The chain was founded on 27 May 1887, when
Albert Heijn bought a grocery store from his father Jan Heijn in
Oostzaan. In the following years, Heijn opened other locations in several cities and in 1899, he opened a central warehouse in
Zaandam. From 1895, Heijn started roasting his own brand of coffee in a laundry room in his Oostzaan location and in 1910, several other self-produced items were added, including confectionery, cakes and pastry. Until 1913, these products were produced in an old town house in Zaandam, but the company built a professional factory on this spot in 1913. In 1920, all enterprises were combined in the
Maatschappij tot Exploitatie der Fabrieken en Handelszaken (Lit. "Society for the Exploitation of Factories and Businesses"). Anton Jurgens, one of the founders of
Unilever, took a 50% share in the new company. These shares were bought back by the Heijn family in 1927. On 29 April 1920, Albert Heijn transferred control of the company to his sons Gerrit Heijn and Jan Heijn, and his son-in-law Johan Hille. Albert Heijn stayed on as president of the board. The chain could become the largest within the Netherlands via several acquisitions. Notable (partial) acquisitions were Van Amerongen (1950), Simon de Wit (1972) and
C1000 (2008 and parts in 2012). Ahold NV was founded on August 27, 1973, and Albert Heijn became part of it. The new construction made it easier for Albert Heijn's new parent company to enter the foreign market. In October of the same year, Etos was acquired, a number of stores were converted into Albert Heijn and the rest continued as a drugstore within Ahold. At the beginning of 2003, Albert Heijn saw its market share fall sharply: 22.8 percent against 24.7 percent a year earlier. In order to win back customers and leave the expensive image behind, Albert Heijn decided to start a large-scale price reduction in the same year. The chain permanently reduced the price of thousands of items every so often. At the end of 2006, managing director Dick Boer announced that Albert Heijn would stop lowering prices. The price difference with the competitors was successfully reduced by many percent. The market share was almost 30 percent at the end of 2006. In 2007, the company crossed the ocean with the opening of a franchise store in
Curaçao. This shop remained open until 2016, when it was changed to a different brand. The company entered the Belgian market in 2011, with the opening of a store in
Brasschaat. Despite the merger of
Ahold and
Delhaize, Albert Heijn and Delhaize both remained active in Belgium. Currently Albert Heijn has 60 stores. After Curaçao and Belgium the company entered the German market with their AH To Go formula. This venture ended in 2018.
Simon de Wit in 1969 Simon de Wit was a large family-owned chain of
supermarkets in the Netherlands. The company was founded by
Simon de Wit (1852–1934), who after his father's death in 1867 started a grocery store from his parental house in
Wormerveer. In 1888 he opened the first branch in
Amsterdam and by 1900 he ran stores at 30 different locations and owned a central warehouse in
Zaandam. In 1954 the opening of the 150th store was celebrated. In 1970, when Simon de Wit's grandson
Simon was in charge, a fire destroyed the central warehouse in Zaandam. Soon after, Albert Heijn, which also originated in the
Zaanstreek, showed interest in a
takeover and in 1973 Simon de Wit merged with Albert Heijn, with all employees retaining their jobs. All remaining shops took on the name of the latter. == Format ==