| As a major retailer with supermarkets in many parts of the world, Royal Ahold serves millions of consumers each day. These consumers become increasingly demanding, but spend less on food than ever before. Besides safe and high-quality food, consumers increasingly want their food to be responsibly produced. Most expect the retailers to ensure this and only very few are willing to accept higher prices to do so. Retailers therefore, also in developing countries, highly depend on large volumes and low prices. Economies of scale are more important than ever, and the focus is on good and short supply chains. The focus on safe and high-quality food brings retailers to implement worldwide food safety programmes, with a network of preferred suppliers. Retailers... |
