Ahold Delhaize Strategy Day

[marketreportblog]

Ahold Delhaize is hosting what I think is their first and only Strategy Day on May 23. According to their presentation yesterday, it'll be a four-hour call. They haven't announced any specifics of what will be discussed beyond "vision for growth in the US", and as far as I can tell, they've never done a Strategy Day before (unless it was previously called something else).

What do we expect to hear from this? Anything of substance?

[retailfanmitchell019]

Ahold Delhaize is hosting what I think is their first and only Strategy Day on May 23. According to their presentation yesterday, it'll be a four-hour call. They haven't announced any specifics of what will be discussed beyond "vision for growth in the US", and as far as I can tell, they've never done a Strategy Day before (unless it was previously called something else).

What do we expect to hear from this? Anything of substance?

Maybe they’ll be studying an acquisition of Albertsons’ non-overlapping assets, such as Jewel, SoCal, NorCal, PNW, etc., now that the Kroger merger is all but dead?

[ClownLoach]

A "Strategy Day" type open house is not going to announce anything of substance from a transaction perspective, or even anything from a financial or restructuring perspective.

These types of calls happen all the time at retailers, they're usually called "investor day" and they accompany the rollouts of new product lines, new logos, new ad campaigns, a fluffy new loyalty card program, new marketing strategies, new mission statement stuff. Generally meetings like this are accompanied by a new prototype store from some hotshot design firm that looks really cool and innovative but typically is too expensive to roll out anywhere.

Anything that would be of real importance, such as expanding to a new market via merger or acquisition would have been prefaced by a statement months ago that the company is "seeking strategic alternatives" which requires thousands of pages of filings with the SEC and such. I am sure if said actions had occurred we would have a thousand posts already.

Anything involving the Kroger Albertsons merger would not be discussed in any form as that transaction at this current time is not apparently open for discussion. If a change was made involving Ahold Delhaize maybe replacing C&S you would be hearing from Kroger first.

So don't expect this to be anything meaningful. It will be a corporate cheerleading event with a bunch of cool PowerPoint slides and maybe a remodeled pretty store that will never be duplicated in it's current costly form. They do need a new logo for some brands as the fruit bowl looks stuck in the early 2000s so my bet is on that along with a marketing campaign, some "new lower prices" strategy etc. If you're expecting anything major then take this as your warning to prepare for disappointment.

I'm betting the fruit bowl is replaced by a Lion head and green lettering to match their recent corporate rebrand.

[marketreportblog]

A "Strategy Day" type open house is not going to announce anything of substance from a transaction perspective, or even anything from a financial or restructuring perspective.

These types of calls happen all the time at retailers, they're usually called "investor day" and they accompany the rollouts of new product lines, new logos, new ad campaigns, new marketing strategies, and generally are accompanying a new prototype store from some hotshot design firm that looks really cool and innovative but typically is too expensive to roll out anywhere.

Anything that would be of real importance, such as expanding to a new market via merger or acquisition would have been prefaced by a statement months ago that the company is "seeking strategic alternatives" which requires thousands of pages of filings with the SEC and such. I am sure if said actions had occurred we would have a thousand posts already.

Anything involving the Kroger Albertsons merger would not be discussed in any form as that transaction at this current time is not apparently open for discussion. If a change was made involving Ahold Delhaize maybe replacing C&S you would be hearing from Kroger first.

So don't expect this to be anything meaningful. It will be a corporate cheerleading event with a bunch of cool PowerPoint slides and maybe a remodeled pretty store that will never be duplicated in it's current costly form. They do need a new logo for some brands as the fruit bowl looks stuck in the early 2000s so my bet is on that along with a marketing campaign, some "new lower prices" strategy etc. If you're expecting anything major then take this as your warning to prepare for disappointment.

I'm inclined to agree. Still, I'm interested in hearing Ahold Delhaize articulate their US strategy, particularly with Stop & Shop where from the outside it truly seems like there is no strategy at all other than barely get by and close stores when their leases run out. I want to hear how they describe what they're doing and what they're hoping to do in the future.

[ClownLoach]

A "Strategy Day" type open house is not going to announce anything of substance from a transaction perspective, or even anything from a financial or restructuring perspective.

These types of calls happen all the time at retailers, they're usually called "investor day" and they accompany the rollouts of new product lines, new logos, new ad campaigns, new marketing strategies, and generally are accompanying a new prototype store from some hotshot design firm that looks really cool and innovative but typically is too expensive to roll out anywhere.

Anything that would be of real importance, such as expanding to a new market via merger or acquisition would have been prefaced by a statement months ago that the company is "seeking strategic alternatives" which requires thousands of pages of filings with the SEC and such. I am sure if said actions had occurred we would have a thousand posts already.

Anything involving the Kroger Albertsons merger would not be discussed in any form as that transaction at this current time is not apparently open for discussion. If a change was made involving Ahold Delhaize maybe replacing C&S you would be hearing from Kroger first.

So don't expect this to be anything meaningful. It will be a corporate cheerleading event with a bunch of cool PowerPoint slides and maybe a remodeled pretty store that will never be duplicated in it's current costly form. They do need a new logo for some brands as the fruit bowl looks stuck in the early 2000s so my bet is on that along with a marketing campaign, some "new lower prices" strategy etc. If you're expecting anything major then take this as your warning to prepare for disappointment.

I'm inclined to agree. Still, I'm interested in hearing Ahold Delhaize articulate their US strategy, particularly with Stop & Shop where from the outside it truly seems like there is no strategy at all other than barely get by and close stores when their leases run out. I want to hear how they describe what they're doing and what they're hoping to do in the future.

They're probably going to show off a remodeled Stop and Shop somewhere with yet another new logo, a new tagline, a new private label maybe. Once again these are very high level type events that will not reveal any specific operating details. They are usually intended to "fake out" a few stores and try to convince investors that the company knows what it's doing because of the fact that the store looks really pretty for the meeting. They are not going to reveal anything past that. These are events run by the marketing department that allow them to show off like cheerleaders. The people running these events typically wouldn't even understand how to gather shopping carts in the parking lot and won't have any actionable information. Obviously investors are concerned about their operations so they are going to try to convince them to please go away and stop complaining.

Remember that again if they intend to actually do something productive that is of financial significance they would not report it at a meeting like this, there would be an SEC filing of upcoming meeting announcing an important transaction, etc. If anyone asks questions like why have so many Stop & Shop closed, are they profitable etc. they are going to be referred back to the next scheduled earnings call Q&A where their questions will be answered after appropriate legal warnings, lawyers present etc.

I worked for a company that held one of these meetings for investors. It was Circuit City. They announced that they were going to remodel the entire chain and rebrand to The City. They built a few prototype stores with a really cool layout with lots of circular fixtures that looked something like a futuristic version of the Apple store. The company was in bankruptcy less than two months later and the majority of the just opened new stores were the first wave of liquidation before the entire chain went under. One of the new The City stores had just held its grand opening a few days before being announced as closing. Someone in finance was unaware and sold the wrong store to the liquidator, they were supposed to sell the old crummy store in the same town.

That should tell you about how much these meetings are worth.

[marketreportblog]

They're probably going to show off a remodeled Stop and Shop somewhere with yet another new logo, a new tagline, a new private label maybe. Once again these are very high level type events that will not reveal any specific operating details. They are usually intended to "fake out" a few stores and try to convince investors that the company knows what it's doing because of the fact that the store looks really pretty for the meeting. They are not going to reveal anything past that. These are events run by the marketing department that allow them to show off like cheerleaders. The people running these events typically wouldn't even understand how to gather shopping carts in the parking lot and won't have any actionable information. Obviously investors are concerned about their operations so they are going to try to convince them to please go away and stop complaining.

I'm with you on all this. There's a relatively new Stop & Shop in Waterbury, where they moved across the street into a closed ShopRite. It honestly looks really good and would be perfect for exactly what you describe (although it doesn't get particularly good reviews online, with complaints ranging from out-of-stocks to prices to racism so... I have no idea how well the store is actually being run). They deflected specifics on store performance from the Q1 results call to this strategy call, but still, as you said it wouldn't surprise me if they deflect again to the next earnings call.

[ClownLoach]

They're probably going to show off a remodeled Stop and Shop somewhere with yet another new logo, a new tagline, a new private label maybe. Once again these are very high level type events that will not reveal any specific operating details. They are usually intended to "fake out" a few stores and try to convince investors that the company knows what it's doing because of the fact that the store looks really pretty for the meeting. They are not going to reveal anything past that. These are events run by the marketing department that allow them to show off like cheerleaders. The people running these events typically wouldn't even understand how to gather shopping carts in the parking lot and won't have any actionable information. Obviously investors are concerned about their operations so they are going to try to convince them to please go away and stop complaining.

I'm with you on all this. There's a relatively new Stop & Shop in Waterbury, where they moved across the street into a closed ShopRite. It honestly looks really good and would be perfect for exactly what you describe (although it doesn't get particularly good reviews online, with complaints ranging from out-of-stocks to prices to racism so... I have no idea how well the store is actually being run). They deflected specifics on store performance from the Q1 results call to this strategy call, but still, as you said it wouldn't surprise me if they deflect again to the next earnings call.

Definitely looks like a superior store to other Stop & Shop pictures I've seen. Looks to have fewer fixtures to keep full and more open space which might make it easier to operate. It seems everyone loves ShopRite there so I'm sure there's a lot of disappointment that they closed this location and S&S is an inferior replacement. They need to do some investment like what's shown here and update all the other stores as they also fix execution and pricing issues. This does not look like an expensive remodel, signage is prefabricated etc. but it looks light years from others I've seen. Could easily be an announcement of such a strategy which is appropriate for a meeting of this nature.

[storewanderer]

Safeway used to do these in the past.

2000's.

Who knows what Ahold is up to.

The fruit cart packaging isn't bad. I see these items at Grocery Outlet fairly often.

[veteran+]

They're probably going to show off a remodeled Stop and Shop somewhere with yet another new logo, a new tagline, a new private label maybe. Once again these are very high level type events that will not reveal any specific operating details. They are usually intended to "fake out" a few stores and try to convince investors that the company knows what it's doing because of the fact that the store looks really pretty for the meeting. They are not going to reveal anything past that. These are events run by the marketing department that allow them to show off like cheerleaders. The people running these events typically wouldn't even understand how to gather shopping carts in the parking lot and won't have any actionable information. Obviously investors are concerned about their operations so they are going to try to convince them to please go away and stop complaining.

I'm with you on all this. There's a relatively new Stop & Shop in Waterbury, where they moved across the street into a closed ShopRite. It honestly looks really good and would be perfect for exactly what you describe (although it doesn't get particularly good reviews online, with complaints ranging from out-of-stocks to prices to racism so... I have no idea how well the store is actually being run). They deflected specifics on store performance from the Q1 results call to this strategy call, but still, as you said it wouldn't surprise me if they deflect again to the next earnings call.

That's a great looking store and I love that black ceiling!

[ClownLoach]

They're probably going to show off a remodeled Stop and Shop somewhere with yet another new logo, a new tagline, a new private label maybe. Once again these are very high level type events that will not reveal any specific operating details. They are usually intended to "fake out" a few stores and try to convince investors that the company knows what it's doing because of the fact that the store looks really pretty for the meeting. They are not going to reveal anything past that. These are events run by the marketing department that allow them to show off like cheerleaders. The people running these events typically wouldn't even understand how to gather shopping carts in the parking lot and won't have any actionable information. Obviously investors are concerned about their operations so they are going to try to convince them to please go away and stop complaining.

I'm with you on all this. There's a relatively new Stop & Shop in Waterbury, where they moved across the street into a closed ShopRite. It honestly looks really good and would be perfect for exactly what you describe (although it doesn't get particularly good reviews online, with complaints ranging from out-of-stocks to prices to racism so... I have no idea how well the store is actually being run). They deflected specifics on store performance from the Q1 results call to this strategy call, but still, as you said it wouldn't surprise me if they deflect again to the next earnings call.

That's a great looking store and I love that black ceiling!

Black ceilings come out badly about 90% of the time. The surrounding design and lighting must be perfect for them to work. They pulled it off here beautifully, I agree. And I think the black works with the branding here. Most of the other pictures of Stop & Shop stores I've seen posted looked dated and cheaply designed. This probably wasn't too expensive to produce but looks really good. And the deli case looks great with the large assortment of Boars Head. That's a store I would want to go see. So if they're going to discuss improvements like that it would be worthy of a meeting like that.