JJ Fleeman to Step Down as Ahold Delhaize USA CEO
Ahold Delhaize has revealed that Ahold Delhaize USA CEO JJ Fleeman will step down from his role at the end of June to become the CEO of Dollar General Corp. on Jan. 1, 2027, succeeding Todd Vasos. Fleeman will also be appointed a director at that time.
To aid the transition, Vasos will continue as CEO until the effective date of the transition, at which time he will serve as a senior advisor through April 2, 2027. Following the transition, Vasos will remain a member of the board.
Fleeman spent his entire 36-year grocery retail career at Ahold Delhaize companies, including Food Lion, the organization’s largest U.S. brand. Throughout his time with the company, he has taken on a diverse range of executive leadership roles spanning strategy, commercial, digital, retail operations, marketing and merchandising. As the head of Peapod Digital Labs, Fleeman helped lay the foundations of the omnichannel model that continues to power the company’s success. He was named CEO of Ahold Delhaize USA and a member of the Ahold Delhaize management board at the company’s 2023 shareholder meeting.
"I am grateful for the strong omnichannel foundation JJ has helped build, and I have full confidence in our U.S. leadership team to continue executing our Growing Together strategy," Ahold Delhaize President and CEO Frans Muller noted. "JJ’s strength in bringing teams together, developing a 'winning together' culture, combined with his ability to recognize talent and personal leadership, will leave a lasting legacy in our company. We have appreciated JJ's vision and business insights as part of our management board conversations and wish him success in his future endeavors."
"Over the past 36 years, I've had the privilege of working alongside extraordinary teams across the companies of Ahold Delhaize, and I'm proud of what we’ve accomplished together for our customers and communities," Fleeman said. "As I look ahead to a new chapter, I'm grateful for the associates who bring our brands to life every day, and I'm committed to supporting a smooth transition."
"On behalf of the supervisory board, I would like to thank JJ for his dedicated leadership and the progress made across our U.S. businesses," added Wiebe Draijer, chair of Ahold Delhaize's supervisory board. "We are committed to an orderly transition and to ensuring continued focus on the execution of our Growing Together strategy, serving our customers and communities in the markets our brands operate in."
The company will issue updates on the succession process as appropriate.
Under Fleeman’s guidance, Ahold Delhaize USA’s fiscal 2025 net sales rose by 2.5% at constant exchange rates (down 6.0% at actual exchange rates), while comparable sales, excluding gas, increased 2.7%, driven by continued growth in online and pharmacy sales. In fourth quarter, underlying operating margin in the United States was 4.7%, up 0.5 percentage points. Higher sales leverage, improvements to online profitability, the positive effect from a shift in category mix, and lower shrink more than offset price investments. Discussing the earnings, Muller singled out Food Lion’s 53 consecutive quarters of comparable-sales growth and Stop & Shop’s steadily improving trends, with positive comp growth since April 2025, thanks to price investments and customer experience initiatives.
Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize is one of the world’s largest food retail groups. The company's family of local brands serves approximately 63 million customers each week, both in stores and online, in the United States, Europe and Indonesia. The Ahold Delhaize USA division includes Food Lion, The Giant Co., Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop.
As of Jan. 30, Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General operated 20,893 Dollar General, DG Market, DGX and pOpshelf stores across the United States, and Mi Súper Dollar General stores in Mexico.
This article was originally published on P2PI sibling brand Progressive Grocer.
