History
Delhaize Group was founded in Charleroi, Belgium in 1867 by Jules Delhaize.
As of 31 December 2006, Delhaize Group had a sales network (which includes directly operated, franchised, and affiliated stores) of 2,705 stores and employed approximately 140,000 people. Store formats are primarily supermarkets, which represent 85% of Delhaize Group's sales network. Delhaize Group's sales network also includes other store formats such as neighborhood stores, convenience stores, and specialty stores.
In addition to food retailing, which accounted for approximately 95% of Delhaize Group's sales in 2005, Delhaize Group also engages in food wholesaling to stores in its sales network and in nonfood retailing of products such as pet products and health and beauty products.
Delhaize Group recorded sales of €19.225 billion in 2006 and net income of €351.9 million. Delhaize Group's operations are located primarily in the United States (Food Lion LLC, Hannaford Bros. Co., and Sweetbay Supermarket) and Belgium. Other operations are located in Greece, Indonesia, Luxembourg and Romania.
In 2007, the company left the Czech market after 16 years and sold all of its 97 supermarkets to Billa. In 2009, the company left the German market after 6 years and sold all of its 4 supermarkets to REWE Group. In 2011, Delhaize acquired Serbian retailer Delta Maxi.
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