I am already proud of how our teams immediately got to work on this and about the progress they've already made. For example, within driving customer innovation, Albert Heijn uses machine learning to accurately predict what items and how many customers want to buy them. This keeps the shelves stocked, also limits food waste. This involves more than 1 billion AI predictions per day. Products approaching their sale by date are automatically discounted with the help of AI. Since last year, this has been fully automated throughout the entire store. It's been positively received by customers and has already prevented 1.5 million kilos of food waste. Trusted product, our own brand range.
We want to grow to 45% of our own-brand food sales by 2028. We are fully committed to this in Central and Southeastern Europe. You may be familiar with our brands Perla and Delicata. They are very popular there. Within the region, they are increasingly marketing the same own-brand products. So far, 500 products have been harmonized. This makes purchasing much more efficient, and that is noticeable in the customer's wallets. Of course, we also share these best practices with the other brands in the family. Sustainability, healthy communities, and planet is and remains a core part of our strategy. For us, this means affordable, healthy food and working together in the chain to reduce emissions and food waste. It is crucial for building long-term business resilience and sustainable value creation. Our ambitions are clearly described in the annual report.
If you haven't read it yet, I cordially invite you to do so. At the same time, we are taking steps every day to become more sustainable. Every little bit of progress leads to great results when you operate on our scale. Many of these steps also offer business benefits, such as lower transport emissions thanks to electric vehicles and more efficient freight transport. Our motto, we are open for everyone. This is important each and every day. Together with our brands, we want to be an employer where everyone feels at home. The Thriving People Strategic Pillar ensures that this is the case. In 2024, we even received the prestigious Top Employer certification in most of our markets, rewarding us for our efforts. Another great example is how colleagues in our organization can continue to grow.
JJ Fleeman, here on stage my left side, once started as a grocery packer, a so-called bagger, at one of our Ahold Delhaize USA brands, and has grown in the organization ever since, very successfully, as you can tell. At the same time, allowing growth to happen sometimes also means letting go of something. As we're in the Zaan region now, the home of Albert Heijn, I would, of course, like to express my sincere gratitude to Marit van Egmond, who recently announced that she's leaving our company after 28 years. We wish her all success. In 2024, we laid a solid foundation for Growing Together. I would like to mention a few things. We achieved all our most important financial objectives for the year 2024. With an underlying margin of 4% as a group, we can be very satisfied. Online is clearly on the rise.
Online sales have grown every quarter, with a total growth of 10.4% over the year. The loyalty of customers to our brands remains a strong pillar. This is reflected in stable or growing market shares with good examples close to home, such as at Albert Heijn and Delhaize. And then Bol. Despite the challenging e-commerce landscape, Bol showed some strong results towards the holidays, with accelerated sales growth and the highest number of app users ever. I'm going to go back to the chair for a moment, and I'll be back with you after Jolanda's speech. Handing over to you, Peter.
Thank you, Frans. I will now hand over to Jolanda, please. Jolanda, please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you, Frans. 2024 was a year in which we accomplished a lot.
We have launched our Growing Together strategy, emphasizing our commitment to our customers and to long-term sustainable value creation, while delivering solid results in volatile times. Each time I visit our brands, I experience the close customer connections our associates foster with their communities. Our people make the difference. Their passion, humility, and experience make a big difference. Take the example of Matt Yates, who was recently appointed CFO at Food Lion. Matt's story with Food Lion began in 1998. He joined our company as a meat cutter in store 352, held multiple roles, including store manager, district manager, director of strategy, and director of business planning. Through these roles and his long experience, he gained a keen understanding of his customers and an appreciation for the values essential to serve our communities well.
This strength that we have in our company is for sure the reason that we deliver consistent results, which is not always a given in the dynamic and fast-moving business that we operate in. Today, there are three things I'd like to touch upon: our Growing Together strategy, our 2024 performance, and our financial outlook for 2025. Let's start with Growing Together. There's a lot to like about our plans for the future. It's balanced. It's about growing faster than the market while maintaining industry-leading margins. It's also about cash generation, which enables us to invest in our future and grow shareholder returns at the same time. We do this through our so-called growth model, which shapes how we deploy our resources to create a compounding and lasting impact. This starts with consistently investing in our customer value proposition, which allows us to densify and grow our markets.
This, in turn, requires innovation to unlock further skill and efficiency opportunities, enabling us to leverage and lower our cost base to again invest in our customer value proposition. That spins the wheel. Let me make this more tangible with some examples, starting with the customer. The personal and digital connections our brands have with their customers through our store network and online presence enable us to understand and plan for their needs in real time. Combined with our operational agility and entrepreneurial spirit, we work hard to ensure fresh and affordable products are on the shelf every day. Here, the word affordable is really important and an area of considerable attention in our strategy. Every year, we invest substantially in our price position across all markets, ensuring that everybody with all sorts of wallets can shop at our stores.
In this regard, we have a lot of success with our so-called price favorites in Europe. Scaling these kinds of initiatives is a big focus for also the U.S. region in our new plan, where we committed to invest $1 billion in our prices spread over the coming four years. At Stop & Shop, for example, we already started lowering our prices of thousands of products in the second half of 2024. In tandem, we are also adding more own-brand products to our assortments in both regions, providing high-quality, healthy, and sustainable options at attractive prices. Our ambition is to grow our own brand food share towards 45% in 2028. A strong customer value proposition is a prerequisite to grow our customer reach, which brings me to the second part of the growth model: densify and grow our markets.
In the U.S., we plan to remodel and open 1,000 stores in the next four years. For new stores, we focus on those demographic areas where we see good fundamentals. Within our portfolio, Food Lion, the Giant company, and Hannaford are very well positioned for this expansion. In Europe, we will continue to densify our presence in the CSE countries, an example being Romania, where we plan to add 100 stores in this year alone with Mega Image and Profi. In online, we will add more omnichannel capabilities, both through direct investment and through partnerships. Together with our evolving customer value proposition, we aim to grow our omnichannel loyalty sales to 80% and increase our digital monthly active users to 30 million. As we grow our business, this also provides a platform to innovate for further growth and efficiencies.
The emphasis here is on expanding our horizons, looking at new business models and our avenues to capitalize on our asset base. In our Growing Together plan, we have the goal to increase our complementary income streams by $3 billion to 2028. One of the areas we are excited about is the area of retail media, where we see opportunities to enrich the customer shopping experience with more relevant and personal content fitting their needs. Here, it is also about choosing great partners so we can leverage our internal expertise with leading innovations from other industries. Examples are Inmar Intelligence and AdTheses, both of which, in different ways, help us to create tailored and relevant customer experiences in the areas of advertising and promotion. Let's go to the final level of our growth model, which is all about leveraging and lowering our cost base.
As you might expect, this is an important topic also for me as your CFO. We believe in simplicity, combining our powers while we have many existing mechanisms to deliver savings, which will be familiar to you from previous shareholder meetings, such as joint sourcing, smart procurement, or refining our operating model. We also challenge ourselves every day to think out of the box. AI and automation currently bring front and center in this respect. In total, we aim to have EUR 5 billion in cost savings in the next four years. Those cost savings, we will reinvest in our customer value proposition, in our stores and in our warehouses, in technology, and in our sustainability agenda, which in itself will drive growth again. This brings me to the next topic, our 2024 performance. I am pleased with our results.
As you can see on the screen, we met or exceeded our 2024 initial financial commitments. At the same time, during the year, we were able to take additional steps to strengthen our foundation for the years to come. Net sales were EUR 89.4 billion. Comparable sales, which represents revenues from stores that have been open for at least a year, increased 1.2%. Online sales increased by 3.5% or 10.4% if you exclude the sale of FreshDirect in December 2023. We have highly rated websites and mobile apps with 18 million monthly active users. Moving on to our profitability, the group's underlying operating margin was 4%. Underlying operating income was EUR 3.6 billion. Our diluted underlying earnings per share were EUR 2.54. Let's look at those results by segment for a bit more detail.
In the U.S., net sales were down 0.7% or up 0.7% if you correct for both the impact of the divestment of FreshDirect and the closure of the underperforming Stop & Shop locations. Comparable sales increased 0.8%. We saw particularly strong performances at Food Lion and Hannaford. Our underlying operating margin in the U.S. was 4.4%, a decrease of 30 basis points. This was due to the net unfavorable impact from wage inflation, the price investments, for example, at Stop & Shop, and lower non-recurring items compared to the prior- year. Turning to Europe, sales grew 3.5%. Market share for most of our brands increased year- on- year. Comparable sales increased 2% or 4.4% if you exclude the impact from the end of the tobacco sales in the Netherlands.
Our underlying operating margin in Europe was 3.8%, up 50 basis points, mainly driven by strong performance recovery in Belgium following the transition of stores to the affiliate model. Next, we present our reported IFRS performance, which includes items that are non-recurring by nature. In 2024, IFRS results were EUR 824 million lower than the underlying results. This is largely due to the costs that are associated with the transition of stores as part of the Belgium Future Plan, the closure of the Stop & Shop stores, and the amendment to and the additional funding of the Dutch Pension Plan. As I mentioned earlier, an important element of our growth model is to lower our cost base. I'm proud that we exceeded our plans for 2024, generating over EUR 1.35 billion in the Save for Our Customer program. This is part of our DNA.
We already operate in this way for many years, with a strong track record as portrayed on the chart. Moving on to free cash flow, where we realized a strong result of over EUR 2.5 billion. Cash generation is really critical to fuel investments in our CVP and to maintain a well-invested asset base, including modern and up-to-date stores. In 2024, we spent less on our capital expenditure than our original budget. This was in part due to delays in the store rollout, for example, in CSE and some remodels in the U.S., With our capital expenditure being slightly lower, we used our strong operational cash flow to optimize our future pension obligations with additional funding to the Dutch Pension Plan of EUR 105 million.
We continue our track record of value creation for our equity and debt investors, with solid earnings per share growth over time, an attractive dividend yield combined with a sustainable growth of dividend per share, and by being an active participant in debt markets while maintaining our strong investment grade ratings. For 2024, we are proposing a dividend per share of EUR 1.17, which is an increase of 6.4% versus 2023. Turning now to other highlights in our annual report, 2024 was the first year where we reported in line with the CSRD requirements. This was a tremendous amount of work, and I'm proud of all the people in our company that contributed. The annual report includes a wealth of information also on our environmental, social, and governance strategy and performance.
It includes our transition plans to reduce carbon emissions and an update on the steps we are taking to build our approach to nature. We also expanded our reporting on social topics, including updates on human rights, diversity, and pay equity. There really is a lot to read, which I can highly recommend. Let me pick out a few highlights. When looking at our healthy communities and planet results in 2024, the percentage of own-brand healthy food sales was 52.4%. If we exclude the negative impact from the transition to Nutri-Score 2.0 for Dutch and Belgian brands, this represents a step up of almost one percentage point compared to 2023. Our total tons of food waste per food sales was 35% lower than our 2016 baseline.
Excluding a negative impact of four percentage points from improved data quality and measurement in the US, this would have been a reduction of 39%. We reduced CO2 emissions in our own operations by 36% compared to our 2018 baseline, keeping us on track to reach 50% reduction by 2030. In 2024, reduction in so-called refrigeration leakages was one of the main drivers of this result. For virgin own-brand plastic packaging, we achieved a 10% reduction compared to 2021. While our plastic volume increased slightly, we were able to offset this by using more recycled content. This brings me to my final point for today, our outlook for 2025. We will drive growth aligned with our principles in the growth model. At the same time, we will be diligent and focused on integrating Profi, combining our forces to go after growth and realizing synergies as quickly as possible.
For the full year 2025, our guidance is the following: a group underlying margin of around 4%, diluted underlying earnings per share growth of mid to high single digits, gross CapEx of EUR 2.7 billion, resulting in a free cash flow of at least EUR 2.2 billion. Looking to the longer-term future, we have created multiple angles to deliver on growth while reducing risks to meet and hopefully exceed expectations over time. Our differentiating factor, without any doubt, is our people. Together, we are Ahold Delhaize, and we are here to grow together and to deliver on our purpose, inspiring everyone to eat and live better for a healthier future for people and planet. We look forward to realizing our ambitions, and we hope you do too. Thank you for your attention, and let me hand back to Frans. Thank you.
Thank you, Jolanda.
Thank you, Jolanda. I hope that is clear. Ahold Delhaize has a strong foundation to navigate developments, especially when combined with our values and financial position. We are staying the course also in 2025 and with Growing Together in the growth model as our strategic compass. As a shareholder, you are partly owner of our company. In 2025, you can expect us to continue to build company value. Value for you, for our customers, and our associates, for the planet and for the future of our company. I would therefore like to share four things with you that you can expect from us in the coming year. Firstly, we will accelerate the growth of our store network, will open more new stores, and modernize existing locations to bring them all in line with the latest store formats and customer needs. Secondly, price remains crucial for our customers.
That is why we will continue to expand our price investments. The same goes for the growth of our own brand: affordable, reliable, and increasingly popular. Thirdly, we shall continue to invest in a strong omnichannel offering. Customers want both convenience and experience, both online and in store. We know that customers who combine the two are more loyal, enthusiastic, and spend 1.5-3 times more than customers who only use one channel. Fourthly, technology is a key to distinction. With our scale, we can really make a difference in this area. That is why we're investing, as Jolanda already said, a significant portion of our EUR 2.7 billion in capital expenditure for digital innovation from AI and GenAI to e-commerce platforms and retail media. Of course, also via ADO1, our own tech studio in Romania.
Those four spearheads are, of course, supported by steps within our strategic sustainability objectives. 2025 is also another important year for digitech and retail media. The growing demand for advertising on our platforms, both from suppliers and from other companies, offers us an important additional source of income. This income may not be directly visible in higher profits in the short term, but they do provide extra fuel for further investments in our customer value proposition. A final highlight this year is M&A, mergers and acquisitions. Delhaize is in the process of obtaining approval this year for the acquisition of 325 of Del Foods points of sale, part of the Louis Delhaize Group. This year, also, the integration of Profi will take place. It's a strong Romanian brand, which was added to our family of brands at the beginning of this year.
We will welcome about 3 million extra customers in their stores. A lot has been going on in the M&A field. You continue to count on us to keep our eyes open for the right opportunities, which support our strategy. Important drivers in our decision-making are a relatively high market share and the strength of a brand. In doing so, we always wish to maintain a healthy financial balance sheet and remain investment grade. I have now come to the end of my update. My goal was to give you both a look back and a look ahead. I have taken you through the volatile year, 2024, and talked about what polarization means for our company.
I've shown you what you can count on, the three pillars of our success in the past year, in particular our new strategy, Growing Together, which will run from 2025 - 2028, and how this is being put into practice already today by our teams. I've also shared with you what you can expect from us in this year, 2025, from store growth to technological innovations, from sustainability to strategic acquisitions. Let me say this again very clearly: Ahold Delhaize has a strong foundation, and we are guided by our core values. Our new strategy serves as our compass, helping us every day to continue to earn the trust of our customers. Whatever happens in the world around us, we have a long-term vision, and we do what we believe is right, just as we've done for more than 150 years.
Here is what I work for each and every day personally as well. I'm not doing this alone. I'm part of a larger executive team. Claude Sarai, Alex Holt, Lynne Evans have made a strong start in their roles this year. This is a great group photo. I would also like to express my great thanks to all my colleagues in the local teams, with the brands in the distribution centers and our offices, who give their dedication, energy, and drive to keep our customers coming back. You make our company what it is. Thank you very much. Of course, thanks to you, our shareholders, for your support and your confidence in us. You can continue to count on us. Thank you for your attention. I will now return to the chairman, handing over to you, Peter.
Thank you, Frans. As I have said before, we will ask all shareholders to wait for the opportunity to intervene and ask questions and to respect the meeting order. We will soon come to the Q&A session. Bear with us.
We did not get an answer. Did you not see the plates slide all the way out?
I would like to point out that you have not been given the right to speak. I have told you you have not been given the floor to speak. Please sit down. Please sit down.
You are responsible for this.
Okay. Thank you, Frans. Robert Jan, may I hand it over to you to share a few words on the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee related to 2024 before we introduce Erik van Leuven, and we will open up for questions. Robert Jan.
Yes, Peter, thank you. [crosstalk] . Now it is on? Yeah. Thank you, Peter. Dear shareholders, the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee, the AFRC, has met five times over the year. As a consequence of the committee's commitment to maintaining robust financial governance and oversight, the committee reviewed prior to publication the 2024 quarterly reports, the annual report, including the audited 2024 financial statements and the sustainability statements, which did receive limited assurance by the external auditor. We also reviewed the risk and control environment through various reports and discussions on internal controls and internal audit conclusions. During 2024, the committee paid specific attention to, amongst others, the impact of significant projects and transformations to de-risking the balance sheet for defined benefit pension arrangements, to changes in tax regulations, to impairments, to the consistency of adjustments to operating income getting to underlying operating income, and to the Belgium Future Plan involving the divestment of stores to affiliates, which is progressing well.
In terms of process, as chair of the committee, I frequently engaged in conversations with members of the financial leadership team and the head of internal audit to ensure oversight and proper prioritization of issues. I also had quarterly preparatory meetings with financial management, internal audit, and the external auditor prior to each committee meeting to ensure all pertinent matters were on the agenda and time was allocated effectively during the meetings. In line with the Dutch Corporate Governance Code, the committee also assessed and discussed the KPMG underlying risk management assessment, the scope, and the materiality of the 2024 audit engagement with KPMG. The most important findings of the external auditor have been evaluated by the committee and were reported to the supervisory board.
We are of the opinion that these conclusions are also covered by the annual report and the section risks and opportunities and in the audit report of the external auditor itself. As a committee, we will follow up on these findings in the year 2025. I will now hand over to Erik van Leuven from KPMG, our external auditor. Erik, go ahead.
Goedemiddag.
Good afternoon. My name is Erik van Leuven. As last year, I'm here to speak to you on behalf of KPMG as the external auditor of Ahold Delhaize. Before discussing our audit activities and findings, I would like to explain the results of our activities to you. Our reports are the final part of our activities. We've issued two statements, both dated 25 February 2025.
The first statement is an unqualified opinion on the 2024 financial statements of Ahold Delhaize , which can be found on page 339 of the annual report. In this opinion, we state that the financial statements of Ahold Delhaize give a true and fair view of the balance sheet positions as of 29 December 2024 and of the result for 2024. We also state that the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as applied in the EU, and Title IX of the Dutch Civil Code. This also means that the Ahold Delhaize annual report is compatible with the financial statements and that this report contains all legally required information. In addition to our statement on the financial statements, we've also issued an assurance report on the 2024 sustainability statements. This limited assurance report can be found on page 347 of the annual report.
I would first like to explain our audit procedures for the financial statements. In order to arrive at an unqualified audit opinion, we planned and performed our audit activities in such a way as to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence on which to base our opinion. Last year, when I reported on our first year audit, I explained the elements of our audit in detail. This year, I will keep it a little more concise and limit myself to the most important issues. We have an international team with a great deal of experience on Ahold Delhaize' business activities, both in the United States and in Europe. For the audit of the consolidated financial statements, our component auditors conducted audits at participating interests in the Netherlands, the United States, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Greece.
As a central group audit team, we carried out activities including the valuation of goodwill and brand names, treasury activities, directors' remunerations, consolidations, and the notes to the financial statements. We conducted the audit with a reasonable degree of certainty in order to determine the accuracy of the financial statements. Our audit was performed with a materiality of EUR 150 million for the financial statements as a whole. This corresponds to 5% of the normalized profit before taxes. Our activities led to a coverage percentage of 84% of all assets and 94% of the turnover. We consider these to be robust coverage percentages. The key audit matters relate to significant estimates and judgments made by management. Our two most important key audit matters are explained in our auditor's report.
The first key audit matter concerns the valuation of goodwill and brand names, this year in particular of the brand Stop & Shop. Management tests the valuation of goodwill and brand names annually to determine whether there is any impairment. We consider this a key audit matter given the size of these items on the balance sheet and the judgments and estimates of management that underlie the valuation. We've assessed and tested the management processes used to compare the fair value with the book value. We challenged management on the assumptions that are most sensitive to the outcome of the annual test, namely revenue growth, margin increase, and discount rate. We also compared the key assumptions with external data, historical performance, and local economic forecasts. We engaged our valuation specialists to evaluate the valuation models and discount rates.
We also compared the total future cash flow projections with the market capitalization. We've come to the conclusion that the valuations and assumptions made by management are sufficiently substantiated. The second key audit matter relates to the substantiation of the supplier discounts. Ahold Delhaize receives various and considerable discounts from its suppliers. The agreements with the suppliers include both volume and promotional fees. We've identified this as a key audit matter due to the size of the amounts and the judgment required to determine whether the rebates have been recognized in the correct period and the receivables at year-end have been recognized correctly and fairly. We've reviewed and challenged management's assessment of compliance with the terms of the contracts and, where possible, have determined the outcome. We also performed a retrospective assessment to determine whether the receipt of supplier discounts from previous periods corresponded with previous estimates.
We've come to the conclusion that the supplier discounts have been substantiated correctly. I would also like to briefly discuss the internal control environment and internal controls of Ahold Delhaize. In auditing the financial statements, we make use of the internal control measures and internal controls insofar as they are relevant to our audit. This means that we have not conducted an independent and specifically targeted investigation into the company's internal controls. The purpose of our audit is not to express an opinion on the effectiveness of the internal control. That said, based on our own audit procedures and the procedures of the risk and control internal audit departments of the company's supervisory board, we've gained an impression of the internal control with regard to the financial reporting. On page 228 of the annual report, management explains their three lines of defense.
On page 231, management confirms in their control statement that the financial reporting contains no material misstatements. Management's confirmation is consistent with our assessment of the internal control environment based on what we saw during our audit. In all our audit procedures, we paid attention to the risk of management breaching internal controls and whether there were other indications of possible improper influence by management. In addition, we identified the risk of fraud as potential fraud risks, such as the risk of fraud due to overstating the turnover and the risk of fraud due to wrongly recognizing supplier discounts. As part of our internal control activities, we also look at the relevant cultural and behavioral aspects, the so-called soft controls. These are internal measures with regard to prevention, detection, and response to promote the effectiveness of internal control.
Our evaluation of the work carried out on the internal control environment did not lead to any indications and/or suspicions of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations that have a material impact on the financial statements. As part of our IT audit, we carried out work on the management process with regard to access management, backup, and recovery procedures in the IT environments. For our audit, we also look at the risk of material errors due to cyber risks. We've taken note of the cyber incidents that have occurred and have involved our IT specialists in this. Our work did not reveal any cybersecurity incidents or risks that could have led to material errors in the financial statements. I would now like to briefly address the subject of climate risk. Climate change is an important social issue which affects companies.
On the one hand, companies have a responsibility to limit the impact on climate change. On the other hand, companies experience the impact of climate change on their business operations. That is why the impact of climate risks is an explicit part of our audit. We have not identified any risk of material misstatement in the financial statements as a result of climate risks. As indicated, we've issued an assurance report with a limited level of assurance for the sustainability statements. These have been prepared in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. The procedures we've performed in this context mainly consisted of obtaining an understanding of the relevant sustainability topics, discussing the content with Ahold Delhaize, and determining the plausibility of the reported ESG information and indicators.
As part of our work, we visited various brands, obtained information, identified harmonization and connections, made assessments, analyses, and performed limited substantive tests. Our work did not reveal any significant findings with respect to the ESG information as included in the annual report. I now hope that I've once again been able to give you a good insight into our activities and findings this year. I would like to finish by expressing my valuation of our relationship with U.S. shareholders. Thank you for your attention. I will now hand back to the chair.
Now that we are done with the explanation of the items under agenda item two, I would like to inform you that the voting will now be opened. And as a reminder, voting for all agenda items will remain open until the end of the meeting, and I will indicate when the voting is about to close. This allows you to, as shareholders, the opportunity to vote on the agenda item at your convenience. Before we proceed with the voting items on the agenda and open up the voting, I would like to ask the civil law notary Reinier Kleipool from the law firm De Brouwer Blackstone Westbroek to make the necessary statement.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dank u wel, voorzitter. Dames en heren, zijn vandaag 130.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we have 130 shareholders or proxies in this hall. They represent 620,091,793 ordinary shares and have the same amount of votes. Outstanding common shares is 68.1% represented. You are here with many attendees. It is important that the discussions and the decision-making on those for you and for Ahold Delhaize's important topics are taken with due carefulness. For that reason, we will strive to maintain a pleasant and orderly atmosphere.
As explained at the start of this meeting and as the chair has repeated, you will be given the opportunity to vote on all agenda items at any time during the meeting. You may, but you do not have to, wait until a particular agenda item has been discussed. I will give you a brief explanation of the voting procedure in a moment, after which you will be able to vote on all agenda items. You can still change your vote after that until the voting closes if you so wish. We assume that the meeting will proceed in an orderly fashion and that all agenda items can be discussed. However, it cannot be ruled out that the meeting will have to be suspended or that the meeting will have to be closed earlier than planned.
The option to vote continuously during the meeting also gives you the certainty that your vote will be included in the voting results in the unlikely event of a disruption of the agenda and the associated consequences. I advise you to make use of this option. I will now give a brief explanation of the voting process. You can vote via the app on your mobile device or via the voting device that you received at the registration desk. Voting for all agenda items is now open and will close at the end of agenda item nine. All voting results will be presented at the end of the meeting after the close of voting. For each agenda item, you will see three choices on your screen: one in favor, two against, and three is abstain. After you've made your choice, a confirmation will appear on your screen.
If necessary, you can ask for help from one of the staff present in the room by raising your hand. You have the opportunity to vote on all agenda items as said until we've dealt with all of them until the end of agenda item nine. You do not have to wait until an agenda item is discussed to cast your vote. Back to you, chair.
Thank you, Reiner. So the voting for all resolution is now open. And as mentioned, you can vote on all resolution. As provided for in the convocation for today's meeting, shareholders have the following options to submit questions. For those here in persons, there will be microphones available for you to ask questions. And finally, we have also offered shareholders the opportunity to submit questions ahead of the meeting to be answered during the meeting.
When asking questions, please state your name clearly and formulate your question as short as concise as possible. And if you're a proxy holder, please state your name of the shareholder you represent. There are mobile wireless microphones for asking questions. Please remain seated and raise your hand should you have a question. And please wait until a microphone is brought to you. And we kindly ask you also do not grab or hold on to the microphone while asking your questions. Furthermore, may I invite certain shareholders who have raised questions before the meeting to ask their question. And as I said before, I kindly ask you to maintain a respectful meeting order in which all shareholders get the opportunity to ask their questions.
I also ask you to keep your questions short, that you do not repeat questions that have already been raised and/or answered, and that you avoid any lengthy statements so everyone has the opportunity to ask questions during the meeting. To ensure that questions are answered efficiently, we will collect and combine the number of questions before we answer them. Finally, given what we've seen so far, a friendly reminder, it's not allowed to make excessive noise that may be perceived as disruptive during the meeting, such as screaming, whistling, singing. To realize a respectful and pleasant meeting for all in which all topics and interests are addressed, non-adherence to today's house rules or disruptive behavior that causes disorder will be intervened upon.
So with that, I think we should move on to the participants here in the San Theater and open up for the questions. Is there any shareholders who have any questions? Let me see. Shall we start with the shareholder on the right?
Hi. My name is Jasper Meyers from Feberio. We represent 8% of the total assets invested by Dutch institutional investors. And I would like to ask three questions. I will do them all. I prepared them in English, so I will do it in English as well. The first one. Ahold Delhaize aims to achieve 100% deforestation and land conversion-free own brand products by 2025. Is the company on track to meet this goal? And what are the biodiversity ambitions beyond 2025? Will Ahold Delhaize introduce new targets and consider extending similar goals to its wider supply chain?
Two, while Ahold Delhaize ensures wages meet or exceed national minimums, these do not always constitute a living wage. Will the company provide more transparency in its next annual report on efforts to ensure living wages as defined by ILO, both for its own workforce and for workers in its supply chain? Question three, with the implementation of CSRD, which we saw, that was really good, and the identification of workers in the value chain as a material topic, how does Ahold Delhaize ensure meaningful engagement with vulnerable groups such as indigenous people and migrant workers? Will the company expand its disclosures to include more details on how these stakeholders are involved and how the outcomes are of the engagement? Thank you.
Thank you. We should probably continue with a few more questions in order to get it together. Shall we go down here to the shareholder with the, is it the red tie you have? Yes.
My name is Mitchell Vaness. I work for Obico. Today, I also speak on behalf of MN and Aegon Investment Management BV. Thank you for your presentations and congratulations on the annual report. We realize how much work goes into reporting, and especially this year, including new requirements set by the EU on sustainability-related reporting. Under this agenda item, I have questions both on our strategy and sustainability. One of Ahold Delhaize's strategic ambitions is to grow faster than the market. Given your footprint and the markets you're in, that is not an easy assignment. In your annual report, four levers are defined for delivering that growth.
And a bit earlier today, you already explained on what Ahold Delhaize will be doing specifically on densifying and growing markets, innovation, new business models, and consolidation. My first question is, what makes you confident that you can do better than your competition and outgrow the market on these levers? My second question, or my second point is, we would like to share our appreciation on Ahold Delhaize's first steps on its biodiversity impact assessment, where it identified both high-impact commodities for its own brand projects that significantly affect biodiversity loss in selected locations, as well as dependencies on ecosystem services like water and fertility. We understand the novelty of that topic and that the assessment functions as a first step. Yet, could you explain what the next steps are and what a company-wide target and progress reporting might look like?
To my next question, Ahold Delhaize's plans to reduce carbon emissions are already in the further stage with targets submitted to the SBTI. We understand these plans and that the company has started working with its suppliers to set and verify targets and that a process is in place to track progress. Compared to the 2020 baseline, flag emissions are up by 9%, and energy and industrial greenhouse gas emissions are roughly the same. With a growth agenda for the business, what kind of proof points are you looking for the next couple of years that these scope three targets can actually be achieved? And to conclude, I'd like to make a point I have also raised last year on tax reporting. Currently, Ahold Delhaize provides reporting on its tax approach, policy, and governance. In terms of tax contribution, it only provides taxes paid.
For the next annual report, it would be helpful to include type of business activities, personnel, etc., as is common in full versions of country-by-country reporting. Last year, you explained that, for example, there is real economic substance in Switzerland via financial management, treasury, and risk. Yet the amount of corporate taxes paid in Switzerland compared to some of your key retail markets, including Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S., remains somewhat counterintuitive. So a report would be helpful. Your reaction, please.
Thank you. So I suggest we start with answering two sets of questions from EBDO and Robico. So Frans, Jolanda, maybe to some extent too.
Yep.
Please go ahead.
Thank you, Peter. If I come back first to the questions of EBDO. We have a double materiality assessment, and as per that assessment, we agree that this is within our supply chain where we see the greatest opportunity to manage biodiversity impact opportunities, but also risk. And we are reliant on ecosystem services to operate. We have a long-term focus on deforestation and conversion-free DCF products within our own brand products via our critical commodity program. And these programs also focus on human rights as well in the supply chain. Regarding our 2025 deforestation targets, as seen in our 2024 annual report, we have achieved a target for soy, recognizing that we utilize credits and tea. So for soy and tea, we are already 100% at this moment. We are approaching 100% for cocoa, coffee, palm oil, and seafood. And our ambition is that for this year, we achieve there the 2025 targets we achieved there, also the 100%.
That is what at the moment we're fighting for. To determine our ambitions for the future, we initiated our nature project, which evaluates our impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities across a long list of high-impact commodities. The result of that is being discussed now. But it will lead to a number of things: the confirmation of a critical commodity list, the determination of metrics and certification targets, the confirmation of scope and certification requirements, and the prioritization of supply chain engagement focus areas. We will provide an update on our progress in our 2025 report. The other topic where we are working on also is on wood fibers, where we have quite some work to do, but also there we would like to make big progress in 2025.
On your second question, Ahold Delhaize and its great local brands have adopted six overarching principles to guide fair compensation for their associates: a solid base of comparing roles, a market-based compensation, compensation in compliance with the law, equal pay for equal work, compensation aligned with individual performance and brand business strategy, a compensation that is transparent, consistent, and explainable for the individual associate. In our annual report 2024, you'll see under the block of under the chapter of social information how we treat our associates related to, amongst others, work conditions, health and safety, social dialogue, work-life balance, pay equity, adequate wages, and equal treatment. And we also report at the same time in line with our ESRS and perform studies related to the definition of adequate wage of ESRS, where we compared against minimum wages in order to be compliant with ESRS.
However, we also stated Ahold Delhaize and its brands pay fixed additional payments, of course, but also in many cases profit sharing and holiday allowances. We are continuously reviewing this and how we can incorporate these fixed additional payments into our analysis on top of the hourly wages. And this isn't an easy task given the variety of payment for all our 17 great local brands, which are in different geographies, different legislation, and sometimes also a different structure of pay. So that was the second question. And I think, Jolanda, you would like to talk about the CRCD in the third question.
Yes. And indeed, as you already indicated, we proactively have chosen to comply with the CSRD directive. How did we involve our stakeholders? In the summer of 2023, we engaged with Enact.
This is a company that supported us with broadening our approach to due diligence from human rights to the broader social and environmental impacts. An important aspect of our sustainability due diligence is to engage directly with our stakeholders. We have engaged with external representatives of potentially affected stakeholders. They're represented by 13 organizations, and I mentioned a few of them: Boston Common Asset Management, Oxfam, the Milken Institute, UN Global Compact NL, Women Win, and a lot more. These organizations and their representatives were interviewed, and those same organizations were invited to join and participate in a workshop to discuss their recommendations for our company. We also leveraged input from the human rights assessments that were conducted by Albert Heijn to get a perspective from workers in the supply chain.
In addition, we started conducting global human rights impact assessments that will directly engage with workers in our supply chain. We believe that input from workers in the supply chain is important and that it is best gathered in the specific context of such an assessment. That way, we can ensure that those workers are engaged in a meaningful way. I'll take on the next question as well, I think, Frans, on strategy.
Yeah, I think that's the next question of Mr. Vaness of Robeco. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Thank you for the questions, by the way. The question was, why are we confident that we can outgrow our competition? It is really a big ambition because that is indeed not easy. Why do we think we are able to realize that ambition? It's more or less outlaid in our Growing Together growth model.
In that growth model, we said it all starts with investing in our customer value proposition, which I touched upon. And to make it a bit more concrete, for us, two main elements to highlight here. In our customer value proposition, we want to expand our own branded products. Own branded products allow us to not only invest in more healthier products, but it also gives us the opportunity to offer those high-quality products at lower prices. So own branded products is a key element in that strategy. And the second thing is that we are stepping up our investments in prices. I mentioned the example of $1 billion investments in the next four years. Last but not least, we are opening and remodeling more stores than ever.
The example that I shared in my speech, we're opening 1,000 stores and remodeling those stores in the next four years as well. So it's investing in our customer, investing in our proposition, and opening up and remodeling more stores that gives us the confidence, together with our great people, that we will be able to realize that ambition going forward.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Jolanda. I will continue with the second question from the colleague of Robico. When we talk about the biodiversity impact assessment, and I would like to thank you for the recognition, by the way, because we are very proud ourselves of the first steps we have taken, which were fully data-driven and value chain-oriented. For the next steps, we will do a number of things. We will continue to socialize and tweak the results based on internal stakeholder feedback.
We'll use that content to reevaluate our approach to critical commodities. And I talked about critical commodities before. We are making a good leap and a good step towards our targets of 2025, and also the various certifications, restrictions, and actions that we will focus on. And we continue to explore emerging topics like water and sustainable agriculture that is in our nature and our TNFD reporting ambitions to determine where our efforts are best focused to address material impacts. And we'll continue to explore the connection of these nature actions to our climate journey. If we come to your question number three, where we talked about the reduction of carbon emissions and at the same time also to grow our business, how does that work? Decoupling business growth with emissions is indeed challenging, and yet we stayed committed to identifying and accelerating opportunities to do so.
We are very prized to with our European commitment on plant-based protein, and this will also be a key driver to recognize reductions. We have initiated partnerships in the U.S. to promote lower carbon crops, and together with Kellenova and together with General Mills, we have projects on regenerative agriculture, and those are big steps we make together with those companies. We are very pleased with our engagement in CGF and other industry forums. CGF stands for the Consumer Goods Forum, where we are also a strong partner to build a wider movement towards net zero, and not only in scope one and two, but for sure also in scope three along the whole supply chain. And we are also at the same time updating our scope three calculation methodology to better represent the globally sourced nature of our business.
Realizing true reductions in scope three emissions take time, partnership along the whole chain, new ways of working, and the use of other levers, for example, health and nature. Then the tax reporting, I think for you, Jolanda. Yeah, indeed.
Thank you, Frans. Yes, the question on tax reporting. For the audience, we provide our taxes paid by country. It's called country-by-country reporting. And the question was, could we not elaborate and provide more information? Well, regarding that public country-by-country reporting, the way we do it is in sync with law and regulation. So the ask is understood, but not mandatory yet under any legislation or regulation, and we follow the regulatory process in this respect.
Indeed, our Swiss activities are in line with the principles of V&O tax governance codes. Our Swiss operations indeed have genuine substance, are aligned and involved with our daily business activity, such as safeguarding Ahold Delhaize's liquidity, cash collection and pooling, and driving our company's financial risk management and our insurance activities, by the way. We have a full operational office in Switzerland with highly skilled and experienced people who are managing risk and overseeing our treasury activities for the group as a whole. That was it, Peter.
We continue with another set of questions. I suggest we move up in the room. The gentleman with the glasses over there, the shareholder with the glasses, I should say. It is sometimes difficult to see from a distance for an old person like myself. Please go ahead.
Dank u wel, voorzitter. Mijn naam is Geert Koster. Ik ben van de vereniging van effecten.
My name is Geert Kosters. I'm from the Dutch Private Shareholders Association. Let me compliment you first on 2024 and your results. And you also maintain your goals for 2025. And I believe that with a view to the tariffs war, that's going to be very difficult. I believe that will require more explanation. And I would like to challenge you as executive committee to indicate in which way Ahold Delhaize will feel direct impact of the import tariffs, specifically in the USA. You're going to invest 3 billion in the USA. Strong investment, price investment. What should shareholders take into account with respect to the operational margin development of Ahold Delhaize in the USA?
Then final question, your ambition is to open 1,000 new stores in the USA, but we've seen that the merger between Albertsons and Koger isn't going to move forward. Analysts were debating that. Can you explain more about a possible merger between Ahold Delhaize and Koger? I hope I have more opportunity to ask my last questions later. Bol.com, Bol has some dips in turnover because of the increased Chinese competition. A future trade war between China and the USA will lead to a flooding of European markets by Chinese products. What do you envisage? Will the consequences be for Bol? And are there any investigations into that area? My final question is about Belgium. In Belgium, Ahold Delhaize is doing well. At the same time, you took over 325 stores from Louis Delhaize. How much improvement can Ahold Delhaize actually accomplish in Belgium?
And I have more questions for the accountant. I don't know whether you can give me the opportunity now.
And we'll probably come back with the reply in a little bit, but please go ahead while you have the word.
Okay, accountant, key audit matter.
In the data, indeed, thank you. A key audit matter, the supplier discounts. This was quite a huge issue for US Food Service and Ahold Delhaize a couple of years ago. We're very happy to hear that the auditor is very diligent there. I would like to hear from the auditor. How did he actually control the local auditors in this respect? And how was the result of the sample test? Was it 1 or 2 percent, or what did he really look into there? That was it for now. Thank you.
We move around a little bit in the room. Is there anyone else further back that has any questions? And it's a little bit difficult to see. Do I see anyone up in the corner? Yeah, please go ahead. Please state your name and if you're a proxy holder, the organization you represent.
Ik ben Denique en ik ben.
My name is Denique. I'm from the Dutch Environmentalists, and I would like to ask questions. I thought that after three times, things would be resolved, but now I'm here at your fourth shareholders meeting. I don't know whether this is detrimental to you or to me because I could have been somewhere else and had more fun than here. I'm going to ask you a fundamental question. The price for biological food products at Ahold were researched, and it is quite clear from that research that Ahold makes healthy and bio-based food products unpayable for the Dutch consumer.
I know that production is more costly, but Ahold Delhaize asks 56% more for biological or plant-based food products. I'm a student. It's difficult to make the right and the green choice. If Ahold requires 40% on top of the alleged 16% extra production costs for such bio-based food products, Ahold earns 324 million per year based on this additional increase for those people that make this green choice. The money does not go to better climate, to better policy, but only to the shareholders. Isn't that cynical? Specifically, if you know that emissions at Ahold Delhaize increased by 7% since 2018, even though you promised to decrease them. But I feel betrayed. While I loyally buy my vegetarian meat products, Ahold Delhaize doesn't care.
You forget the enormous number of people that have to leave their houses every year, that have to flee or that actually die because of the climate crisis, to which you continue to contribute. And do you know what really makes me crazy? This can just go differently by using a quarter of the profit that you're making now, which is actually paid back to the shareholders. You could keep up with the Paris agreements. And I cannot imagine that your shareholders would find it difficult if a small part of the dividend that they are paid out would go to the livability of the planet for your children and your grandchildren, right? And now here come my two questions, Frans.
Is Ahold Delhaize going to reduce its CO2 emission by 48% compared to 2018 in absolute numbers in the whole chain, scope one, two, and three, by investing a quarter of their profit into climate? And are you going to, after today, offer healthy and sustainable food products, making them affordable for everyone, for the normal Dutch person, and stop or halt the 40% additional win margin of such products? I expect your questions to be, your answers to be yes to both questions.
Jolanda, are you ready to answer the two sets of questions from VAB and from Milieu Defensie? Thank you for the questions.
Jolanda will say a few things about the guidance. JJ will say a few things about the effect, the present perception of effect of import tariffs for the U.S., And Claude, responsible for the Netherlands as well, will talk about Bol, ACM, and Delhaize. And then Erik van Leeuwen will say a few things about the question on accounting regarding income cutting and discounts for the purchase process. So let's start with the guidance, Jolanda.
Yes, thank you, Frans. And indeed, we do live in volatile times, but the guidance we give is the guidance that we adhere to. And that's why I repeated it in my speech as well. We, of course, monitor the situation really closely, but I must say we have been in business for more than 150 years already, as Frans disclosed. So we are quite resilient, also in volatile times. We are monitoring the situation, and if something totally unexpected happens, we will get back and be open about any deviation required. But I must say we are really well prepared also for some of the situations that we see happening now.
JJ, import tariffs, US, what do you see at the moment as potential effects?
Yeah, thank you, Frans. First of all, let me start by saying each week we serve 26 million customers, and keeping our cost of goods low, obviously, is a key part of what we do every day. As we've been anticipating the tariffs, we've taken a multifaceted approach to how we evaluate that. Our efforts include using AI to track and fact-check all tariff-related news and archiving all tariff documents into a centralized and searchable database. We distribute this regularly to our teams and evaluating each of these moves as we look to evaluate whether or not we take cost increases. But to the specific question, what we've seen primarily at this stage is some impact to produce items that we've been able to manage within our margin mix. Thank you, Bol.
Bol, the ACM questions we got and Delhaize in Belgium also regarding Del Food, 325 new stores.
So thank you for the question. And let me start with Bol. Indeed, the market of e-commerce has been a bit more tough over the last years, and especially on one hand by a slowdown in consumption versus the years during COVID time, but also the entrance of new players, especially coming from China, with different rules in sourcing and quality as we would have until now, especially within the context of Bol. Now, the way that Bol has been reacting was by investing and doubling down on what makes Bol a great company. They've been investing on a differentiated offer. They've been investing on innovation in the way they interact with their customers, but also on expanding the offer they could propose to their customers over here.
They continue to ensure that we have quality offers, but also the quality of their relation with their partners, as it has been certified with a B Corp certification. The result of this is that over the last months, Bol has been able not only to stabilize, but also to regain market share in both Netherlands, but also in Belgium. The second question was regarding Belgium. Belgium, Delhaize has been doing a very strong effort over the last year to not only continue to improve its value proposition and to serve their customers, but also to create even more closeness to the market by engaging affiliates. And now all the stores in Belgium are fully affiliated under the banner of Delhaize. And this affiliation allows us to be closer to customers and also to have a higher level of entrepreneurship.
Thanks to this, we have a very strong momentum and gain regular market share every month in Belgium. We will continue to invest in Belgium, especially within Delhaize brand, but also, as we are doing, especially on the Flemish part with the Albert Heijn affiliate, we are also over there. Thank you.
The ACM research, the investigation, the questions we got. Okay, for Bol, right? Yep.
So indeed, there is a research on ACM, which is ongoing. What we have seen over time is we are secured that customers in offering on working on Bol have all the capacity to indeed return the product whenever they would like to have it.
Thank you, Claude. Then I return, then I forgot in my distribution that one question on U.S. margin was also there. But maybe Jolanda, you can pick that up as a part of the guidance.
Yes, shortly. We do not give guidance on regional margins, but for the group as well, I just share the guidance. So I think we can refer to that overall. But as I stated in my speech, we are investing in the U.S., and we continue to see the US as a healthy 4% plus margin business for our company.
Before I go to the questions of Milieu Defensie, one question on Ahold Delhaize and Kroger, referring to newspaper articles which are speculating on potential combinations. We don't comment on speculations in newspapers. And you heard what I said earlier about that if there are potential M&A transactions, that we always look seriously on these kinds of things when they are in line with strategy accretion and all these kinds of things. But for this specific example, we don't react on and comment on questions from press and so on. Then shall I go to Erik van Leeuwen?
Yeah, I think so. We had a question to the auditor as well before we go up to.
Then we have to done that first round, and then we move to the questions of Milieu Defensie.
Thank you very much for your question, shareholder from the VEB. Vendor allowances. Quoting from leveranciers zijn inderdaad.
Vendor allowances or supplier discounts were a key audit matter, and we explained that in our report. These were volume and promotional discounts. In the course of the year, millions come in, and we have included them in our statement. 820 million were still outstanding by the end of the year. We gave instructions to our accountants and auditors in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the USA to check those outstanding receivables.
We also met with those colleagues to discuss their findings, and we also did a so-called file review to check whether they did this according to procedures. Of those 820 million, at the moment of signing off the annual report, 80% had already been received at Ahold Delhaize. And for the other outstanding receivables, we looked into the contracts and also compared to the year before. So I can confirm that with respect to these outstanding supplier discounts, more than 80% of the balance total was audited at the end of the year.
This submission cuts and so on.
Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And dank u wel, de collega.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you to the colleague of the Dutch environmentalists with respect to their questions.
I'll take up this chronologically and explain more about bio and organic food and explain more about our scope three targets, how we see them now based on our own commitments. The biological product assortment is extremely important to us, specifically at Albert Heijn. It's close to our heart. We see this as a very good way to offer our customers good choices. In the past 15 years, we've been very active. We now have 1,900 different bio-based products in our assortment, which means that we have the largest bio-based assortment of the supermarkets in the Netherlands. The percentage of bio in our assortment grew by almost 10%, and the share of bio products in potatoes and fruit and vegetable products is more than 20%. So the team of Albert Heijn has worked on this assortment strongly.
Something that I do not recognize, but again, we will look into the report you mentioned. Something that we don't recognize is that bio products are more expensive than conventional ones, and I'll substantiate that. We look into this often, and if we compare comparable product groups, then the bio-based assortment at Albert Heijn is priced in the same way with respect to gross margin compared to the other assortment. On top of that, customers that have a so-called premium subscription, they receive a 10% rebate on bio-based products, and that is how we wish to promote that. We do strive to make a shopping basket more biological. And if we look into our assortment, there are a couple of exemptions. For biological, you have to make the whole supply chain biological.
But if you look at chicken meat, at poultry, if a chicken hasn't received bio-based feed, then it will not certify as biological. And that is very expensive, and that is why some product groups do not fit under the umbrella of biological. It's important, and it is important for you to have access to a biological assortment with whichever wallet you have. All I can say is the assortment is growing, our turnover is growing, we have 37% market share, and our biological assortment is more than that as market share. So the fair share is much higher even than our market share of 37%, which means that our customers find our assortment and appreciate it. If I then turn to your question about the scope three targets and the 48% you mentioned. First, thank you for being with us, and thank you for expressing your concerns to us.
And I also believe that we, Ahold Delhaize and the Dutch environmentalists, share a couple of these concerns and that we do some hard work to prevent further warming. There is urgency, and we understand that urgency. We feel that urgency in this transition. If we now look at the scope one, two, and three emissions, then they're in line with the one and a half degrees of Paris. And we are led by the science-based target initiative, which is worldwide the most trustworthy standard. We not only measure ourselves, but also the other partners in our supply chain. Something changed in comparison to how we looked at scope three and 37% reduction. We have now a better sub targets with baseline referring to 2020 and more specific scope three targets. We have more than 3,000 suppliers, though. A lot of work ahead.
We have to discuss with each and every one of them how important it is to work on the climate and scope three. Scope three is outside of our direct control. It's in the whole supply chain, but we are pressurizing them, influencing them, suppliers up and downstream to fulfill these targets. At this point, 70% of our supply and footprint was asked to indeed commit to SBTi in 2025. And that is really working out well. We actually address all large suppliers, tell them that we expect them to join scope three and become SBTi certified, which is a huge pressure and is negotiating power. This is our role as a retailer, but also with respect to our consumer goods forums and zero coalition interests that we get more suppliers on our side so that we extend our footprint and influence thousands of suppliers, the so-called long tail.
We've also committed to plant-based protein goals for Europe, and we want to have 50% of our protein and plant-based by 2032 for the relevant products. Now, in summary, we are both of the opinion that we have to fight for the climate, that this planet shouldn't warm up more. And I think that we will need to act together. And I hope that in my talks with the Dutch environmentalists at the end of this month, we not only discuss the report with you and understand it better, but also discuss with you how we can work together to fight for the right cause.
Yes, please go ahead. Do we have a microphone for a quick response? And then we're going to move on to the next person in line.
Allereerst over het. First of all, about the organic products you just talked about.
You said that you don't see the 40%. I just can't imagine that we from independent research see a percentage margin of 40% that you completely don't recognize that. And studies have shown that all of us could just as well better not shop at Ahold Delhaize, but it would be better to shop at Lidl because they're doing much better regarding organic food. My second question about Ahold Delhaize's footprint. Well, it doesn't really matter what it is that you're doing, but the business operation, that's up to you, Ahold Delhaize. I'm interested in what you're not doing. Our statistics show that over the past few years, you've been emitting more. I don't see how that can be in line with the climate agreement Paris, which requires 48% CO2 reduction, and you have started emitting more.
So where do you get this 27%, and how do you feel about it?
Is there any other questions that we would like to raise? I can see we should maybe move over to the right side of the group, the shareholder with a red shirt or sweater. It maybe is. It's a bit difficult to see from a distance. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Marita Canedo, and I'm with the proxy for Domini Impact Investments. And I have traveled all the way from the USA to speak to you on behalf of Dairy Farm Workers at the Hanna Force supermarket supply chain. And we're calling all these years on Ahold Delhaize to address urgently the documented human rights abuses committed against farm workers supplying Hanna Force brand milk.
We have reached out to you previously to provide this evidence and the existence of these abuses, and not only showing you that this is happening, but bringing a solution called Milk with Dignity. And this program monitors and establishes enforcement mechanisms for standards for the worker rights, provides companies with an unparalleled tool to ensure due diligence in the dairy supply chains. This partnership benefits companies by increasing resilience and mitigating supply chain risk. We believe that the program will greatly benefit Ahold Delhaize by allowing you to achieve your stated human rights goals. So in Europe's past, you have responded to this invitation by claiming that Ahold Delhaize is already taking sufficient steps addressing supply chain abuses, providing updated standards, expansion of the speak-up line to your supply chain workers, and partnership with the dairy industry group to provide human resource supports for farmers.
But none of these measures have had an appreciable impact on farm workers' experiences in your supply chain. A recent survey conducted with hundreds of dairy workers demonstrates the persistence of violations of your standards of engagement. The survey results clearly show systemic abuse and point toward the need for those at the top of the supply chain, including Ahold Delhaize, to take greater responsibility by working with farm workers to join the Milk with Dignity program because 53% of the survey workers report labor discrimination. Milk with Dignity protects these workers from retaliation, allowing them to speak up without fear. 82% of currently workers live in terrible housing conditions, but through the Milk with Dignity program, your suppliers will receive regular housing inspections and access to new investments to repair and bring new housing. 87% of the farm workers survey make less than $14 per hour.
But under the program, this is addressed directly and wages increase. 70% have been injured on the job. Milk with Dignity ensures sufficient safety training and protection to keep workers safe. 53% of the survey workers' labor are not paid sick days, and 61% don't have even vacation time. So through the Milk with Dignity program, all this is addressed, and all workers are protected against sexual harassment, any kinds of violence or abuse that can happen. So because there is a failure of Ahold Delhaize to ensure respect for human rights in the supply chain, farm workers have felt the need to submit a complaint. Here it is.
Through the Dutch national contact point regarding violations of the OECD guidance for multinational enterprise and responsibility business conduct, it is our sincere hope that Ahold Delhaize will avoid the unnecessary expense and reputational damage of a formal human rights investigation by engaging in good faith and dialogue regarding Milk with Dignity. We truly believe that Ahold Delhaize can be a human rights champion and a leader in the field. So my question is, are you willing to really bring this conversation with farm workers taken seriously and deep in this conversation and future meetings? Thank you.
Thank you. We take one more question, and then we'll get back to the answer. We go down to the first line here. Please go ahead.
Goedemiddag.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Robert Vreeke of We Connect You. The issue here is quick wins.
And another issue is be good and tell it because nobody realizes this. We used to have Paul Polman of Unilever, but right now he's been succeeded by Frans Muller of Ahold. But it's all about telling the story properly. Since 1995, Mr. Muller has been a vegetarian. And it's very important because he sets the example. Now, room for improvement. Make Europe great again. And also, make America great, great again. And what's important is that Ahold Delhaize is strong in Europe and the U.S., And it is now Ahold Delhaize's duty to carefully and very diplomatically rephrase everything that is going on, all the craziness. And it's wonderful. I mean, you've talked about all the climate disasters in California, Florida, and also Germany and Greece because you have experience with what is going terribly wrong as we speak. And there is so much that you're doing.
You've talked about that, but there's room for improvement because we see that little people say, well, they are the best in fruit and vegetable, and they've got the kipster. And you can show and demonstrate that Ahold Delhaize can do a much better job. We are facing an obesity pandemic. It's gigantic in the U.S., We're facing it in Holland as well. Salt, sugar, alcohol, smoking, 20,000 deaths a year because of alcohol and smoking. Smoking. You don't sell any tobacco anymore. Heineken, zero alcohol is doing very well. But tell the story because Ahold Delhaize is a white raven among the supermarkets. It's important to plant forests worldwide and your business and to expand your business in a sustainable way. A wonderful example is Costa Rica. We have the biggest jungle in the world, relatively speaking. Peanut butter costs EUR 10 there. Jam costs EUR 10 .
200 grams of cheese costs EUR 10 there. Albert Heijn can set up new shops there, new stores very sustainably. Same goes for Brazil. Same goes for Indonesia. You have operations in the most important areas in the world in a very sustainable way and also make things more sustainable with Ahold Delhaize. We are dealing with cybercrime from Russia and China, which is unrivaled. You know, if things go wrong, they can cause an enormous outage. It is important for all the Albert Heijn stores. They have got lots of parking spaces. You can cover the roofs with solar panels and set up enormous batteries so that you become independent and continue operations. It does not only go for Ahold Delhaize. It goes for all the big companies in Holland. Furthermore, you are a big player in football. You are a main sponsor.
You can do much more there. For instance, with Ankerman at Humberto Tan. He's well accepted with lots of people. And it also leads to wonderful diversification. Now, the cash registers. You had promised me that the checkout points would remain. But they're being eliminated. Nowhere do you find an ordinary cash register anymore. There are 2 million people in the Netherlands that have difficulties walking, mobility problems. Those cash registers are terrible if you have lots of groceries, more than EUR 50 in your groceries. And something else is hospitality, which is a forte for Albert Heijn. It's disappearing, which is unfortunate because Albert Heijn associates were the nicest associates. Bol.com can improve its business as well. Amazon is doing an enormous job in the Netherlands. Just a Siko with KPN in the Netherlands. You've got to increase your efforts here. Pension Fund of Ahold.
It's important to invest in defense, five or 10% in sustainability as well. And it's also important to invest in Europe. That's excellent for our economy. We have the most prosperous consumers, 450 million consumers. And you also have lots of consumers in the U.S., So you can bridge the two areas. That's very important because it's crazy what's going on left, right, and center in terms of sustainability, in terms of cybercrime, and then also the forests and investing in the countries where we have jungles and plant forests. That's the issue. Same applies to IKEA. Peter Agnefjäll has excellent contacts with IKEA because, of course, this is unrivaled. He has an excellent track record, and we need to benefit from that. It's important for you, your children, and possibly your grandchildren because they are facing a terrible future, a shit future with climate change and obesity.
My son is working in the hospital, in the intensive care of the AMC hospital, and he sees what the impact is if people have been drinking and smoking for years and years or suffering from obesity. So let's eliminate salt, sugar as much as possible. People can add it for themselves. So these are just a couple of suggestions. And then there's security. The stores can become so much safer. I said that 10 years ago. And that's easy to do in a very cost-efficient way, but they are not doing it. So in short, thank you for your intention. Keep up the good work, but tell the story because hardly anybody knows about it. And start by talking about California and Florida, what you're doing there, and how well you're doing with the food banks because nobody in the Netherlands knows about this.
Of examples of lengthy statements. So please be reminded that we really would appreciate it if you could keep your questions short going forward unless you want to stay the night here, and I assume you don't. So there was a follow-up question from Lea Defensi. There was from Migrant Justice, Milk with Dignity. And Mr. Feke, we appreciate a number of suggestions in comments and questions. It was quite a few. I'm not sure if I'm going to mention them all. We'll try to take them a little bit as they come. Shall we start with Milia Defensi?
Yep, we can. En dank u nogmaals voor uw aanvullende vraag.
Yes, and thank you for this follow-up question. I hope that in our conversation, which we're having later this month, we will get more explanation, more details about the report you sent us. It's important to understand it properly. The report was issued yesterday.
We haven't had a lot of time to read it closely. Second, as I just said, yes, we'll be happy to discuss the fact that our margins, our gross margins for conventional food and organic food in comparative categories is equal to each other. And it's not that, as you allegedly say, that we would take more of a profit. That's not the case. We consider it very important that clients have access to organic produce. And if they're a premium customer for us, that they get another 10% additional discount because healthy food and organic food is something we would like to foster. How is it that we have more emissions? Together with SBTI, we are working on calculation methods so that we get the SBTI approval for that. We are in an approval process with SBTI.
And I think that in the very short future, we will get the approval of SBTI in terms of our own calculation methods. There's just one thing that we need to further understand at SBTI. And this is about the deforestation-free products for the entire assortment that we have. We particularly refer to deforestation-free and critical commodities for our own brand assortment. And that is something we need to take on board for SBTI. And we expect to have the outcomes shortly and also to be able to provide more details on the basis of SBTI standards in terms of scope one, two, and also three. That also means that we have to work incredibly hard at scope three, not only ourselves, but also with the entire supply chain. And that is precisely what we intend to do.
We're very much open to this dialogue to discuss this with you because, yes, we are absolutely convinced that we have to achieve our targets. There is a question for JJ for the U.S., Milk for Dignity.
Taking my headphones off so it doesn't echo. First of all, with the Milk with Dignity and Migrant Justice, thank you for being here. Thanks for making the trip here with us. First, let me assure you that we take human rights concerns very seriously. That's why we've agreed to meet with Migrant Justice and look forward to a constructive dialogue with you and your feedback. Also, anytime we receive a related claim to possible human rights violation, we thoroughly research the claim, often with assistance from third-party providers as well.
And to date, through those audits and those processes that we have in place, Hannaford has not uncovered any credible information or violations of legal standards or our standards of engagement related to workers at any farm at Hannaford's private brand supply chain. With that being said, we are continuing our human rights survey this year. We've invited you to be a participant in that and hope that you'll do that. And the last thing that I would say on that topic is, you know, our stores are the heartbeat of our communities and the fabric of our communities. Our associates, our customers, our suppliers, our farmers are all clearly a part of what we care about and look forward to the partnership and look forward to the connection on the topic.
Okay. And Mr. Feke, it was a bit of a mix of questions about telling the story about healthy food, tobacco, cybercrime, forest issues, renewables, energy production, cash register, checkouts, pensions, etc. I assume that's for you, Frans.
Yeah, I did not really hear a clear question, but more some recommendations. It's not so easy to combine all the recommendations for our type of business to make a combination between Costa Rica, Humberto Tan, Dutch football, automated checkouts, and a better climate is not so easy. But what I agree with you is that we have an opportunity to talk more about the things which go quite well.
And without any arrogance, but just reality, we work very hard to be a good company if it's on human rights, how we work with our associates, how we work with our sustainability agenda, how we also, by the way, keep the surfaced checkouts in place because we recognize that senior citizens would love to have a conversation with our checkout employees and don't want to have a digital checkout. So a number of these kinds of things we recognize. We had some recommendations of our good work in Florida and California. We are mainly based on the East Coast at the moment with 2,000 stores. But we learn from good retailers in Florida as well. But we take your recommendations on note and see what we can do there for our future.
And of course, things like obesity, things like diabetes, things like better formulations for food products are in the core of our activities. And like you rightfully said, obesity, diabetes is not a so-called U.S. topic. It's a European topic, as hard as it is a U.S. topic. But if you see what Albert Heijn did in the last years, reformulating their private brand products, salt out, sugar out, fats out, I think that is what we like to do. The Schijf van Vijf, you know, our Nutri-Score score. So I think we are very much into this. And one nice testimony that we do quite a lot of things in a proper way and also certified by other institutions is also the B Corp certification of Albert Heijn and the B Corp certification by Bol.
And those are things where a lot of people around us see that we do the right thing. But indeed, we have an opportunity to talk more about it. And I've written down that recommendation.
Thank you. We move on to a couple of more questions. We can move up in the audience. We'll come to you, Mr. Spania in a second. The shareholder in, is it the blue jacket and the white shirt? Or is it a dark jacket? Blue and my white shirt. All right. Sorry.
Because there's no cameras. I figure I describe myself a little bit here. Hi. Good morning. Ik ga toch over in het Nederlands.
I'd like to speak Dutch. My name is Kees Kootjes. I'm director and only employee of the new Stock Exchange Course.
We are an association of the church and of church institutions, and we are into economy, and we want God's word to be understood there too. So we call it faith-based investors, and I hope that we're not the only ones. Part of a loving economy is attention for people, for each and every human being, and understanding their intrinsic value. I'm going to ask a question that my neighbor already asked because you haven't answered it. It's work migrants and the situation in distribution centers here in the Netherlands. That's what I wish to draw attention to because a number of our members of the new Stock Exchange Course have worries and concerns about these work migrants because they aren't being treated well by temporary agencies and others.
That is why I would like to ask you, can you tell us more about how Ahold Delhaize treats work migrants in the distribution centers in the Netherlands? Last week, a TV show, Lubach, had some feature about them, and the work inspectorate looked into it. You've already told us a bit in your reports, but if you could now tell us more in this hall and more specifically about the complaints that you receive. You receive about 5,000 complaints per year in your access to remedy mechanism, your complaints mechanism. How many of those complaints pertain or come from work migrants in distribution centers in the Netherlands? Thank you for your attention, and I hope and look forward to a good dialogue.
Does anyone else have any questions to raise? We continue. Mr. Spanje, I promised to come back to you, so please, can we have a microphone up here? Down here, front row.
Chair, my name is Spanje. I have a question for the auditor. Can I ask this question under this agenda item? Thank you. Because the auditor, on the 14th of November 2024, there was a cyber attack at Ahold Delhaize. And when did the auditor hear about this attack? And which cyber specialist did he use in the U.S. to counteract, detect this attack, look into what was going on and what was possibly lost? I haven't read anything about this in his report. And last year, the auditor presented very clearly that EUR 20 million was given as penalty to Ahold Delhaize. I knew that they were going to get that penalty.
But this self-cleaning mechanism is something that I miss in this story. This quality assessment or assurance, who is that? I can't hear from the report who that is. Why is that the case? Because it has to be stated according to the NBA, the association's rule, and at which times were which points checked off by the auditor and which remarks were made about his work. What were the points that he had to look into more closely? That wasn't in the report by the auditor, but it is in the relevant manual for such reports. Then, CSRD, relatively new this year. How did the auditor understand that the information that he received from Mrs. Pote? What were those five points? How were the documents submitted? How were they checked? How did that go in Belgium?
I didn't hear anything about that in his presentation, nor did I read anything about that in his documents or reports. I would like to receive answers to all, please.
Question, and then we move on to the shareholder in a white or beige jacket. So please go ahead.
Thank you very much. My name is Sophie Campaus. I represent a men and Pension Funds, PayME and PayMT, and I'm also speaking on behalf of PGM, Robeco, VGZ, Riel & OV, Christian Brothers Investment Services, NN Group, U.S. at Federated Hermes, and Achmea Investment Management. On behalf of this group, I would like to thank your team for the conversations we've had regarding the Nature Project this year. A key outcome of the Nature Project was that there is actually a material financial dependency of Ahold's supply chains on clean freshwater and healthy soils.
Yet in your annual report, we see that you haven't formulated yet a clear approach to reduce pollution and improve water and soil quality in your supply chain. We, as investors, want to stress that the important role that regenerative or other sustainable agricultural practices have in the food transition, as it is one of the key opportunities to address CO2 reduction, halt biodiversity loss, and support human health. We urgently need to change the way we farm, and as a major global retailer, Ahold can take a leading role in this. We are investors with a long-term horizon, and we would like to support Ahold in this transition. So this year, we would like to contribute our thoughts on how Ahold can define its regenerative agriculture strategy to align with the global biodiversity target seven and address risks associated with the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
I'd like to conclude with a question. What concrete steps will Ahold take in this year and the coming years on the topic of regenerative agriculture, and how will Ahold ensure that positive impacts can be measured and disclosed? Thank you very much.
All right, so let's take a moment and reply to three sets of questions we've had. Shall we start with the questions from the new BERSC course and workers in DC before we move on to cyber and steps in regenerative culture?
I would distribute as following, Peter: migrant workers in the Dutch market to Claude, migrant workers in DC's in the U.S. markets to JJ, and they would take it from there.
Good, thanks for your question, and indeed, it's a very important topic.
We do believe overall in Ahold Delhaize and also very specifically in Albert Heijn that it's very important that all employees, all employees, temporary, permanent, are treated with equal respect and regardless of work origin or otherwise. Over the past five years, over the past five years, the labor inspectorate has not found any violation of the Dutch distribution centers, any violation. We pay ordinary necessary attention to this, for example, in discussion with our teams in various different warehouses, but also with agencies. And of course, if we would receive any complaints directly in Albert Heijn, for example, we would definitely pay the highest attention to it. Thank you.
Yep. Maybe just building on a few points that I made earlier. In the U.S., we're continuing to strive to engage with programs and initiatives that, as we talked about, objectively and collaboratively and, more importantly, transparently focus on advancing human rights objectives across the total US business. If I think a little bit and use the Hannaford example as one of those, we've set up a process to where we evaluate each of the reports that come in. We have third parties that partner with our teams, and we make sure that each of those areas of concern or complaints are properly evaluated. It's important to us that we have a discipline process in place that we follow through with on a daily basis and that we have bilingual associates that are allowing our associates to connect in different languages and, obviously, any way that they would choose to work with us and are confident in the processes that we have.
Thank you. Eric, can I ask you to please come back on the stage and regarding Mr. Spania's question on the cyber incident that was raised?
Meneer Spania, ik heb vier.
Mr. Spania, I detected four questions. Firstly, with respect to the cyber attack, in every large company and also with Ahold Delhaize, such attacks occur repeatedly. In November last year, indeed, this cyber attack was of a different order. Ahold Delhaize then actually released a press release, which you probably read. And in the open relationship that we have as external auditor with Ahold Delhaize, this was reported to me by Jolanda directly, and I had contacts with the chair of the RFRC. If something like this happens, then, of course, the organization, the management is in the first position to take measures. They did research, studied with external advisors what happened.
They took the first steps to safeguard their assets, ensure that no large damage would occur, and no operational disruption. We understood that, and we also set specialists to examine what the management did and tried to check whether this has any influence on financial reporting. We discussed this extensively, and this was all closed and finalized before the signing of the financial accounts. Cyber risks are part and parcel of our work, and we researched this fully. Your second remark had more pertinence to KPMG than to Ahold Delhaize, but I will answer your question. When I stood here last year, the PCOP gave KPMG a penalty because of undesired practices with respect to exams. At that point in time, I already indicated that things happened that shouldn't have happened and that should not happen anymore if everyone follows our instructions, and we indeed adapted our processes and systems.
We did a very thorough analysis, and we are very serious about this and took great steps forward. Your third question, I will now answer your third question with respect to the mission-oriented quality assessment. You asked about this last year, and this mission-oriented quality assessment is done by a senior partner at KPMG. This is a legal role. This is indeed laid down in our quality procedures. It's one of our team members, and I would like to say that I have very many important colleagues, partners, and coworkers in my team that play an important role. And this mission-oriented quality assessment person is the one who looks over my shoulder in planning this whole assignment, in finalizing it, in concluding it. This name, you can explain to me why you wish to know that name.
This is Case Bucker, an experienced senior partner that you will see in other listed companies. Again, I represent KPMG. My name is under the financial statements, and I am the final responsible person. The interpreters, unfortunately, cannot understand remarks made without microphones and cannot translate them. What about those 20 million? Because you've frauded with exams and you're not self-reflective enough. If you look at colleague auditors of another company, Dr. Wendy De Crote, she did a thesis on that and explained why auditors don't reflect and don't find out what goes wrong and only look forward. And I find it very disappointing that you haven't learned. Mr. Spania, we're here at the shareholders' meeting of Ahold Delhaize, and I'm very prepared to talk to you about KPMG, but let's do that after this shareholders' meeting. Now, your third point, CSRD.
I explained to you that we gave an assurance on the sustainability statements by Ahold Delhaize. This afternoon, we heard about the steps that Ahold Delhaize did with respect to reporting in CSRD. Ahold Delhaize, already a couple of years ago, set up their sustainability strategy and laid that down. A double materiality assessment was done in which way the environment and the surroundings are influenced by Ahold Delhaize. Risks were stated, opportunities were stated for goals and ambitions. Procedures were implemented to get information about that. A reporting manual was put together, which is very good. I can only confirm that. And a lot of work was put into improving data quality in the organization the past years. The annual accounts are in conformity with IFRS, which is a mature system. Everybody knows which information is necessary to that good.
Reporting about ESG is much more complex than many people think. Ahold Delhaize did a lot of good work there. I think they made a lot of important steps. And the reporting that you were able to read this year contains a lot of information about strategy and also about the way in which Ahold Delhaize was able to implement that strategy.
Move on, and we appreciate your question, but there are other shareholders who would like to come to speak as well. So let's see. You had one more question regarding regenerative agriculture.
That was a little broader question on biodiversity, nature, and these kinds of topics, which are, I think, super important together with climate. Those are big things for us, and we can have also a positive influence on those.
You might have seen in our annual report and TNFD metrics on page 377, where we already tried to start working on these kinds of elements in nature. We started in 2024 a nature project. We do a lot of work on sustainability in general, and we talk about critical commodities or CO2 or soil or deforestation. And I mentioned earlier a little bit what we do try to do there to get to 100% on deforestation commodities, but also on nature. We started our project, and that means also that we align ourselves and look at the TNFD references. And you explicitly mentioned water, and I think that is very justified to call that out. We have there absolutely more work to do.
And I think in a number of areas, and I mentioned regenerative agriculture, we have a lot of initiatives here in the Dutch markets where we work with a beter voor programma, which is not only looking at organic food, but also looking at regenerative agriculture, which goes much broader than only organic, as we know. It's also talking about pesticides, also talking about soil and quality and these kinds of things. But water is an element we have to do more work on, so that is on our shoulders to see what we can do. We are committed to go further in TNFD and to use those elements, and we expect that we have a regenerative agriculture strategy with our vendors and our suppliers by 2026 and 2027. So we're going to work on that very complex topic.
What we sometimes forget is, although this is super important, but what we sometimes forget is if this is happening and you not immediately find financing and funding for these kinds of initiatives, then it might get more expensive for customers. We also have to do quite some adoption with customers to see what can they do to bring their contribution. So very relevant topic for us. We work on that. More work to be done. Page 377 shows you what we try already to do, and we come back to you happily next year.
Okay. Shall we have some more questions? I'm trying to look through the facilities. I see one with even two hands up. So the shareholder with an orange shirt or jumper.
Yeah. Also, the reason why I put two hands up is because I have a colleague here with me. I am from the distribution center. He's from the supermarket. If you would allow us, then we would like to go after each other. Is that okay?
Sure. Yes, please go ahead.
My name is Berkan Kartal.
My name is Berkan Kartal, and I'm addressing you today not only as shareholder of Ahold Delhaize, but also as someone who's working in one of your distribution centers. I'm not here with wonderful talk and expensive titles. I have experience, calloused hands and feet, tired feet, and with knowledge in terms of what it takes to keep this company going. You say the company stands for people and planet, but what people are we talking about? Because the people I work with, the people who shift the products, transport the products, who carry your company are still waiting for something rather basic: equal treatment, a proper CLA and respect.
After four rounds of negotiations, we're still empty-handed. You can't talk about sustainability while you tire people that you're dependent upon. The contradiction is clear. We feel it. We sense it. If this company truly believes in fairness, in justice, then the solution is simple. If Albert Heijn can remunerate its shareholders, then there is money for honest and decent remuneration for its associates. Why don't you talk the talk? Because there will come a day in which words are not enough, in which associates will speak with their votes, with their feet. They will form a unit, and they will be heard. Thank you. Hi, everyone. That was my colleague, Berkan, who works in the distribution center. I work in Albert Heijn, Geldermalsen, and I replenish the shelves. I've been doing that for three years.
I've always enjoyed my work, but there's a terrible situation, a poignant situation that I'd like to address. It's an international company, so briefly, I'll explain why I'm here. I am here for wages for younger people, and I'll explain. Here in the Netherlands, this is quite unique in Europe. As from the age of 18, you don't get an adult wage, so as an 18-year-old, you will make EUR 7 an hour. If you're 22, only then will you get a proper adult wage, so that leads to poignant situations. I have three years of work experience. I'm 18 years old, but the other day, there was a 21-year-old that joined the company and had zero experience, but he made double my wages. As an 18-year-old, you can vote, you can buy a house, you can get married, but you are not paid an adult wage.
I have two specific questions. Ahold Delhaize says that it is in favor of equal pay, but what about wages for young people, for minors? Why did Ahold Delhaize decide to base its business strategy on underpaying young associates?
Berkan, okay. Thank you.
Berkan.
It takes some more questions before we reply to them. Are there anyone else who would have any questions? There is a lady with a gray or shareholder with a gray jacket. Yes, please. If we could have the microphone over there, please.
Hello, good afternoon. My name is Vanessa Reit. I'm from Germany. I have a question, and I want to start with something that is written on your website. And it says, "Ahold Delhaize acknowledges animal consciousness, understanding they feel pain and experience emotions.
Ahold Delhaize and its brand support the welfare for animals, and Ahold Delhaize is aiming to ensure the highest level of welfare throughout an animal's life." Mr. Muller, Mr. Anja Fjell, only a few things damage the value and the reputation of a company as much as broken promises. There has been widespread media. There have been protests even in front of the hotels this morning, and it's not possible to have a proper shareholder meeting. This is a clear sign of serious mismanagement and could have and should have been cleared a long time ago. And the question is to you, what are you specifically planning to restore the faith of your customers and your shareholders in the brand Ahold Delhaize? Thank you.
Thank you. I suggest we move on and try to answer the two sets of questions related to remuneration from the unions to younger people, equal pay, etc. I'm not sure if that's Claude or you want to do it.
Claude will answer those two questions in one go.
Yeah. Good. Thank you for your question. And above all, thank you for your hard work. I know very well also by myself what it is to work in a store. That's where I started my career. So a big thank you for that. And we know very well how much we depend on the hard work in stores and in warehouses. Concerning what we are doing and what is ongoing in terms of negotiation with logistics, we're having good discussions, and we have good discussions with unions about the CAO.
And we expect that in the coming days, hopefully, we can reach a CAO in a constructive consultation. Concerning the youth wage, it's a statutory minimum of youth wage is set to a high level. Employment for young people is expected to decrease because the wage cost for some employers will become too high to provide certain work. This is the feedback which we get as well from the Central Planning Bureau. Youth wage makes it possible again to get valuable experiences at an early age. And this youth age salary or income can also be justified because we have also higher costs related to guidance, communication, but also for higher flexibility with exam and training at the expense of Albert Heijn.
This is what we can really count on, and this is what is the reason why there is this difference in youth wage also in our operation in the Netherlands. Thank you.
Herr Unterstützungsbeamter aus Deutschland, vielen Dank für Ihre Frage. Es freut mich sehr, dass Sie die Reise angenommen haben.
For the lady from Germany, Mr. Muller is making difficult, we'll continue in Dutch. Thank you for coming.
Not only as a company and as leaders of this company, but also with our vendors and suppliers. In all the contracts we have, we have clear agreements with our suppliers on animal welfare. We have certification bodies which are also using those standards to check how they commit to this and how they comply to this.
If you look at our annual report, then if you look at page 131 of our annual report, we talk about animal welfare. And at the moment, we try to make the transition, and you are most likely very much aware of that professional language and professional background and subject. We try to make the transition from the five freedoms to the five domains. And that is what we at the moment do, and the five domains are consisting of nutrition, physical environment, health, behavioral interactions, and mental state. And there we talk about animal welfare. We realize that in this industry, despite our certifications, our relationship with our suppliers, that there is still quite some things to do, and we're very committed to do so. So at the moment, we make the transition to the five domains.
And together with our suppliers in general, for all types of animal welfare, we try to make that agreement with our suppliers that they commit and also commit to these new standards. And we also have certification bodies, which are recognized certification bodies, to deal with deviations from that. And then we also take action. And with a company like our in our size, in our number of suppliers, the number of countries in the brand we operate, we have to be humble at the same time because not everything is always going well, but we have a very firm commitment that this is getting better. So that would be the reasoning. And also coming back to your question, this would also be our initiative, which we try to practice for a long time already to have the confidence of our customers in the things we do.
Not only the confidence of our customers, also the confidence of our associates who find it very important that they work for a good company, taking also animal welfare super serious.
Okay. Any final comment to Mr. I didn't get the name really. Cartel regarding the DC situation. Frans or Claude?
On the DC situation, Claude, but I think you already answered that already. Yeah.
Well, the next discussion even tomorrow morning for the DC situation, the next slide.
Okay, good. So we have so far just gotten to agenda item two, and there are seven more to go. Given that we have now spent just short of three hours on the first two agenda points, I would suggest that we move on to agenda item three. Please be aware that there will, of course, be more opportunities to ask questions.
So agenda item three, the remuneration report, for which there is an advisory vote requested. And if the votes cast advice positively on this item, we thank you very much for your support. And if the votes cast advice negatively, we will take that advice very seriously. So for that purpose, I would like to invite Pauline van der Meer-Moor, the chair of the remuneration committee, to present the remuneration report. Pauline.
Thank you, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. So the role of our committee is to ensure that the company has an appropriate reward policy for our executives, for our senior executives, and that the policy is applied fairly and based on approved performance criteria.
Throughout the year, the remuneration committee continuously monitored internal and external developments, and through a careful and rigorous process, we strive to make appropriate decisions related to the remuneration of the management board of Ahold Delhaize. Since our remuneration report already provides extensive context for the remuneration determinations for the management board in 2024, rather than repeating our report here, which would take too long, I would like to focus today on two key topics. These are, firstly, the increases of individual-based salaries of the management board members in 2024, and secondly, the outcome and ex post disclosure of the 2024 incentive awards. So first, our view on the increases of individual-based salaries. The remuneration committee recognizes the sensitivity of executive pay in society in general, of course. We believe that adjusting compensation from time to time is necessary for the company to remain competitive for top executives.
We therefore always consider internal and external compensation developments. We look at individual and company performance. And of course, we look at the remuneration of similar positions at companies in our labor market peer group before we recommend salary adjustments for members of the management board. After careful review, the following increases have been awarded to the individual management board members. As you can see, CEO Frans Muller, 4%, CFO Jolanda Poots-Beel, 5%, and CEO AD USA, JJ Fleeman, 5%. And the base salary for JJ Fleeman was increased to 900,000 US dollars per 1st of October as approved by the AGM the previous year in 2023. All these increases are in line with our company's remuneration policy and projections in our major markets. Second point I'd like to highlight is our determinations with respect to the 2024 incentives.
Overall, Ahold Delhaize and its brands delivered strong results, as you've heard today. I'd like to bring one specific target to your attention. Based on feedback from various stakeholders, the supervisory board held substantive deliberations on how to include scope three targets as part of the executive remuneration. And as a result, scope three has been incorporated as a qualitative measurement in its short-term incentive plan. It was very encouraging to see that the progress made by Ahold Delhaize and its companies on all the initiatives related to scope three. All brands submitted robust and tailored scope three plans, engaging with over 85% of their suppliers and aligning their approaches with local brand positioning and customer expectations.
The quality and depth of these plans provide good insights and a high level of confidence that we are on the right path forward to achieving our 2030 targets, laying the groundwork for sustainable long-term value creation. We are very pleased and thankful for the efforts and results of Frans and his team. And this concludes my explanatory remarks. I hand back to Peter with thanks for your continued interest and support for Ahold Delhaize.
Thank you, Pauline. So we will now cover the questions on the remuneration report, and I invite anyone to ask questions in the manner that I have explained to you earlier. State your name before you ask your questions. And again, time is ticking, so please avoid lengthy statements and don't repeat questions that have already been asked and/or answered. So we can ask people if any questions related to the remuneration report, and we start down here on the first row.
Yeah, Michiel van Es, still speaking on behalf of the earlier mentioned parties. Thank you very much for your presentation. I have a question about the sales growth targets for the annual bonus. So for the 2024 short-term incentive program, threshold performance was minus 3.2, target performance was 1.2, maximum performance was 3.8, with the actual performance landing on 1.2%. Can you explain to us the consideration why negative sales growth would still lead to eligibility for payout? My second question is the new strategy has provided a set of financial targets, including a 4% net sales annual growth rate. Would meeting these targets, these strategic targets, logically align with at-target levels for the remuneration policy?
And final question for the long-term incentive program, can you explain how you set the performance ranges determined for return on capital and earnings per share? Thank you very much.
Thank you. We move on and see if there are more questions related to the remuneration report. I see a shareholder in a blue sweater. Can we have a microphone over there, please? In the middle of the room here.
Hello, I'm Eveline.
Hi, I'm Eveline. I'm a maths teacher. A long time ago, I used to be a marketeer, and I did more than 150 projects for companies for Ahold. These were manufacturers. You keep talking about growth, and you realize growth by having more people buying more products more frequently at a higher price. And at the same time, you have to reduce your carbon footprint by 50%, reduce your emissions.
And I can't get my head around it as a maths teacher. So really, my question is, how is it that you calculate that? And how does this add up? And I just heard that EUR 690 million per year is what it costs to achieve those goals, which is only 26% of your net profit. And furthermore, it's just short of the EUR 700 million marketing budget that you spend per year. So my question is, if you know all this, I mean, it's not that you have to work very hard to do all this, as you just said, Mr. Muller. It's just a choice to do it this way, and it's quite simple. That's my question.
Thank you. The remuneration report. So if there's anyone who has questions related to the remuneration report, we move down here on the right-hand side from my side.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Kooster-Vee. Ahold has a target level and wants to achieve the 4%, but the bandwidth is skewed. 3.2% underlying margin. That's when you don't pay only 4.2% underlying margin, you already get 150% payout. Why? Can't it be a bit more ambitious given the fact that Ahold Delhaize has been in excess of the 4% operational margin for quite a while? Thank you.
Thank you. Let's see. Are we good to start answering some of those questions? Pauline, are you ready?
Happy to. Thank you. So first of all, let me look at Mr. Van Es' question. Thanks for joining us, and thank you for the question. So regarding the first part of your question on negative sales growth and why would this lead to eligibility for full payout under the 2024 STI.
So when we define the performance targets on sales growth for 2024, we do that at the end of 2023 for obvious reasons. And we also look at what are the several elements in Europe and the U.S. that could potentially result in a negative impact and headwinds to the sales growth. And we look at elements that have been disclosed already, which are like the ban on tobacco sales in the supermarkets in the Netherlands or the transformation plants in Delhaize, Belgium, or we look at the sales of Fresh Direct. All of those are events that we can already predict will impact our sales growth. And then, of course, there are macroeconomic factors as well, which are pretty unpredictable. But let me stick to the first three because these are known and disclosed at the time. And we have considered those in the target setting on sales growth.
And that's why a negative sales growth, so a decline in sales, could still lead to eligibility in payout on the sales growth performance measure. We actually also have a circuit breaker. I mean, this is becoming a little technical, perhaps, but for those who are interested in that, we also have a circuit breaker to make sure that when the performance on underlying operating margin is actually below the threshold, so below this 3.2, the total bonus payout will then default to zero. So that's a sudden death, as it were, mechanism. So that is why, even though the threshold performance was minus 3.2, it was still eligible for payout. As to your second part of the question, which is really forward-looking, I hope you will appreciate that the targets for the upcoming years will be disclosed, exposed in our upcoming annual reports.
And I can't tell you today how that plays out technically. Do you want me to?
Yeah, please continue with the remuneration-related questions. And then, Frans, maybe you could speak a bit more about the growing sales and the lower CO2 emissions.
Yeah, so I won't say anything about that then. So the second question really is actually included in my answer to the first question. We believe that these bandwidths are actually pretty challenging. And if I look at what the management board and teams have delivered, we think we are pretty confident that they were challenging. And so bandwidth and metrics and measuring yardsticks are always a subject of a lot of deliberations every year. And we believe that actually management has shown excellent performance. And that doesn't mean that the bandwidth of payout ranges are not challenging enough. It just means that management has performed excellently, and we should thank them for that.
Very good. Frans.
Yes, thank you very much, Eveline, for your question. The answer on the question is that we, as a company, would like to grow indeed, but at the same time, we also would like to be SBTI compliant. And I mentioned this earlier, SBTI is aligning with the 1.5 degrees in Paris Agreement. So we are now up with SBTI for our scope three approvals. And as I mentioned before, we expect those approvals any time. So we can expect this in a short notice. This has been very busy with SBTI, and we also gave them extra data on how we are going to make happen that we grow and that we still are compliant with the 1.5 degrees. So this is our task.
So that means that we also have to work towards this. And we will report on this, both flag and non-flag targets, and to see how we can be compliant with those SBTI guidelines. This is the way we work. And we think that growing and still being SBTI 1.5 degrees compliant is possible. But we also said before, this can only be done in connection with the total chain, all our partners upstream. And that's exactly what we do, what I mentioned already, to make sure that also our partners for 70% of our footprint are indeed already committed to the SBTI targets as well. And I mentioned already a few nice examples in the U.S.. Also in the U.S., this is happening, but also in Europe.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions related to the remuneration report? I'm going to be a bit strict now, so if you don't stick to the remuneration report, I'm going to push us on. So we have a shareholder over here. Yes, sure.
Thank you. Thank you very much. My name is Will Lambeck, and I'm a proxy for United Church Funds. And my question is regards very briefly to follow up on a conversation from the previous agenda item regarding human rights abuses and lack of due diligence in the dairy supply chain of Hannaford Supermarket. I want to thank you, Mr. Fleeman, for your response. However, we're concerned that Hannaford and Ahold are not recognizing the critical human rights violations in the supply chain, as you have been made aware of multiple cases of violence against workers by supervisors and employers and preventable accidents leading to amputation.
In December of 2022, workers on one of the farms supplying Hannaford brand milk lodged a complaint through the company's speak-up line about intolerable living conditions. Ten immigrants were sharing a rundown rodent-infested house with four bedrooms, one bathroom, and an insufficient heat. After that complaint, it took two months to respond before the complaint was dismissed. And according to one of the farm workers, "Hannaford never came to inspect the house. They just spoke with the boss. When she found out that someone had called the speak-up line, she became furious, shouting at us and demanding to know who had complained. In all the years I've worked here, I've never seen her so angry. If she had had a gun, I think she would have shot us. Since then, things have only become more strict on the farm." So again, I want to thank you.
We have received the recent invitation for a meeting. We are very much looking forward to that meeting. And my question to you, sir, is that given the dismissal of farmworker concerns to date, can we be assured that this recent offer is the beginning of a good faith partnership towards milk with dignity? Thank you.
JJ, a quick reply to that, and then we're going to move on to agenda item four as there's no more questions related to the REM report.
Yeah, so sorry, I echo. So thank you for the follow-up there. And let me assure you that we take those types of complaints very seriously. And of course, our reach-out to you is very genuine and invite that. I would just make a couple of comments on the points that you've raised.
In response to the complaints reported through the Hannaford speak-up line, which is staffed by an independent third party, Hannaford required all private brand suppliers to investigate each complaint through farm visits. As we've looked at that, the concerns and issues facing agricultural workers in the dairy supply chain are, as you know, systemic. They're complex, and they require a lot of partnership. We've done a number of audits. We connected six to seven audits between '2023 and '2024. We have another five planned for 2025 and look forward to continued dialogue and partnership.
Okay, so we will now continue with agenda item four, the proposal to discharge the members of the management board and the supervisory board in office 2024 from all liability in relation to the exercise of their duties during financial year 2024. And I would like to give you the opportunity to ask questions regarding this agenda item. Is there any questions related to agenda item four? So the shareholder with gray jacket and is it a red tie or?
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm really sorry because my question is not related to this agenda point, but maybe more of a point of order that will we have an opportunity later? Because I do respect your mission to get through the agenda as a whole, but to ask questions about the earlier agenda point, because otherwise I would really, really like to ask my question now.
Well, you can do it now then, but then please be brief. No lengthy statement.
Thank you. I will be brief. My question is about methane emissions. As you may know, methane is a very potent greenhouse gas. It's over 80 times more potent than CO2 on a 20-year basis. And as such, it's often considered a superheater. And climate scientists agree that a rapid reduction of man-made methane emissions is crucial in fighting climate change, and it is also the most cost-effective way of doing so. The single largest source of man-made methane emissions is livestock. And as a global food retailer, Ahold Delhaize is in a powerful position to help reduce methane emissions, both up the supply chain from your meat and dairy products, but also down to consumers.
So my question is, Ahold Delhaize seems to have a little bit of a methane blind spot since you do not disclose specifically your methane emissions, and you don't seem to have a specific reduction strategy, even though a profunder report estimates that Ahold Delhaize's emissions from meat and dairy are larger than the entire country of Sweden or Denmark, with half of those coming from the U.S. branch of the company. To Ahold Delhaize's credit, it has a net zero target and a scope three reduction target, which was mentioned also before with a 30% reduction target for so-called flag emissions, where most of these meat and dairy emissions, methane emissions, of course, sit. My question is, but these, as was mentioned also before by a number of others, the flag emissions, according to the 2024 annual report, have gone up by 9% instead of down.
So I would encourage Ahold Delhaize to take a specific focus on methane emissions to correct course and to sort of take the proverbial bull by the horns and prioritize the reduction of methane emissions. So my question, I have three simple questions. Will Ahold Delhaize commit to disclosing its methane emissions? Two, will it commit to a reduction strategy to cut their methane emissions with 30% in line with the climate science and the global methane pledge by 2030 across all its markets? And you refer to your plant-based emissions in the EU, which is a powerful way of reducing methane emissions. Are you planning to extend those to your U.S. branch as well? And if not, how do you plan to reduce the methane emissions from your U.S. branch? Thank you very much.
Thank you. I suggest we move on to agenda item five, and we'll come back to the answer to that in a little bit. So please bear with us. So agenda item five, in this agenda item, we propose the reappointment of one supervisory board member and to appoint one new supervisory board member. And for the background on this proposal, I would like to refer to the agenda and to the explanatory notes of this meeting. Part of this agenda item is the proposal to reappoint Jan Zijderveld as a member of the supervisory board for a term starting immediately after the present ADM and ending at the end of the AGM to be held in 2029.
The supervisory board recommends reappointing Jan Zijderveld for a term of four years in view of his extensive executive experience, his strong consumer goods background, and knowledge, which is very valuable in addition to the supervisory board. Jan, I cross my fingers you're still with us virtually today. It's been a long meeting. Could you just briefly say hello to the audience?
Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Yeah, Jan Zijderveld, and I'm very pleased to be nominated for reelection to the supervisory board. Thank you, Peter.
Thank you. So in addition to that, we propose, in addition to the proposed reappointment, we would also like to propose that Per Bank becomes a new member of the supervisory board for a term starting immediately after the present AGM and ending at the end of the ABM to be held 2029.
And the supervisory board recommends the appointment of Per Bank for a term of four years in view of his extensive international experience, his consumer insights, and knowledge of the retail space, which is a very valuable addition to the supervisory board. Also, Per is with us virtually today. And Per, being a potential newcomer to the board, may I ask you to introduce yourself briefly and maybe set an example also of what briefly means? And so we can continue with the agenda. Per, please.
Thank you. And hi, everyone. I'm very pleased and enthusiastic about joining the board, and I will do my utmost to help to deliver for our shareholders and for our customers. Thank you for your trust.
Thank you, Per. So with that, I will give the opportunity to ask questions regarding the composition of the supervisory board. And again, let's keep the questions related to this agenda point. And I would also like to remind you that the voting is open during the meeting, and all results will be displayed at the very end of the meeting once the voting is closed. And again, raise your hand if you have any questions related to agenda item five. And a member of the support team will come along with a microphone. So we have Mr. Spania.
Thank you. My name is Spania. Thank you. My name is Spania. My question is, can you explain why the two gentlemen weren't here present in the hall? Are they abroad? And if they're abroad, how are you going to meet with them and talk to them as supervisory board? Can you explain more about that, please?
Thank you. Any other questions? We have one more just here first, and then we come back to you as well. Yeah. So we are on our way.
Good afternoon. I have a question for Mr. Zijderveld because he comes from Unilever and has worked closely together with Paul Polman. And I already indicated that Frans Muller has stepped into the footsteps of Paul Polman. And what is most important is that Albert Heijn is for those that have to watch their expenses. But they also have customers that have a lot of money and want a good service and want to be helped at the till by a cashier. Because if you have a shopping basket full of EUR 100 of groceries, then you don't want to go to your self-scan. And with a small basket, you buy much less than if you use a large shopping cart.
My question in Amsterdam Oost and Amsterdam West, a lot of young people are being trained to throw hand grenades. There are about 1,000 cases in Amsterdam and Rotterdam per year where hand grenades are hung up somewhere and explode. Albert Heijn has a lot of young people who work as stockers. When I was 16, I was one of them. My son too. And it's very important in those neighborhoods to include those youngsters, let them work for Albert Heijn because Albert Heijn can introduce certain standards and values and actually raise them to be more conscious citizens. I think that's important in the framework of sustainability and in human relationships because they used to be behind the till. They used to understand how to deal with people. Now they're stockers. They know how to deal with products and stock them. So human organization may play a role here.
So I would like to hear what Jan Zijderveld thinks about this. And furthermore, I think it's a good idea to add the Scandinavian element by adding Mr. Per Bank to the Ahold supervisory board. That was my concrete question.
Thank you. Let me see. There was some, no, I'm having an echo. Sorry. Question back on the left-hand side. Let me see. If you go three, four, five rows up on the left-hand side, no, I see. Okay, please go ahead. Good. Sorry.
Thank you. It's difficult to see. I'm Caro Bayen, young shareholder. And I do have a question about the protein transition, but I promise to be quick as per the example set by Per. So we have repeatedly heard about the importance of SBTi's helping out with floods and all these kinds of events going on due to climate change.
And you have also stated that Albert Heijn has really tried their best to at least fulfill the SBTi's. Now, it has come to my ears that there is a very simple way to do this. From research from Profundo, apparently, if you invest a quarter of the money that you use to buy back your own shares, if you would invest this in promoting the protein transition, it is possible to make your protein offerings up to 70% vegan. This would be in line with the climate accord in Paris. So could I ask you, why do you not do this?
See, there was another question that's not related to the remuneration report. Oh, sorry, to the nomination of Per Banks and Jan Zijderveld. Are there any questions? We have one person up to the left.
Mrs. Boy, Mrs. Frans, my name is Kira.
Dear Board, Dear Frans, my name is Kira and I'm a sustainability employee, but I'm here today on personal title, not because I'm disappointed, because my favorite soya quark isn't available anymore, but because I'm concerned about the future. I think it's important to contribute to a better world. And I think that we can only make steps forward in the business world for people, planet, and animals only if companies take their responsibility. And I'm really talking about Ahold Delhaize now, and I know that Ahold Delhaize can do it. It's not enough because research of Profundo shows that Ahold's organic products cost 40% more than can be expected, EUR 324 million net profit. And since the
Banks or Jan Zijderveld, otherwise we will have to take the one on a team.
I'll continue to my question.
So why don't customers at Ahold don't pay an honest price for organic products? And why don't you invest an amount of your profit into the Paris Agreement goals? I expect your answer.
Thank you. So when it comes to the question for Mr. Spania, the simple reason is that it was not practically possible for them to participate here. So you're aware, that's been the practice previous year. Jan Zijderveld's been present all the years up until now, and it was just not a reality that we could realize, and hence that we got them on video link as well. And as far as I know, there's no real requirement to be present in person too, even though, of course, both we and you preferred that to be the case.
And Peter, I think it's also important to say that Jan is already four years with us, has been a part of designing and approving our growing together strategy, and it's fully aligned with what we have in mind and brought a valuable input also to our strategy where we also use his experience as well.
Yeah, and then to your recommendations to Jan Zijderveld, et cetera, we will, of course, take them into consideration. It's been noted, and I guess we'll have to come back to that at a later point. So with that, I suggest we then move on to the next agenda item. Oh, there was the methane emissions too. Sorry about that. Frans, do you want to say a few words about that?
Yes, I can. Of course, I can. So the question was, what are our specific targets on methane emissions?
We look at our scope three greenhouse gas emissions as a whole and target the most material activities in our supply chain. And we also plan to take initiatives based on the areas of our value chain with the highest intensity and greatest potential for the reduction. And as a result, a large portion of our reduction activities are indeed in agriculture. And this inherently addresses methane emissions as it is a potent greenhouse gas, which is present in agriculture. So also in our SBTi scope three targets, we have methane as in CO2 equivalent targets also captured. Many of our brands have in place sustainable or regenerative agriculture programs, as well as animal feed programs, both of which will reduce methane emissions.
And I mentioned already earlier what we do in the dairy supply chain in the Netherlands, for example, but also how we work with companies in the U.S. on regenerative agriculture. And our plant-based protein targets will also contribute to a reduction in methane as well. And I've just, Mr. Chairman, just tack on to the question on protein sales. In this year, we set a target of 50% of protein sales to be plant-based in our European brands by 2030. We know that by rebalancing protein sales and advancing the development of lower carbon emissions animal products, we also address emissions in line with our climate ambition. So that is a part of our contribution to SBTi. The U.S. follows a decarbonization approach suited to the market, and this includes working with partners to reduce scope three emissions also in the U.S., And I mentioned already sustainable farming practices.
We work together with the Rodale Institute across the sector and also with a number of large suppliers where we really have viable and big projects running between our brands and those suppliers. And our strength, of course, is to use the insights from Europe and the U.S. together to have a reciprocal, let's say, interest and progress to be made. So also there on plant-based, we use also the targets with a 50% in Europe by 2030.
Very good. I will move us on to agenda item six, the proposal to adapt the remuneration policy for the supervisory board. And for that agenda item, I would like to invite Pauline van der Meer Moore, the chair of the remuneration, to join us again and to present the proposal to adopt the amendment of the REM policy for the supervisory board. Pauline.
Yes, thank you, Peter. I'll be brief also in view of the time. The current remuneration policy for the supervisory board members was adopted by the general meeting on April 13, 2022, with an effective date of January 1, 2022. And so next year, we propose to bring an amendment to the general meeting. However, in the interim today, we suggest some amendments to the fee structure in recognition of inflation and the increasing demands on supervisory board members since 2016. As you can see, hopefully on the slide behind me, you will have seen that since 2016, effectively, the fees have not been adjusted. So the proposal is today to adjust the fees, base and committee fees for inflation and to remain competitive for recruitment and retention of non-executive directors, especially the markets for the U.S., but equally in Europe, to make that adjustment now and not wait until next year.
So you see on this slide the historical overview of the SB fees as well as the proposed new fees. And once adopted, again, the fees will be effective retroactively from the 1st of January 2025. We will continue to review this year the strategy for the supervisory board as well as the management board remuneration policy against the refreshed Growing Together strategy, which both are for renewal in 2026. So watch this space. We will come back to you in 2026 with more details. And this concludes my explanatory remarks, and I hand back to Peter.
Thank you. So with that, are there any questions related to the agenda point number six, the amendment of the remuneration policy? And we start with the shareholder, well familiar to us, one of our closest nearby shareholder. Can we get a microphone up here?
Yeah, thank you very much, Chairman.
Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Chairman. My name is David, and indeed, one of the shareholders that lives closest by, I live in Zandijk, just where the company has its seat. I'm a shareholder of Ahold, and I am a very regular customer at Albert Heijn, so that's all sorted. I see these amounts for the members of the supervisory board. When about 20 years ago, or even longer ago, when I started working for a banker in the securities business, I started to deal with shareholders' meetings, and I was dealing with proposals regarding remuneration as a supervisory board member. And I know that Ahold is primarily an AEX fund listed at the AMSAM stock exchange. But my question is, in which measure are you in line with the salaries of other large AEX funds? So is that more or less similar? Is that similar to the proposed increases that I see here?
The press, thank you very much. Any other questions related to agenda item six? The shareholder with the red jersey. And please stick to the topic. Otherwise, I will need to move on to the next question.
Yeah, you've been discriminating this row for a long time, but thank you for addressing us gender neutral as a trans woman. I really appreciate that. But next to the topic, over the bezoldiging.
Remuneration. I don't think that directors of Ahold Delhaize merit a bonus. My name is Puk, and for 46 years, I've been visiting Ahold Delhaize. As a child, Ahold Delhaize was the same thing as supermarket. The slogan was that Ahold Delhaize also offered price products for people with small wallets.
And as a student, I survived with knickknacks and biscuits and also orange juice of the closest Ahold Delhaize. And I also lived from bonus special to bonus special. That's why I'm speaking on this category. So I'm pleased with avocados and other vegan products. And peanut butter also all of a sudden has a vegan Tera logo. And I see that in the blue store. I also have the chocolate sprinkles used to be vegan. Now it no longer is, which is unfortunate. Compared to other supermarkets, Ahold Delhaize is a big player. But does it still have an eye for the people who don't have that much money? There's a lot of CO2 being emitted. The planet is becoming hotter and hotter, and the climate is becoming distorted. And we are moving from climate record to climate record. I'm almost there. And who can help us?
The big player that has an eye for the people who have very little money to spend. We have Tera products. The supermarket is full of Tera products. We really need to do something. So my question is, the Albert Heijn annual report shows that the emissions have increased. And how does that align with the commitment made four years ago to reduce the Albert Heijn emissions by 45%? According to the financial data, about 18 June 2024, Albert Heijn Delhaize does not include one third of its products in measuring its emissions, which is a creative form of accountability. What we see now in the remuneration is that you guys are paying yourselves a lot of money at the expense of the climate, at the expense of next generations.
I realized that that was not so much related to the remuneration policies, so we'll have to come back to that. Are there any questions related to the REM policy? Please, to the shareholder here in the front.
If I look at the number of members of the supervisory board, such as Mr. Anja Fell and Robert-Jan van der Kratz, in the past, they made more than EUR 5 million per year. They're not here for the money to make money. These are top businessmen and van der Kratz, the largest staffing company in the world, and IKEA, the largest furniture supplier, so to say. And they're very much focused on human relations and climate. And we simply started too late. In 1972, our parents already knew that things would go terribly wrong with the climate. And for 40 years, we simply didn't do enough, not by far.
And you cannot blame the supervisory board or the executive board of Ahold. They're doing their best, but we simply started too late. What's important to me is that the ladies and gentlemen, members of the supervisory board, that they have enough time should the next crisis arrive, and I'm sure it will, that they have a decent remuneration because now they're working one day a week. But if they have to start working four or five days a week, just as in COVID times, it seems to me that a salary of EUR 100 an hour is a reasonable remuneration. It could also be EUR 200 or EUR 50, but they can simply charge the time they spend on the job. And furthermore, what also could be interesting is to award them a bonus if certain targets are met.
Targets that we consider to be important, such as in the field of sustainability and human relations at Ahold. I'm putting it to you for your consideration. So taking it one step further and a fair income for the members of the supervisory board, if it's one day a week, this seems fine to me, but if it's full time, things change.
Any other questions related to agenda item six? And should we then maybe try to reply to the salary requests from Mr. David? Pauline, could you help me with that?
Yeah, no problem. Ik zal het gewoon even in het Nederlands doen, want die twee.
I'll just do this in Dutch because the two questions were asked in Dutch as well. Is the remuneration in line with AEX? The answer is yes.
The longer answer is we're looking at a benchmark of a number of different companies, so-called labor market peer group, consisting of six companies in the EU, six in the U.S., and six in the AEX and Belgium. We have an international supervisory board, so we have an international labor peer group. Having said that, we very much align with the so-called two-tier boards, and we don't look at the one-tier boards. So the answer is yes, we align with the AEX because we know it's also important for our shareholders, with whom we always discuss this beforehand in order to be sure that they feel comfortable with this. That's one thing. The other thing is, Mr. Freger, thank you very much for your kind words and your suggestion in terms of decent and fair remuneration.
I must say, however, that incentives and variable remuneration for supervisory board directors in the Netherlands are a no-go. We've discussed that on a number of occasions, but it's not market practice, and so we're not even going to propose it. And also on the grounds of principles, because we want supervisory directors to be independent and unbiased, so we want to remunerate them with a fixed fee. Thank you, Peter.
Agenda item seven, the proposal to reappoint KPMG accountants for the financial year 2026.
[crosstalk] Comments off mic, the interpreters apologize.
Thank you. So I'll come back to the agenda item seven and the proposal to reappoint KPMG accountants as external auditor for the financial year 2026.
And for KPMG accountants to carry out the assurances of the company's sustainability reporting in accordance with CSRD for the financial year 2026, if required by law. And I would also like to give the opportunity to ask questions on the proposal to reappoint KPMG as external auditor for the financial year 2026. And as it's soon four hours into the meeting, please be short, state your name, and let's move on to the questions related to the auditor's KPMG for the year 2026. Any questions related to that? There is a shareholder up on the left-hand side on the upper part.
Thank you. Jonas Becker speaking for the International Council on Animal Welfare. I'm sorry, but my question has not been answered yet. I'll be very concise. Ahold Delhaize has committed to go cage-free by 2025. We have 2025 now, and last year, Ahold Delhaize globally, still 53% of eggs sold came from chickens crammed in tiny cages. My question is, what specific measures will you do to ensure that Ahold Delhaize can meet its global cage-free commitment? Thank you.
Okay, I hear that it's not so much related to the auditors, but given that the question has been raised, maybe JJ, you could briefly reply to it too, because it is an important question.
Yeah, so thank you for the question, and thanks for the energy around it. I heard the question a little bit earlier in the conversation earlier. Advancing our sustainability for the company is really important to us. We're making steady progress, as you talked about, in our transition to cage-free eggs, and recently updated the timeline last fall to reflect a number of factors, including the current egg supply shortage in the U.S., which has escalated with the avian flu. Like you, we care deeply about animal welfare and, of course, also deeply about our communities that we serve. Each week, we serve more than 26 million families and customers each week, and protein, obviously, is one of the key ingredients that allows them to provide for their families. As you asked specifically what we're doing, you can see that in what we've proposed. We're piloting a lot of different signage this year. We're adding SKUs to our private brand that are cage-free.
We're adding SKUs to our national brand that are cage-free, and we're making great progress on that and look forward to continuing to partner on it and are excited about the progress that we're making.
Okay, good. So I suggest then that we move on to agenda item eight. Oh, do you have a question related to the appointment of KPMG?
Ik adviseer de top van.
I advise senior managers in business, the government, but now also the accountants. The accountants are responsible for proper policy in terms of sustainability, and it's important to set proper targets. So KPMG, per business, how many hectares of forest has each and every company planted per year? And this should increase exponentially because the people who left the room just now are here for a reason, because things are going terribly wrong for their children, your children, your grandchildren.
The future is black, not only in terms of climate, but also in terms of war. So it's extremely important, also with respect to cyber crime, that we are completely independent, that stores can operate independently with solar energy, wind energy, batteries. It's extremely important. So I'm going to ask KPMG and Sun Yong and PwC. I'm going to ask them to monitor this and not as an accountant, but specifically looking into things that ordinary people understand, because this is quite a technical and complicated and intricate story. And it would be wonderful if your children and grandchildren, possibly friends and family members, could understand what is going to happen, what the costs are.
It was an interesting question/proposal, but it doesn't really relate to the appointment of KPMG as accountant for our company. So are there any other questions related to that appointment? No.
Okay, then we continue with agenda item eight, the proposal to amend the articles of association of the company. And for the background of this proposal, I would like to refer to the agenda and to the explanatory notes of this meeting. And also here, you will have the opportunity to ask questions regarding this agenda item, if any. No. Okay, then we come to the final agenda point, the cancellation, issuances, and acquisitions of shares. And before I give you the opportunity to ask questions on agenda item nine, I would kindly remind you that voting is still open, but it will close after the end of this agenda item. Any questions related to that? Sorry. So if you can get the microphone.
Ik heb een punt van orde.
I have a point of order. I haven't received an agenda prior to the meeting, which isn't the proper way to do things. And I see that agenda item nine is the last agenda item. So there's no any other business. So outside, I was told that there would be any other business. So that's unfortunate. And for any other business, I have some comments, comments about this meeting. So I'd like to make those comments right now. This is the worst shareholders' meeting that I've ever experienced, worst organized. And I've been visiting shareholders' meetings for 25 years. When I arrived here, you can't get an exit ticket for the parking garage. There were no sandwiches. I wanted a cup of coffee. There was no coffee. I had to hand in my bags. The seats here, there were climate activists sitting here.
If you would have been a supermarket in food stalls, I would have gone to shop elsewhere with the competition.
Have your name, sir.
De naam is.
The name is Reijne. I'm a retail shareholder. Reijne . R-E-I-J-N-E.
Are there any other questions related to the cancellation, issuance, and acquisitions of shares? I see Mr. Davis have his hands up. So please go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a short question. I see here four, in fact, items on the agenda item. It has to do with either issue or cancellation of shares. I have the impression that you meant to get more flexibility in issuing and buying back shares. That's good. That's no problem. The thing is, issue of shares. Are you using that for giving so-called staff shares or personeels aandeel?
Thank you. And we'll start one more question. So then maybe Jolanda, if you would like to, we take one more question from Mr. Freyke also, and then.
Ik vind inkoop van.
I think that share buyback is a matter of poverty. And in this situation, I think it's important that we achieve these targets that are so important. There are so many countries where the expertise of Ahold, I mean, you're doing a wonderful thing, but where they can really benefit from you. So I would prefer you to invest in Costa Rica, Germany, Frans, Spain, and that you become really big there instead of buying back your own shares, because that would generate a higher return.
I would invite Ahold to make this world a better place and not to invest in share buyback, because if you perform well, you will be recognized internationally as being a sustainable company, and many more Ahold shares will be purchased. For the rest, Ahold, the shareholders' meeting was always the best shareholders' meeting ever. And the fact that there are no sandwiches, no proper drinks, or vegetarian bites along with the drinks, that's very unfortunate. And the fact that safety is primordial, I understand that, but can't there be sandwiches, exit cards for the parking garage, and drinks with vegetarian bites? You did a wonderful job. It was the best and the most enjoyable shareholders' meeting that we used to have. It's time for that to come back. I think this is Ahold's track record that should be continued.
Before you answer, Jolanda, related to the share buyback, and so I can just note that there will be drinks as soon as we're ready and a small present from our favorite brand, Albert Heijn, as well. But over to you, Jolanda.
Yes, and thank you for the question and recommendation again. This is a proposal to give us the flexibility, as you say, to issue new shares. It's not that we're doing it at this point in time. It's that flexibility, which is the rightful point to focus on, and that flexibility is mainly related to share buybacks and not to issuing new shares for bonuses or our employees. I think that's the first part of the question. Then the second part was related mainly to, do we need share buybacks at all? I think that's maybe a fair summary of what you're saying.
And I understand your question, and it's an important question. We are a publicly traded company, as you know, and we look carefully at all our stakeholders. So we're not just focused on our shareholders. We have the customers, employees, society as a whole to respond to. So we also want to invest in our employees by being a top employer. We invest in our capabilities to ensure we have a future. We also invest quite a lot of our capital in sustainability throughout, and that will grow over the years as well. And then after all we've done that, we pay the applicable taxes, and then we look at our shareholders and also reward them because we need that trust also going forward to remain a healthy, financiable company.
And don't forget, a lot of our shareholders are also institutions like pension funds, and they also depend on us to deliver on our promises to them. So in short summary, it's a balancing act, and we try to balance that as good as we can.
Thank you. Thank you all for your questions. And I just would like to say that this is the last chance for you to vote, and the voting will close momentarily. So ladies and gentlemen, the voting is now closed, and we ask a brief moment of your patience while we process the votes. And we will then, after that, go through the voting results. There's a lot of votes to count, so it takes a couple of seconds. So we will now go through the voting results. I'll let the slides be on there for a little while. Just let them run through.
Okay, that was it. As you can see, all of the proposal has been adopted. So thank you very much for your patience today and for your votes. And on behalf of the management and the supervisory board, I would like to finish off by saying thank you so much to Bill McEwen, the vice chairman, who will step down as per the end of this AGM. Bill, thank you so much for your continued support and wisdom and for serving on the supervisory board of First Delhaize's and later on of Ahold Delhaize's. Your international retail business knowledge and the U.S. market experience has been really invaluable to the board. You will be greatly missed, and we wish you all the best. Can I ask for a round of applause for Bill? So to everyone present here in Sundown, thank you for attending and for participating in this meeting.
To repeat what I've said before, even if the circumstances have been a little bit unfortunate today, we believe that shareholders' democracy is of vital importance, and we have enjoyed the dialogue with every one of you today. And we look forward to continuing this dialogue throughout the year and, if not, latest next year. So finally, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank everybody who's been involved in organizing and preparing this AGM. It's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. And again, as the meeting closes, I would like to invite you to have a drink in the lobby, to hand in your headphones and voting devices if you have any of those when you leave the room. And please don't forget to take a pack of fresh products for a delicious meal, which is offered by our great local brand, Albert Heijn.
So with that, I declare the meeting closed, and I wish you a pleasant evening. Thank you.