Ahold USA Inc.

1315 Lee-Jackson Memorial Hwy.

Year founded: 1988

Industry: Retail

Post 200 Category: Top Companies Headquartered Outside Region

Revenue: n/a

Net Income/Loss: n/a

Earnings per share: n/a

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: n/a

Auditor: Deloite & Touche

Stock: AHO

Assets: n/a

Market capitalization: $12.62 Billion

52-week high: 9.23 3/9/2005

52-week low: 6.15 9/27/2004

Chief Business Controlling Officer: Brian Hotarek

Chief Human Resource Officer: Jim Lawler

Employees: 154000

Local employees: 21000

Description: Ahold USA is owned by Dutch multinational retailer Royal Ahold NV. The world's third-largest supermarket operator, it runs four chains in the United States, including Giant Food, the Washington region's dominant grocer. It also owns U.S. Foodservice Inc. of Columbia, which distributes food to restaurants and health care facilities.

Developments: Ahold executives expressed relief in October after settling Securities and Exchange Commission charges that U.S. Foodservice and related subsidiaries fraudulently inflated earnings by nearly $830 million between 2000 and 2002. But 2004 was not trouble-free for Ahold's U.S. operations. The merger of Giant Food of Landover and its sibling grocery chain, Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos. of Quincy., Mass., proved rocky. Giant employee morale sank after the combined company laid off about 200 Washington area administrative workers and replaced local Giant management with a team of Stop & Shop executives, most based in Massachusetts. Customers had their own complaints. When executives switched Giant over to Stop & Shop's computer system in June, weeks of glitches ensued, creating food shortages on the shelves and inaccurate prices at the cash register. Marc E. Smith, chief executive of Giant and Stop & Shop, acknowledged that aspects of the merger "disappointed customers and put our associates in a bad situation" but said most problems have been fixed. He vowed to aggressively remodel and in some cases replace Giant stores in the region in 2005. In March of this year, the company reported the extent of last year's damage: The combined Giant and Stop & Shop saw operating income plunge 26 percent in 2004 compared with a year earlier because Giant's sales at stores open more than a year slipped 4.6 percent. Outside the Washington area, Ahold sold off two struggling domestic supermarket chains in early 2005 — Bi-Lo and Bruno, which operate in the Southeast. With its Foodservice troubles behind it, Ahold's Dutch executives said they would centralize management of all divisions as part of a program called the "Road to Recovery."