Albert Heijn Supermarket
As you all know, we have to do our daily groceries. Also during vacations. That’s how I came along the Albert Heijn supermarkets, they are everywhere in the Netherlands. Actually it is the biggest dutch retailer with a market share of about 35%. Really nicely designed shops, clean, colorful and with lots of product variety. I really love to go there and to the shopping. They are not cheap though.
Here you see some pictures from inside the market:
Part of Ahold-Delhaize Group
This brings me to the view that I once called the Peter-Lynch-Look. As an investor you should always have open eyes for the products and businesses around you, often they are also good investments.
So I did some research and found that Albert Heijn is part of the Dutch Ahold-Delhaize Group, which is a listed company and actually one of the biggest food retailers worldwide with 2022 Sales of 87 Billion EUR (+15% vs 2021) and a Operating Income of 3,7 Billion EUR (+12% vs 2021). Most of their Shops are in the Netherlands but they are also big in the US with more that 1000 Outlets, in Europe they run more than 2000 Shops and they are also have a joint venture in Indonesia.
The Company has a steady cashflow and pays a dividend of currently 1,05€ per share which makes a dividend yield of a decent 3%.
Longterm Chart
They stock looks good if you have a longterm perspective, it doubled within the last ten years.
Shopping and Investing?
So besides being a good place to shop, is Albert Heijn resp. Ahold-Delhaize also a good investment? That is a question everyone has to answer by himself.
I myself think it’s a good and robust company and I love the food business in general but I like to invest rather in the Brand manufacturers then in the retailers. Their profit margin is bigger and my impression is, that the brand loyalty there is bigger than that of a retailer.
What is your opinion? Would you invest and/or shop there? What supermarkets are big where you live?