Company Info

Background on Giant/Ahold

Thanks to enormous sales and profits generated by its holdings in the United States, Royal Ahold International has sailed right through a recession that continues capsizing working families here and around the world.

Ahold, based in the Netherlands, bought Giant Food in 1998, and since then the company’s U.S. operations have been generating more than half the firm’s volume and profits.

For 2011, Ahold USA reported net sales of $25.1 billion, a 6.6% increase over 2010.

Through the end of 2011, the company has enjoyed 15 consecutive quarters of market share growth in each of its core markets.

According to Food World’s 2011 Market Report, the company’s Giant/ Landover division leads the Washington Region, which includes Northern Virginia , the District of Columbia and Maryland, with 126 stores and a 35.83 market share.

Ahold employs 213,000 grocery workers at 3,000 stores in the U.S., the Netherlands and in Europe. Some 571 of those stores are operated by two chains with 86,000 employees in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. — Giant/Landover and Stop & Shop, both heavily unionized.

Giant/Carlisle is another “banner” in Ahold USA. It operates 180 stores with 30,000 employees in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. Its workforce is almost entirely non union and Ahold has been conducting a fierce anti-union campaign against the United Food and Commercial Workers for many years.

Ahold CEO Dick Boer received $2.731 total compensation in 2010, and outgoing CFO Kimberly Ross received $2.94 million.

Background on Safeway, Inc.

Like most big corporations, Safeway, Inc. is recovering much faster from the recession than working families. For the third quarter of 2011, the company exceeded Wall Street forecasts, reporting earnings-per-share of $0.38, up 15% from the same quarter of the previous year, and net profits of $130.2 million, up 6%, on revenue of $10.1 billion, up 7.1%.

The company, according to Food World’s 2011 Market Report, is second only to Giant/Ahold in number of stores, sales and market share (22.22%) in the Washington region.

Safeway is ranked by Fortune Magazine as the 60^th largest company in the United States. The company operates 1,678 stores in the United States and Canada, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.

In 2010, Safeway President and CEO Steve Burd received $10.994 million in total compensation.