ZAANDAM, Netherlands, September 11, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ahold's (NYSE:AHO) wholly owned foodservice subsidiary in the United States, U.S. Foodservice, announced it has reached agreement to acquire certain assets and assume certain liabilities of Lady Baltimore Foods, Inc. ("Lady Baltimore"), a prominent regional broadline foodservice distributor based in Kansas City, Kansas.
The assets involved include Lady Baltimore's net working capital and its goodwill. U.S. Foodservice will extend offers of employment to a number of Lady Baltimore's employees, including a majority of its sales force. The planned transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2002. It should enable U.S. Foodservice to improve its presence in the large and competitive markets of Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri.
Lady Baltimore sells and distributes over 14,000 food items and kitchen supplies to a broad base of institutional customers that includes restaurants, schools and the healthcare sector in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Iowa. The company, established in 1946, operates from a 460,000 sq.ft. (approximately 46,000 sq.m.) facility in Kansas City in the central United States.
U.S. Foodservice, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, was acquired by Ahold in April 2000. The company now serves more than 300,000 institutional customers with some 43,000 food products and related items.
Ahold is a multilocal food retailer and foodservice operator serving 40 million customers in 27 countries every week, with 2001 sales of Euro 66.6 billion.
This Ahold press release contains "forward-looking statements." Actual results may differ from such statements as they may have been influenced by factors beyond the company's ability to control, as more fully discussed in the company's annual report.