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Hall of Fame Biographies

Albert Heijn

Ahold

Ahold’s diminutive core brand Albert Heijn was started by the man of the same name when Albert – who was born in Oostzaan in 1865 - took over his father's small Zaandam grocery store, selling a wide variety of products, from groceries, to dredging nets and tar. Albert took up the reins from Albert Sr on his wedding day in 1887 and the small store is now a museum.

Holland was in the midst of an economic boom sustained by its colonial network. Heijn's grocery store prospered and soon became a chain, under the name Albert Heijn. Within a decade he had built the business into a 23-store chain with openings in Alkmaar, The Hague and Amsterdam and the first Albert Heijn brand name products became available in 1911 - cookies baked by Heijn himself in the kitchen of a local mansion house. Manufacturing company Marvelo developed from this, with a range of activities including the production of tea, coffee, peanut butter and wine bottling. By the end of World War I, Heijn was running a bakery and a confectionery to help supply his chain of 50 grocery stores.

Steady growth continued throughout the 1920s, as the company added new stores each year. In 1923 Heijn branched into the restaurant trade, providing his company with a new source of income. By the end of the decade, Albert Heijn was in a very solid position. As a result, the company was able not only to weather the worldwide Depression of the 1930s, but even to grow.

In 1941, the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands brought economic turmoil to the country. Dutch wealth was drained to fuel Germany's war machine. But, as during the Depression, the nature of the food business insulated Albert Heijn from the ruin faced by companies in other industries. By the end of World War II the chain had nearly 250 stores in operation.

Heijn died shortly afterwards in November 1945 and the company in its modern form took shape after World War II, listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and opening its first self-service store in Rotterdam in 1955, eventually peaking as the third largest retailer in the world. Imbued in a fraudulent accounting scandal, the company has rationalised in the past few years and some of those responsible for what became a major crisis were given custodial sentences.