Tim de Jong – Albert Heijn

Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, has a unique approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). As market leader and prominent brand under Ahold Delhaize, Albert Heijn embraces its leadership role and strives to make CSR as tangible as possible. We spoke to Tim de Jong, Albert Heijn’s Brand Manager Sustainability and – as his job title suggests – a strong advocate for sustainable business. In this Brand Growth Interview Tim reveals how all efforts support Albert Heijn’s mission, which is formulated as follows:

”Together we make eating better the easy choice. For everyone.”

The Evolution of Sustainability in Grocery Shopping

Before diving into the many different CSR initiatives, we first ask Tim what consumers’ sentiment towards sustainability is like nowadays. Tim outlines that when it comes to grocery shopping, a significant shift in consumer attitudes towards sustainability has taken place over the past decade. ”As customers increasingly prioritise sustainable practices, there is a chance to positively impact the planet. However, a critical challenge is to balance sustainability goals with customer preferences. At Albert Heijn we aspire to be a leader in sustainability while simultaneously remaining affordable and convenient.”

The Art of Doing

This means continuously trying and testing new ideas for a more sustainable business. Successful tests are subsequently rolled out on a large scale. These initiatives are often visible to customers and could impact their shopping experience. Others, however, take place behind the scenes; hidden from consumers’ view.

Tim explains that there is a balance between visible and invisible sustainability measures. ”It is very important to find the right mix to engage customers effectively. For example, Albert Heijn was the first to introduce reusable fruit bags and introduced dynamic pricing to reduce food waste. These things make it easy, accessible, and attractive for customers to shop more sustainably in our stores. Less noticeable but equally important is that we also cut emissions by introducing electric vehicles in our delivery fleet and saved energy by installing more solar panels on top of our distribution centres.”

“A critical challenge is to balance sustainability goals with customer preferences.”

Bringing Consumers Along on the Journey

Not every consumer is ready for an equal amount of changes. Therefore, Tim’s strategy is to provide small, manageable steps towards sustainability for each type of consumer. As Tim describes it: ”Every step counts. Even the small steps, so that together we can make one big step as a whole. Albert Heijn wants to help consumers take those small steps by making each step attainable and attractive.”

Getting consumers to accept changes and adopt new ways of shopping is crucial. Tim’s role therefore also involves communicating Albert Heijn’s sustainability initiatives to consumers. An example of how this is done are “AH Overblijvers” or ”Leftovers” (freely translated from Dutch). These are boxes of leftover products that are near their expiration date. The boxes are sold for a significantly reduced price. This program reduces food waste, but for it to be a success consumers do need to buy these package deals. To get consumers’ buy-in, clear and convincing communication is key. ”We always try to keep it light, with a funny twist. We emphasise the direct positive effect and state how Albert Heijn and the consumer together can make a difference,” Tim explains.

The name ”Overblijvers” personifies the food items in an amiable way and simultaneously explains why they are cheaper than usual. The added subtitle ”Less waste, more savings” is concise and clearly states both the benefits for the planet and the consumer.

First Walk the Walk, then Talk the Talk

When it comes to communication and reporting on efforts and results of sustainability initiatives, Tim firmly states how at Albert Heijn actions should always precede communications: you talk the talk after you’ve walked the walk. This is also the case for anything related to Albert Heijn’s sustainability initiatives and their results: ”We only report on real, tangible achievements and only tell stories about what we are currently doing or have recently done. Any form of greenwashing is unacceptable.

We love communicating positive steps and collaborative efforts via marketing activities, but we cannot be too eager and share these efforts with the world too early on.” After a moment to summarise his thoughts, Tim concludes that it is vital for communication to be not only effective but also completely honest.

“We only report on real, tangible achievements and only tell stories about what we are currently doing or have recently done. Any form of greenwashing is unacceptable.”

Identifying Winners

Tim also participates in proposition development, aligning sustainability with customer needs, and ensuring that the brand’s image resonates with a wide range of consumers. This means he is involved in ideation, testing, and deciding what’s worth moving forward with. He underscores the role of research in the process of developing and validating sustainability initiatives.¨

”Testing new ideas is key, often via a combination of qualitative research (e.g., interviews or focus groups), quantitative validation (consumer research), and the important third step of testing the idea in real life in a handful of stores. All results are important, but the actual sell-out data of those pilot stores is the most important of all. Since actual sales show the Action-Intention gap. Consumers can say they find the idea important and valuable, but whether will they change their behaviour and – for example – buy the product could differ.”