Ahold Delhaize to track U.S. own brand performance through IRI

CHICAGO — IRI and Ahold Delhaize Licensing on Tuesday announced they have entered into a long-term agreement for IRI to serve as the primary partner and analytics platform of record for the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America.



“This is a transformational alliance that will give the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America a more comprehensive understanding of their businesses, improve collaboration with suppliers and provide a holistic view of the customer,” stated JJ Fleeman, chief strategy and development officer for Delhaize America. “The brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America look forward to leveraging this partnership to grow through more effective and efficient business operations and more personalized consumer impacts.”



“The brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America have an impressive footprint in key markets up and down the U.S. East Coast," added Andrew Appel, president and CEO IRI. "This partnership will arm their key supplier decision-makers with access to innovative and business-critical shopper and market insights, translating into better category management, a better experience for customers and better returns for the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America.”



“This partnership builds on the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America’s commitments to big data and technology to drive consumer-centric collaboration and growth,” said Nick Bertram, SVP merchandising for Ahold USA. “More than ever, winning with customers requires the right combination of strategy, tools, talent and data technology.”



Together, the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America represent the largest grocery retailer group on the U.S. East Coast, including the Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant Foods, Giant/Martin's and Hannaford brands, IRI noted.



Leveraging its technology platform, IRI Liquid Data, IRI will provide integrated point-of-sale, frequent shopper program and supply chain data for Delhaize America and POS and supply chain data for Ahold USA. In addition, the brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America and their suppliers will benefit from simplified access to consumer insights and analytics, improved targeting capabilities to reach customers and increased effectiveness of marketing campaigns.



The U.S. brands of Ahold USA and Delhaize America and their vendor partners will benefit from IRI’s Unify visualization capabilities, which provide a more personalized view of data on an interactive dashboard with advanced rendering, display and analytics features. Brand teams and users will be able to access insights and integrate multiple, disparate data sources, to get to real-time, actionable insights.



The brands will begin the transition in early 2018.