Anders Moberg at annual Ahold
shareholders' meeting

"Building a firm foundation
for future profitable growth"

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders The Hague,
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Address by Ahold President & CEO Anders Moberg

Zaandam, The Netherlands, May 18, 2005

Ladies and gentlemen,

What a difference a year makes!

In 2003, we said we want to operate businesses where we had obtained or could
obtain positions of market leadership. That remains our goal. Our Road to
Recovery strategy was designed to ensure that we would get there.

We have made solid progress along this road. We are continuing to build a strong
and healthy financial foundation. We are moving closer to our customers. We are
better differentiating our offering to meet our customers' needs. We believe all
of these things are critical to our long-term success in an increasingly
competitive sector.

Let me repeat where we stand. We posted consolidated net sales of EUR 52 billion
in 2004, some 7.3% down from 2003. Continuing weakness of the U.S. dollar
impacted our 2004 results. We posted operating income of EUR 208 million, which
is 0.4% of net sales, and a net loss of EUR 436 million, impacted by total
exceptional items of EUR 582 million. Net debt levels at the end of 2004 stood
at EUR 6.3 billion, a healthy decrease of approximately 20% compared to the EUR
7.8 billion level at the end of 2003.

In 2004 we pursued three main challenges:

1.   conducting our divestment program;
2.   strengthening our corporate governance; and
3.   building a foundation for future growth.

                                                                         2005019

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Divestment program and proceeds
We have carried out our divestment program with vigor. We sold our Spanish
operations. In Brazil, we sold our Bompreco and Hipercard operations, entered
into an agreement on the sale of G. Barbosa, and closed the sale earlier this
year, completing our withdrawal from that country. We also completed our
withdrawal from Asia with the sale of our operations in Thailand in March 2004.

In Poland, we focused on the supermarket and compact-hyper formats which was
reflected by our selling 13 large hypermarkets earlier this year. And in the
United States, we announced the divestment of our BI-LO and Bruno's supermarket
operations which closed in January of this year.

In Argentina, we received from escrow the final purchase amount for the
approximately 85% of the shares of our supermarket chain Disco.

So with all this behind us, aggregate gross proceeds from our completed
divestments amounted to EUR 1.5 billion by the end of 2004. By the end of March
2005, the total had risen to EUR 2.6 billion. We are therefore ahead of schedule
in terms of achieving our target of a minimum of EUR 2.5 billion by the end of
2005.

This very positive result allowed us to terminate the 2003 restrictive credit
facility in February 2005. You may have heard the news earlier this morning that
we announced a new EUR 2 billion facility with much better terms and conditions.

On top of this, we announced at the end of April that agreement had been reached
on the divestment of our Tops convenience stores along the Canadian border.

And the sale process of the planned divestment of Deli XL, our foodservice
business in the Benelux region, is ongoing.

Our divestment program not only helps us to generate the much needed financial
resources to strengthen our balance sheet but, just as importantly, it brings
back the much needed business focus to improve the performance of our core
assets.

Corporate governance
The second main challenge in 2004 was corporate governance, another significant
area of attention. Improvements begin at home, with us, with our people. We want
to ensure that we operate with the utmost integrity backed by rigorous controls
and to ensure that we protect our company and associates through our business
principles. Our efforts are certainly bearing fruit but we know that more
remains to be done to attain our ultimate goal of a robust, effective and
efficient control framework throughout the Ahold group.

Considering where we were just two years ago, this is, no doubt, a very
ambitious goal. But let me say this for all to hear; we may hit some bumps here
and there, we may struggle as we try to balance our many priorities, but our
ultimate goal is crystal clear: to be among the best in the industry in this
area. When we encounter issues, we take decisions and deal with them. This goes
for outstanding issues as well as others we may identify. We are in the process
of systematically addressing the two material weaknesses that were identified in
connection with the 2004 audit and continue to improve our internal controls.

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We started the year with a number of legal challenges. We have made substantial
progress on that front. To highlight a couple of points: We settled all the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission's charges without admitting or denying the
allegations, by consenting to the entry of a judgment in the U.S. Importantly,
that judgment did not require us to pay any monetary penalty. A factor that
weighed heavily in the SEC's decision was our extensive cooperation with its
investigation.

The legal proceedings launched against us in the U.S., seeking civil damages,
are still ongoing. Needless to say, we are defending ourselves vigorously.

And, just days into 2005, a Dutch commercial court known as the Enterprise
Chamber ordered a limited inquiry into some of the events which led to our
announcement in February 2003. We are fully cooperating with the inquiry.

An example of how we continuously and very systematically improve our corporate
governance can be seen in the approach we've taken at U.S. Foodservice. We are
working hard to re-establish U.S. Foodservice as a viable, reliable and ethical
company that delivers value to Ahold. We have put in place a stronger, more
transparent corporate governance and a more robust organizational structure. I
want to take the next few minutes to help improve your understanding of our
accountability, our standards and our enhanced controls, all of which foster a
clear and compelling culture based on shared values.

Foundation for future growth
The third main challenge was and is building a foundation for future growth.
This is essential for our long-term sustainability. We re-organized our retail
businesses. We have created "arenas" which bring our operating companies in
comparable markets together. This arena structure allows us to gain deep
synergies.

Perhaps the best example of arena formation has been the integration of Stop &
Shop and Giant-Landover, two of our leading U.S. supermarket chains. The process
was not always smooth sailing, but the formation of this arena created a EUR
13.8 billion business in net sales. It was costly and at times disruptive to
day-to-day business. However, from this year on, we expect to realize
considerable savings every year from this initiative. The teams at Stop & Shop
and Giant-Landover have done a great job at a very high pace to bring the two
companies together.

Thanks to the creation of the arenas, we are able to better leverage the
strengths and scale among our operating companies. We can better serve the
customer. And we can focus on 'doing what is right for our customers.'

Another example of leveraging expertise in an arena is the introduction of the
Martin's format at Tops. We tested the winning "every-day-low-price" format of
Giant-Carlisle to re-vitalize the Tops market. We wanted to set a new standard
in the Tops market, and decided to use a banner which was not influenced by the
past. So in September 2004, we opened our first store under the Martin's banner
in western New York state. At the beginning of April we opened our second. Both
have been very successful from a customer satisfaction and sales perspective. We
are convinced that this format is a key component in making further improvements
in the Tops market.

All our trade areas are affected by price competition. When we reduce prices, we
do so with clear goals in mind. These goals vary from banner to banner. They are
always designed to improve our customer offering. And with that of our
competitive position. Albert Heijn is a good example of how we respond to
customer needs. The success of Albert Heijn is a combination of the cost
reduction programs and price-re-positioning.

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The price re-positioning program needs quite some investment. We need to lower
costs to be able to re-invest in our value proposition. Our goal is to achieve
sustainable improvements in this area. We are going to do this by sharing the
best practices among the arenas and by leveraging our infrastructure.

Working on cost reduction programs is a common theme throughout our arenas. Let
me give you another example of our responding to the needs of our customers. In
Central Europe, we have made significant strides in moving to a more competitive
cost structure. Simplifying the business model put in place when we entered
these markets and divesting our 13 large hypermarkets in Poland have enhanced
our competitive position in this arena. This will be the foundation moving
forward.

Following the Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover integration, we announced this
month our key strategic operating plan for Giant-Landover. A plan very much
focused on improving our cost structure. We will exit three of our manufacturing
operations and close several older warehouses. We will sell off our office
complex and relocate our headquarters.

At a global level, we created initiatives to reduce our cost base. Working as
'one Ahold' is critical. We are increasingly leveraging our scale through
sourcing, through talent pools and through IT development. And to take this to a
new level, we are moving to one business model. Mid-2004, we started a global
project within Ahold to assess all of the systems and processes in the company.

We are mapping these processes to define the similarities, to define best
practices, to define further cost saving opportunities. With this we want to
create one IT strategy for the company and a portfolio of applications. This
portfolio will still allow us to go to market in different ways, customized and
tailor-made. I am convinced that creating one IT strategy is essential for us to
move forward as one Ahold.

Building a strong foundation requires clearly defined relations with all the
companies within the Ahold group.

In 2004, we were able to base our arrangements with ICA on a much healthier
footing. Now, we have a 60% economic ownership in a joint venture that has
operations in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic States. Due to this, we simplified
and improved our working relationship with ICA Forbundet.

We are proud to have Schuitema as part of our company. It is a company with a
strong track record. Some of you may think our relationship is strained. Let me
assure you that this is not the case. We engage in open dialogue. We are
represented on the supervisory board and work in a constructive way. I believe
there are many back-office synergies available with the Ahold group.

As communicated before, our operating targets for our food retail business for
full year 2006 are:

- 5% net sales growth;
- 5% EBITA margin; and
- 14% return on net assets.

These targets are based upon the successful completion of the harmonization
initiatives and our divestment program by the end of 2005. These targets were
formulated with Dutch GAAP in mind. Although our conversion to IFRS has no
impact on the net sales target, the potential impact on the other targets is
being reviewed. The targets will not be easy to hit, and targets should never be
easy but we are determined to hit them.

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We see two main drivers for sales growth in the coming year:

First, building new stores and remodeling others. We have always invested
heavily in our store base. Location is essential in our business. We take good
care of our stores. We had to cut back on store investment during 2002 and 2003.
We had no choice. But we will be back to previous levels in the course of this
year. And that means a significant investment of approximately EUR 1.6 billion
in our store base.

The second sales growth driver is our price re-positioning program. As I've said
many times before, 'we need to do the right thing for the customer'. Customers
perceive value as more and more important. As discounters continue to make their
presence felt, we need to increasingly align our prices with their offer. To get
to the targeted ebita level, we have identified many initiatives of which we
will see the benefits over 2005 - 2006.

Our harmonization program, defined at the start of the road-to-recovery, is
expected to generate EUR 600 million in savings on an annual basis as of 2006,
of which part will fall to the bottom line. We see huge potential on the
sourcing side. We are already making significant progress with joint buying of
not-for-resale products. We have a centralized not-for-resale organization which
negotiates contracts and sources many of our products.

Alongside these global initiatives, there are many initiatives to curb
operational costs in the arenas, from overhead reductions to labor scheduling
and productivity improvements.

The third food retail target we set ourselves focuses on return on net assets.
We still see opportunities beyond what we have achieved to date on working
capital management. In the area of payment terms and inventory management, we
continue to drive for improvements.

Our building cost is another area of opportunity. We have many projects going on
in this area. Our ambition is to reduce building cost by 10 to 15% through a
standardized way of working. Leveraging best-practices throughout the company
and using our scale provides huge opportunities.

Next to that we are cleaning up non-core assets. Examples are: shopping centers
where we are not the main user, and the warehouses and manufacturing plants
identified by Giant-Landover. We are revisiting our portfolio of assets and
cleaning it up systematically. We are working hard on hitting the targets set
out in the Road-to-Recovery. And we are starting to look at where we will be
when we reach the end of that road.

Longer term, where will our growth come from? Our focus is and will be on
increased penetration in our existing markets, through organic growth, by
building new stores and remodeling others, and through selective acquisitions in
our current trade areas. These acquisitions will probably be small to medium
sized. But together they could add to something quite significant.

Our existing businesses are the foundation of our future growth model. Put
simply, we must continuously satisfy our customers' needs.

The core capabilities that we as a company need to continue to develop are
category management and applied customer insight. To know and understand
customer needs better and faster than anyone else and to be able to translate
customer needs into a meaningful product offering and great value. Increased
penetration in key trade areas will help us to leverage our infrastructure and
create clear synergies.

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Customers have many choices. We know that life is about making choices. We want
to make it easy for them to choose us. We will continue to strive to have
convenient locations, the right offering, the optimal price level. Innovative
solutions to our customers' everyday needs. We want customers to choose our
stores. Each day, every day.

I can sense you are wondering: what about larger acquisitions? It's quite
simple. We want to grow with what we know! This is not the time for large
acquisitions. The time may come and we'll need to be ready, to understand how
best to match our available resources with opportunities. Growth for growth's
sake will not be on our radar screen. It is about profitable growth. Our compass
is and will be shareholder value. Therefore our focus regarding further
acquisitions will be on geographic areas and cultures that are close to ours.
And on business that can provide further potential for generating synergy
benefits, businesses that we can integrate easily with our existing operations.

So, with the focus clearly on organic growth, how can we leverage our growth
opportunities? Let me run you through a couple of initiatives. We want to offer
combinations of healthy, appealing and inspiring food and non-food products at
the right price to make it easier for many people to feel better, live better,
and enjoy life more - every day!

Expanding the range and improving the quality of our general merchandise
throughout the company is a significant growth opportunity. We want to help
customers to make the best easy to choose. And if we get that right - which we
will - our ambition is to double non-food sales in the next 5 years, from 5.5 to
11%.

Private label is also going to be key in our strategy moving forward. It will
provide good value to our customers and it will help to distinguish us from the
competition. It will give us negotiation power and flexibility. For us to be
successful, we need strong partners in our suppliers. We need to see how we can
cooperate to create value for our customers. We both have the same interest,
providing customers with the product and service they demand and deserve. Since
the cost of goods sold is the highest single expense line, we will put a lot of
effort into this area and see how we can best manage this with our partners in
the interest of our customers. We both need to work on improving the value
chain. For this, we need to challenge each other.

Critical drivers of our strategy going forward are strategic sourcing and supply
chain. This means having a better understanding of the value chain - from farm
to fork. We need to work to lower cost and to stimulate innovation. Again,
continuously improving value for the customer. Knowing that what is good today
is not good enough tomorrow.

Our private label is an important instrument in this. We have seen strong growth
of our private label. It is our firm belief that this development will continue.
We will always represent the customer. We buy and source for our customers.

Our supermarkets are dedicated to satisfying our customers' food needs.
Customers buy with us a certain safety, quality, convenience, easy shopping,
wide choice and sustainability. The new challenge is "consumer health." In all
our markets, there is an increasing tension between the tremendous amount of
food which is available at low prices, and the need for a balanced diet and
active lifestyle. Basic building blocks of our healthy living strategy, are for
example consumer information and education activities, school programs, more
transparent labeling, promoting "five-a-day" guidelines for consumption of fruit
and vegetables, reduced fat, reduced sugar and salt intake, more fiber-rich
food, more fish, and many more low carb, functional, organic & natural foods.

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People want to enjoy a healthy life. But changing lifestyles require changing
eating habits. There is not a simple solution, no one-size-fits-all. So a
multi-stakeholder approach is important. With our focus on perishables, produce
and private label, our companies are extremely well positioned and committed to
make healthy living easy to choose.

Although recent years have had their fair share of stress, sustainability is
still at the heart of our business. We are very proud of our initiatives in the
area of corporate social responsibility. We just published our 2004
sustainability report. This report aims to provide you with a clear picture of
what sustainability means to our company and how it is embedded in our business.
The report puts sustainability in the context of our Road to Recovery strategy
for the years 2003-2005.

Ghana is a great example of linking business needs with corporate
sustainability. We have already been active in Ghana for three years. Our
intention is to expand this foothold to a broader geographic area in southern
Africa.

So, in addition to non-food, private label and healthy living, we see a real
growth opportunity in U.S. Foodservice. Let me run you through our thinking. In
2003, we announced that we needed 18 - 24 months to recover U.S. Foodservice,
and exceed in 2006 the level of performance we had reached in 2002. We are
confident this objective will be met. If anything, our views on the longer term
potential of U.S. Foodservice are even more optimistic.

We have learned a lot about the foodservice business. We came a long way. We
have the #2 position in the business in the US market. Our cash flow is strong.
We are identifying opportunities for synergies with retail on sourcing and
private label. The foodservice business is growing faster than the food retail
market.

Based on all this, our current thinking is that we believe we can create more
value by keeping U.S. Foodservice within the Ahold Group. Our key priority now
is to develop the capabilities and the performance of U.S. Foodservice to its
full potential, which is beyond the levels we reached before. It would be a
mistake to divest our U.S. Foodservice operation, therefore we have no intention
of doing so. U.S. Foodservice will stay in the Ahold group as we continue to
improve the value of the company.

You will recognize that in order to fully leverage all the opportunities,
initiatives and ambitions I have just mentioned, we need to nurture key
management and associates and to recruit, develop and retain additional capable
people. Creating an innovative, learning environment is key. We will continue to
focus strongly on our talent pool, without whom we would not have succeeded to
put this company back on a sure footing.

Let me draw to a close by repeating my belief that the Road to Recovery strategy
is an ambitious yet achievable program to reposition our operations for the
future. By accomplishing the goals of this strategic plan, we are creating a
solid financial, structural and organizational foundation with common goals,
shared values and an unwavering focus on the customer. We predicted that 2004
would be a year of transition, and so it was.

Let's not forget: success is a journey, not a destination. Next week, our
company marks its 118th birthday. In the course of our long history as a
prominent food retailer in the Netherlands and along the U.S. eastern seaboard,
we have enjoyed many highs and one very serious low. Make no mistake: we
survived the lost year of 2003, we worked our way through the transitional year
of 2004, and we are determined to turn 2005 into the year of reconstruction,
execution and delivery.

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As we complete the divestment of our non-core assets and focus on our core
business, as we continue to strengthen our corporate governance, as we build a
firm foundation for future profitable growth, we are determined to keep the
customer at the heart of our business, offer an attractive working environment
for our associates and strive to provide you, our shareholders, with an
attractive return on your investment.

We will leverage our many areas of opportunity within our core food retail
markets and within U.S. Foodservice. In short, we will make the best easy to
choose, for you and all our stakeholders. Thank you for your attention.

Ahold Corporate Communications: +31 (0)75 - 659 5720

Disclaimer
The speech contained in this press release contains certain statements that are
neither reported financial results nor other historical information. These
statements are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal
securities laws. Those statements include, but are not limited to, statements as
to the achievement, timing, scope, progress and expected impact of our Road to
Recovery program; statements regarding the timing and impact of our divestments;
statements as to the strengthening of our internal controls framework, including
to be among the best in the industry in this area; statements as to expected
savings, including the amount and timing of cost savings from our
harmonitization program, savings anticipated this year from the integration of
Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover, and targets for building cost reductions;
statements as to re-vitalizing Tops, including the expected role of the Martin's
format in making further improvements at Tops; statements as to pricing
strategy, including the sharing of best practices and leveraging infrastructure
so as to achieve sustainable improvements in our price repositioning program;
statements regarding the strategic operating plan for Giant-Landover, including
planned exiting from certain manufacturing operations, warehouse closings,
headquarters sale and relocation; statements as to our global information
technology project including the creation of one IT strategy and other
initiatives to harmonize systems and processes; statements regarding our
focusing on our core businesses; statements regarding retail targets, including
objectives for growth of net sales, EBITA margin and return on net assets;
statements regarding expectations for future store investment levels and the
amount thereof planned for this year; statements regarding future growth and our
focus on organic growth and possible smaller to medium sized acquisitions in
geographic areas and cultures close to our existing operations, rather than
larger acquisitions; statements regarding our continuing to have convenient
locations, the right offering and the optimal price level; statements regarding
our focus on private label and the anticipated percentage growth thereof;
statements regarding our focus on strategic sourcing and supply chain
management; statements regarding plans for corporate sustainability, including
plans to expand efforts in Ghana to southern Africa; statements as to the
improvement of the operating performance of U.S. Foodservice, expectations as to
U.S. Foodservice exceeding in 2006 its 2002 performance level and as to our
intention to keep U.S. Foodservice; statements regarding focusing on our talent
pool and offering an attractive work environment; and statements regarding
striving to provide an attractive investment return.

These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many of these risks and
uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond our ability to control or
estimate precisely, such as the effect of general economic and political
conditions, increases or changes in competition in the markets in which our
subsidiaries and joint ventures operate, the actions of competitors, our ability
or the ability of any of our arenas and operating companies to implement and
complete successfully plans and strategies or delays or additional costs
encountered in connection with their implementation, the diversion of
management's attention from implementing our plans and strategies, our ability
to reach agreements acceptable to us and/or to find buyers for the remaining
operations and assets we are divesting, our ability to find appropriate new
store locations and opportunities for organic growth and to find acceptable
acquisition targets and to reach agreements acceptable to us, the ability to
address, or delays in addressing, legal obstacles to the consummation of the
expected divestments or possible acquisitions, the inability to satisfy, or
delays in satisfying, other closing conditions to the expected divestments or
possible acquisitions, the discovery of additional internal control issues and
difficulties encountered in addressing such issues or others already identified,
the inability to reduce costs or realize cost savings in the manner or to the
extent planned, the actions of our customers, including their reaction to new
store formats, store locations, product offering, price repositioning and other
strategies, unanticipated needs for additional store investment, the results of
pending or future investigations or legal proceedings, actions of courts, law
enforcement agencies, government agencies, suppliers, unions and other
third-parties, unforeseen impacts of IFRS, our liquidity needs exceeding
expected levels,

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fluctuations in exchange rates or interest rates, difficulties or delays in the
implementation of new operational improvements and systems, the reaction of our
associates to operational and other changes in the working environment,
fluctuations in our share price and the stock markets on which our shares trade
and other factors discussed in our public filings. Many of these and other risk
factors are detailed in our 2004 Annual Report. Readers are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of
the date of this press release. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly
release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances after the date of this press release, except as may be required by
applicable securities law.

In certain instances, results provided in this speech are non-GAAP financial
measures. For more information regarding many of these non-GAAP financial
measures, see our press release issued on March 29, 2005.


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