As an international business we would like to take a broadly standardized approach that would allow us to share knowledge, lessons learned and innovations across the various markets we serve. However, due to the significantly different legislative environments in our main markets, it is necessary for us to have a varied approach that is appropriate to each market.

The United States

We use the Guiding Stars program in most of our banners in the U.S. Guiding Stars is an objective food rating system that rates food based on nutrient density using a patent-pending scientific algorithm. It rates products with a simple star system that ranges from 0 to 3 stars, thereby making it easier for customers to understand the nutritional value of food and make healthier choices. Read more about Guiding Stars

Guiding Stars has been implemented at Hannaford, Sweetbay, Food Lion and Bloom and has received very good feedback from customers for its online convenience and accessibility. Through the MyHannaford and MySweetbay websites, customers can create their own “Custom Virtual Store”, which enables them to browse all of our products based on their specific nutritional needs (e.g. gluten-free) or the number of stars associated with products.

Customers can then build a shopping list specific to their criteria and print a copy or have it sent to their mobile phones. The system also gives customers the ability to track the rating of their purchases over time simply by uploading a receipt code to their account or by scanning a barcode at checkout that automatically links to their online account.

The Guiding Stars program has proven to be very successful. The MySweetbay site was opened in November 2010 and had almost 5 000 registered users by year’s end. For MyHannaford there were more than 40 000 registered users by the end of 2010 and the percentage of private brand food sales from starred products continued to increase over the previous two years across all U.S. stores.

The European Union

With a different legislative framework in the European Union, we were not able to adopt the Guiding Stars program in Europe. Instead, an approach better suited for the European market was developed that involves local banners experimenting with how best to communicate with local audiences. However, this does mean that the broader benefits brought by an externally recognized brand are not available.

One example of how we promoted healthy eating in Belgium is the Healthy Heroes campaign which we launched in 2010 to engage kids and promote healthy eating habits. The campaign was designed by Delhaize Belgium and nutritionists with the support of the Belgian Olympic Committee. It involved close collaboration with suppliers and engaged schools directly.

The results: We were able to reach more than 1 200 schools and an estimated 7% of current customers and 3% of new customers participated. While the overall results were good, participation was less than was expected.

In Greece, Alfa Beta finished their fourth year of using the familiar Mediterranean Diet as a means for communicating with customers about healthy eating habits. Messages are prominently displayed in the stores by large banners and readily-available leaflets. It also publishes Nutrilife magazine, which is prepared by a scientific team, to support learning more about healthy eating and incorporating it as part of a healthy lifestyle. This approach to the customer has been very successful as Alfa Beta was recognized as number one in their market for health and wellness, according to 2010 Awareness and Social Behavior Index (ASBI) research.

While we have worked hard to communicate nutritional information to our customers through labels, we realize that they are not the only answer.
We will continue to use labeling as one effective tool for assisting customers in choosing what foods are right for them and we will also continue working to identify other means to effectively engage customers on the topic of healthy eating in our stores, online and in ways that are tailored to local markets.

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