Ahold said to consider market entry in Denmark

Dutch retailer Royal Ahold considers market entry in Danmark. An option is acquisition of the Dansk Supermarked chain from AP Moeller-Maersk. The local newspaper Berlingske Tidende reports this today, quoting Ahold’s chief executive Anders Moberg: “'If you are asking whether the Danish market is interesting for us, then the answer is yes.”

“We are interested in buying an established chain or, alternatively, entering a very close collaboration, in which case it should be a chain that is larger than ISO”, Moberg said. ISO is a 13-store franchised chain of supermarkets, mainly located in greater Copenhagen, and it’s owned by the local wholesale company Dagrofa.

“At some point, new foreign players will enter the Danish market as there are a number of interesting actors there” Moberg said to Berlingske Tidende. The daily cited analysts as saying Ahold is very interested in buying Dansk Supermarked, with which it has co-operated on both purchasing and setting up a chain of discount supermarkets through ICA, in which Ahold has a stake. Dansk Supermarked would not comment.