Ahold Delhaize, the owner of the Mega Image store chain, announces that it is launching a tech hub in Romania, which will develop the technology for the company’s European brands.
The technology studio named AD/01 will be established in Bucharest, and the company aims to attract around 250 top tech talents in the coming years. “They will work together on innovations with the aim of providing a leading customer experience at Ahold Delhaize’s European brands,” says a statement from the company.
The company Ahold Delhaize Technologies SRL was already registered in Romania, in February, according to the data on the Termene.ro platform, and will carry out “Activities for making software to order (customer-oriented software)”.
Wouter Kolk, CEO Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia, says: “Our great local brands strive to create the best local grocery shopping experience. As part of our technology ambitions, we focus on delivering seamless digital experiences, whether it’s in-store, in the aisle, at the till or behind the scenes. With the evolving needs of our customers come new challenges, which is why we are creating the AD/01. This technology studio will bring together sharp minds to develop innovations that serve the people of today and tomorrow and serve all our European brands. In this way, we also invest in the Romanian market, where we already operate through our local Mega Image brand.”
The company claims that recruitment for the technology studio will continue to strengthen in the coming period and is primarily focused on the Romanian market, which has one of the largest reservoirs of skilled technical talent in Europe.
Ahold Delhaize owns the Mega Image network in Romania, which has around 1,000 stores. The company achieved business of 8.7 billion lei in 2022, the last for which data is available, an increase of 16% compared to the previous year. The profit of the company, which has 10,618 employees, was 139 million lei, a 29% increase compared to the previous year.
Last October, the Ahold Delhaize group announced that it had reached an agreement regarding the acquisition of the Profi Rom Food company, which operates the Profi store network in Romania, from MidEuropa, for 1.3 billion euros. The transaction is expected to be completed during 2024.
“The acquisition of Profi is expected to close in the second half of 2024 and will double the size of the Romanian operations. As the timing of the closing is uncertain, our outlook for 2024 excludes any impact from this transaction,” the group said.
Data analyzed by Economedia showed that this sale was the largest transaction in Romania since 2023.
ANALYSIS The sale of Profi to Mega Image is the biggest transaction in Romania this year, over the sale of Enel to the Greeks from PPC / Top of the most important transactions this year
