Supermarkets: The new head of AB Vassilopoulos, his term with the competition and the day after

After five years of radical changes in the domestic organized retail industry, a pandemic and two outgoing CEOs, AB Vassilopoulos, of the Ahold Delhaize group, continues to seek the best strategy in order to take the lead over the competition.

From August 20, 2022, this important challenge, which takes on new dimensions, in light of overall supermarket sales reduction because of intense inflationary pressures, will be managed by Nikos Lavidas, who assumes the position of Brand President in the second in size chain on the Greek market.

With a long and successful course in the food industry, 52-year-old Nikos Lavidas will essentially replace Vassilis Stavrou who abruptly left the “helm” of AB Vassilopoulos in February this year.

All these months, the management of the Greek subsidiary of the Dutch-Belgian group Ahold Delhaize was temporarily taken over by Jesper Lauridsen, Brand President of the Czech Republic and Brand Leader for the region of Central & Southern Europe, to whom Nikos Lavidas will report in his new role.

It is recalled that the departure of Vassilis Stavros from the reins of AB, in the winter of 2022, was preceded by the departure of Leonidas Vrettakos in the summer of 2018, while in the spring of 2016 Konstantinos Macheras had resigned as CEO of the chain.

Sklavenitis culture

Although the last two heads of AB Vassilopoulos were from within (Mr. Stavrou had 28 years with the chain, while Mr. Vrettakos 21), the new Brand President has considerable experience in food retail but from among the ranks of the competition, as for almost 9 years he held a high position in the Sklavenitis group.

In particular, Nikos Lavidas, in Sklavenitis, initially took on the role of General Development Manager with the main responsibility of reorganizing the company and creating the appropriate framework to support a series of acquisitions, which led to the creation of the largest retail group in Greece with a turnover in 2021 of more than 4 billion euros.

Following the acquisition of Marinopoulos’s activities by Sklavenitis, in 2016, he took over the position of General Manager with the main goal of absorbing the network of the bankrupt chain and its smooth integration into the operating system of Sklavenitis.

It was then that AB Vassilopoulos, with a turnover of over 2 billion euros, found itself in the first place of the supermarket sector as it benefited most from the collapse of Marinopoulos. At the same time, Lidl was also on the winning side.

However, AB’s lead did not last long, since in 2017 the Sklavenitis group surpassed it in sales and since then it has been constantly growing.

Even in 2020, when the pandemic bolstered supermarket sales, AB Vassilopoulos increased its turnover to over 2 billion euros, something it had done for the first time in 2016 (2.17 billion euros) and 2017 (2.10 billion euros), but at a slower pace compared to the growth of sales of the industry which according to Nielsen reached + 9.7%.

Investments and a question

With ongoing investments by big “players”, as well as moves in the field of convenience stores and in digital channels, the question that arises is whether the second largest retailer will adopt a more aggressive pricing policy, since at this time with inflation exceeding 11%, prices are expected to be the dominant field of competition among supermarket chains.

However, presenting the results of the first quarter of this year, Frans Muller, president and CEO of the Ahold Delhaize group, enthusiastically referred to the new promotional campaign called AB Vassilopoulos’ Top Hits, through which discounts on basic items are offered.

In terms of investment, the new large AB store in the retail park of Trade Estates (Fourlis group) at the junction of Kifissou and Piraeus streets, in Moschato, has been completed, while another is being built on the plot of the Mimikopoulos foundation, a few meters from the roundabout junction of Attiki Odos, in Maroussi.

A third large store will be located in the shopping complex created by Ten Brinke in Kennedy Square in Chalandri, which Trade Estates has agreed to buy in this case as well.

It should be noted that Nikos Lavidas, who until recently worked at Upfield, a company created in Greece after the sale of the oil and margarine portfolio by Unilever to the KKR fund, holds the position of non-executive consultant in the board of the Fourlis group.