Ahold Delhaize

ZAANDAM, Netherlands - Dutch retailer Ahold is "very close" to picking a new CEO for its scandal-ridden U.S. Foodservice unit, Ahold's new CEO told Reuters today.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Delhaize Group, the Belgian international food retailer, announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 43 Harveys supermarkets located in central and south Georgia and the Tallahassee, Fla. area.

Zaandam, The Netherlands -- Ahold has reached an agreement to sell Golden Gallon, its fuel and merchandise convenience store operation in the southeastern United States, to The Pantry, Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

LAKELAND, Fla. - Publix Super Markets Inc. on Friday announced it is closing PublixDirect, the online grocery shopping service it began testing in south Florida two years ago.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against Kash n' Karry -- which accused the chain of paying women less than men who did similar work -- will be offered a share in a $3.1 million settlement with the chain, according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times.

AMSTERDAM -- Shares in Ahold rose today as the market welcomed the news that the company's new chief executive will unveil a new strategy Sept. 4, even before 2002 results are known, to rebuild the shattered confidence of shareholders who saw their investments evaporate in the wake of the accounting scandal, Reuters reports.

ZAANDAM, The Netherlands -- Royal Ahold here said today that its consolidated sales for the second quarter ended July 12 were Euro 13.0 billion, a decline of 12.4 percent, compared with the Euro 14.8 billion reported for the same period in 2002.

AMSTERDAM -- Ahold, the embattled Dutch grocery group reeling from a large accounting scandal revealed earlier this year, is expected to unveil a more than 10 percent decline in second-quarter sales when it provides a trading update on Friday.