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<p align="justify">Royal Ahold Delhaize is a Dutch grocery Retail Company. The group is headquartered in Zaandam, Netherland. The company was formed in 2016 by the merger of Ahold and Delhaize Group. Ahold and Delhaize both have a history of more than a century in the retail business. Its business format includes supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, online grocery, online non-food, drugstores, and liquor stores. The company has a presence in over 11 countries on 3 continents in the world. The group operates through its brand. Which includes but not limited to Albert, Delhaize, Gall &; Gall, Albert Heijn, Food Lion, Stop &; Shop, Maxi, Giant and Etos (Ahold Delhaize, 2021). Royal Ahold Delhaize is one of the most valuable retail brands in the world. Porter’s five forces model is a useful tool to identify threats and opportunities faced by Royal Ahold Delhaize in the food industry in Europe and worldwide.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Competitive Rivalry in the Market</h2>
<p align="justify">The retail industry all over the world is very competitive. The retail industry is predominated by a food conglomerate with its presence all over the world. The biggest competitors of Ahold Delhaize are Aldi, Metro Group and Target Corporation. All these multinational companies have a strong foothold all over the world. It is considered in the top 10 supermarkets in the world. Ahold Delhaize dominates the market in Europe. The revenue of Aldi, Metro Group, Target Corporation is $29.5 Billion (Statista, 2019), $29.8 Billion (Forbes, 2020), and $93.565 Billion (Fortune, 2021) respectively as compared to the revenue of Ahold Delhaize $81.177 Billion (Fortune, 2011). Ahold Delhaize holds a slight edge in marker over its competitors due to its diversified products and presence in the majority of the world. It had made it difficult for their rivals to compete with them.<br />
However, the retail industry remains highly competitive.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Threat of Substitutes</h2>
<p align="justify">The threat of substitute in retail industry is always moderate to high. The clientele always has multiple options to choose from. Different brands are offering similar products. So to keep with them they must not compromise on their products while keeping the prices in control. The cost of substitute products is very high and to produce its expertise is required to meet the standards set up by the front runner. Ahold Delhaize is moving with the need of time and it is investing heavily in Online Store and personalized targeted services by using Artificial Intelligence. It is exploring the means to integrate AI and Retail. The company is investing in the future and It has formed a new division The Airlab for it (Ahold Delhaize, 2021). The diversified portfolio which caters to different demographics provides them with an upper hand. Those products cater to huge masses in society. The threat of substitute is moderate to high in retail industry, however, Ahold Delhaize is taking progressive measures to stay relevant.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Threat of New Entrants</h2>
<p align="justify">New entry of retail firms is easily achieved even in the presence of industry runners such as Ahold Delhaize. Small retailers can enter the market and compete based on convenience, location, speciality, and other factors. Online Retail stores are expanding at exponential speed and due to pandemic, the growth of is skyrocketed. In 2020 due to unprecedented demand the grocery the Ahold Delhaize generated around $8 Billion of revenue and recorded a surge of 176% (Progressive Grocer, 2020). It is quite difficult to compete with Ahold Delhaize even in these circumstances. It is because of its brand credibility and history. Which took it around a century to reach where it is. Ahold Delhaize is evolving its business with the need of time. Despite the strong hold of incumbents in the retail industry, there is a potential for new aspirants by leveraging technology. Therefore, threat of new entrants remains medium.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Bargaining Power of Buyers</h2>
<p align="justify">The buyer&#8217;s bargaining power depends on the number of characteristics of its market situation. Buyer can exert their power if the product available are standards, they are buying it in bulk quantities if the product produced is not up to the mark (HBR, 1979). Ahold Delhaize holds a diversified portfolio in the world. It provides a wide range of products for the customer. Which increases its clientele. It caters higher number of individual consumers with diversified product lines. The individual customer is the small-scale purchaser. So it decreases their bargaining power. The bulk purchaser can expect higher power bargaining power. Retail giants hold higher bargaining power here.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Bargaining Power of Supplier</h2>
<p align="justify">Suppliers are the organizations, which provide resources to the industry, such as materials, services, and labour (i.e. individuals, organizations such as labour unions, or companies that supply contract labour). The bargaining power means the ability of the supplier to increase the price of raw material or the cost of the industry (Hill and Jones, 2012). Suppliers hold higher power if the industry is dominated by a few suppliers, it provides more products in the market &; it is future integrated. The supplier&#8217;s large population of supplier &; intense competition between them decrease their bargaining power. The supply chain of the material is excessive. So in this supplier can have no or little impact on the company. So they hold a weak level of bargain power against the company.</p>
<h2 align="justify">References</h2>
<p align="left">Ahold Delhaize. (2021). Who we are. Available at: https://www.aholddelhaize.com/en/about/ Ahold Delhaize. (2021). Ahold Delhaize partnering to launch Artificial Intelligence for Retail Lab. Available at: https://www.aholddelhaize.com/en/news/ahold-delhaize-partnering-to-launch-artificial-intelligence-for-retail-lab/<br />
Cengage Learning<br />
Forbes. (2020). Metro Group. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/companies/metro-group/?sh=1b2c244b3867<br />
Fortune. (2020). Global 500. Available at: https://fortune.com/company/target/fortune500/<br />
Fortune. (2021). Global 500. Available at: https://fortune.com/company/royal-ahold-delhaize/global500/<br />
Harvard Business Review. (1979) How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Available at: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy<br />
Hill, J., 2012, Essentials of Strategic Management, 3rd Edition. South-Western,<br />
Progressive Grocer. (2020) Online Sales Surge 127% at Ahold Delhaize. Available at: https://progressivegrocer.com/online-sales-surge-127-ahold-delhaize<br />
Statista. (2019). Gross revenue of Aldi Group in Germany from 2010 to 2019. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/505695/aldi-group-revenue-germany/</p>
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