October 4, 2024 – We are excited to announce that Claude Sarrailh has officially taken on his new role as CEO for Europe & Indonesia this week. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Claude to hear his thoughts on his first impressions, his extensive experience, and his ambitions for Ahold Delhaize, as well as how he’s adjusting to life in the Netherlands.
With over 25 years of experience in retail, Claude brings a wealth of expertise and a proven track record of international leadership. His passion for retail, customer innovation, and people has shaped his dynamic career. On a personal note, having grown up across different countries, Claude is fluent in more than four languages, adding to his global perspective.
What are some of your first impressions and observations of Ahold Delhaize?
Ahold Delhaize is an impressive organization with very engaged teams who collaborate to deliver our common purpose: Inspiring everyone to eat and live better, for a healthier future and planet. I also like how our great local brands across Europe and Indonesia walk the talk in their daily choices and activities, they are engaged and maintain close focus on their customers. For example, Delhaize Belgium’s SuperPlus program provides customers who buy healthy products with savings of up to 10%.Or how our Central and Southeastern European (CSE) brands collaborate closely instead of individually to leverage their scale as a group, while at the same time keeping their important local brand positioning and connection to their communities. They work together in many fields. Whether it’s sourcing or improving processes like figuring out the most efficient way to load their trucks or shelves. This is all in addition to our brands’ strong positioning as number one or two in our markets.
You have been working in the food retail industry for over 25 years, what do you like so much about this industry?
It’s a very exciting industry where you have a real positive impact on the daily life of many people inside and outside our organization. Moreover, job opportunities are very dynamic and diverse. Personally, I was able to change my role several times within the same food retail company, from operations, marketing, sourcing, tech, and more.
What drew you to Ahold Delhaize?
I have been very inspired by the vision and the strategy of Ahold Delhaize, as well as its strength to develop great local brands. As I have lived in eight counties, I understand the importance of adapting to local communities and having a clear local identity. I also value Ahold Delhaize’s strong company values: teamwork, integrity, humor, care and courage. As most of our people work across the world at one of our local brands, it's very important that our company values connect with them. This is our strength, our capacity to engage with all colleagues. Additionally, it’s also important that we never forget whom we work for – our brands’ customers.
We want to play a part in the transformation of food to better sustain the health of our customers as well as the planet. This is certainly an urgent challenge for us and at the same time a great opportunity to anticipate and lead this transformation. In a more practical sense, our main opportunity in Europe is to continue leveraging our scale to have better terms and products for our customers.
When you look back on how you developed as a leader over the years, what is the most valuable lesson you learned? Do you have advice for current and aspiring leaders?
To me, resilience is the single most important factor in the long run of a career. Things don’t always work as expected and in the end, we can always bounce back when we stay true to who we are and what we want to achieve. As for advice, the important thing is to have a good set of values and behaviors to be able to navigate difficult times.
