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Danone: Renewing Health Through Food and Purposeful Growth
Around the world, Danone stands for household brands like Evian, Activia, and Silk. United by a clear mission—bringing health through food to all—Danone draws on a century of purpose-driven action. With nearly 90,000 employeesin more than 120 markets, Danone has built trust as a name in nutrition while adapting to change.
In 2024, the company reported revenue of €27.4 billion. Danone is setting a new course of innovation, responsible growth, and digital excellence under the direction of CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CIO Erwin Logt, and Global Chief Marketing Officer Linda Bethea.
Innovating with Purpose: Combining Science with Everyday Nutrition
For Danone, innovation focuses on better ways to bring health into people’s daily lives. The company’s Renew Danone strategy, introduced in 2022, aims to strengthen its main categories and pursue new opportunities in health and nutrition.
From gut health and protein-rich foods to plant-based and medical nutrition, Danone expands to meet changing consumer needs. The company invests in research to improve nutrition, reduce sugar, and enhance transparency.
This science-based approach enables Danone to deliver products that are good for both consumers and the planet. The company incorporates health, innovation, and purpose into every step of the process, whether it is creating high-protein yogurts, fortifying products for kids, or producing medical nutrition products.
Creating Healthier Relationships- Marketing & Branding Campaigns
Danone’s marketing combines purpose, transparency, and responsible communication to impact healthier choices.
The company changed its Responsible Marketing Policy to Children in 2024, restricting the marketing and branding campaign of only goods with a Health Star Rating of ≥3.5 for children under the age of sixteen.
Danone combines innovation and tradition throughout its worldwide offering. While plant-based giants Alpro and Silk attract adaptable customers, dairy brands like Activia, Oikos, and YoPro have diversified into high-protein and functional niches, bringing growth. While AQUA and Bonafont increase access to clean drinking water in developing nations, companies like Evian and Volvic stand for sustainability and purity in the water industry.
Danone’s “One Planet. One Health” principle is strengthened by strategic brand storytelling, which unites customers behind goods that support both people and the environment.
Digital Transformation: Powering the Future of Food
Under CIO Erwin Logt, Danone’s IT transformation accelerates its shift to a digital enterprise. In partnership with Microsoft, Danone launched the AI Academy to train employees in AI literacy and data-driven decision-making.
By 2030, Danone’s DanSkills initiative will allocate more than a million training hours per year to retrain its employees for future employment. The company’s approach is tech-enabled and human-centered thanks to this digital backbone, which improves supply chain resilience, sustainability tracking, and global customer insights.
A Renewed Legacy
The three pillars of Danone’s Impact Journey—Health, Nature, and People & Communities– form the core of the company’s operations.
The business is redefining what it means to be a food company—an environment based on purpose, innovation, and health. The goal of the Renew Danone strategy is to lead consumer tastes rather than merely react to them. Danone is dedicated to science-led, digitally enabled, value-driven growth that will shape the future of responsible nutrition under the direction of strong leadership and a digital vision.
Danone’s story is one of nourishment—committed to earning trust while advancing the health of people, planet, and society.
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Keith Nicks is EVP and Chief Digital & Commercial Officer for Ahold Delhaize USA, overseeing
omnichannel marketing, retail media, and e-commerce for U.S. brands. Tim Bork is the Chief Commercial
Officer for Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia, focusing on local brands and responsible for growth,
including marketing and customer experience.
With nearly €96 billion in projected 2025 revenue, Ahold Delhaize ranks among the top 10 global
retailers, operating over 6,700 stores across multiple formats, including Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Food Lion,
Giant, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop.
6,700 stores powered by one procurement platform – a scale that makes others jealous.
For customers, Ahold isn’t just a grocery retailer; it’s a trusted lifestyle partner that combines the
intimacy of local shopping with the innovation and value of global retail leadership.
Ahold’s brands, such as Albert Heijn, Stop & Shop, and Giant, represent 37 years of average customer
relationships—customers don’t just shop there; they grow up with these brands, creating emotional
connections that transcend transactions.
After gaining thirty million loyalty members, Ahold demonstrated that personalization consistently
outperforms promotion.
BrandSensitize™ research shows that Ahold Delhaize operates with a decentralized marketing and brand
building approach, where marketing functions are embedded within:
- Brand-specific leadership (each local brand has its own marketing teams.
- Regional commercial officers who oversee marketing alongside broader commercial
responsibilities. - Digital and omnichannel specialists who handle modern marketing channels.
Ahold Delhaize’s Brand Building Initiatives:
Sustainability campaign: €50M investment reached 10M consumers, delivering a 20% boost in
sustainable product sales and generating €400M in revenue.
Digital Marketing: €150M digital budget achieved 25% higher engagement, 2.6% click-through rates (vs
1.9% industry standard), and built 500K+ social media following.
Loyalty Program: 30M members across brands with 85% customer penetration, driving 75% of total sales
and contributing €1B annually—10% better retention than competitors.
Strategic Brand Partnerships: 100+ collaborative campaigns with CPG brands, including Coca-Cola,
generated €600M in additional revenue through joint promotions.
Omnichannel Investment: A $1 billion price investment initiative, combined with AI-powered
personalization, aims to achieve an 80% loyalty sales penetration by 2028.
Strategic marketing drives measurable business results—from sustainability messaging to digital-first
loyalty programs, Ahold Delhaize demonstrates that well-executed brand-building campaigns deliver
both customer engagement and bottom-line growth on a global scale.
Ahold Delhaize’s Strategic Technology Partnerships:
- W23 Global VC Fund: $125M investment with Tesco, Woolworths & others backing AI startups
like Harmonya & Protex AI - Zycus Partnership: Source-to-Pay suite powering procurement across 6,700+ stores globally
- Hanshow Technology: Electronic shelf labels + innovation labs across all European locations.
- Inmar Intelligence: $141M in customer savings delivered through personalized digital coupons.
- DoorDash Collaboration: Tripled order volumes through enhanced last-mile delivery integration.
- Internal AI Innovation: MaxiGPT, LionGPT & Albot assistants deployed across the Serbian,
Belgian, and Czech markets. - New Tech Studio: AD/01 in Bucharest targeting 250+ tech talents for digital acceleration.
Zycus has licensed its comprehensive Source-to-Pay suite to Ahold Delhaize, including eSourcing,
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), and Supplier Management platforms.
TCS’s relationship with Ahold Delhaize marks a mature, strategic partnership focused on digital
transformation and supply chain technology.
Wipro partnered with Capgemini as one of the most significant retail transformation initiatives in the
world at Ahold USA.
Capgemini powers Ahold Delhaize’s end-to-end transformation, developing blockchain technology use
cases for Ahold Delhaize’s supply chain and leveraging its expertise in business transformation, as well as
its understanding of Ahold’s industry and operations.
Traditional retailers, equipped with AI and Robotics, will surpass pure digital players by 2030.
The key is to position Ahold not as just another retail success story, but as the company that has
rewritten the rules of digital transformation for every traditional business watching.
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