Dear Shareholder

In my first letter to you as CEO, I am delighted to report that Ahold had a successful 2007 and that the Company accomplished the milestones we set ourselves in our longer-term strategy for profitable growth. The strategy, announced in November 2006, focuses on our portfolio, company structure, growth plans, and financial targets.

During 2007, as part of our decision to focus on our core retail businesses in the United States and Europe, we sold U.S. Foodservice, Tops and our operations in Poland. These divestments helped to simplify our business. In total, they generated profits on disposal of over €2 billion and sufficient cash to be able to return €4 billion to our shareholders. The proceeds also allow us to reduce gross debt by the planned €2 billion. Thanks to the strengthening of our balance sheet, and the future business outlook, we regained investment grade status from the rating agencies - particularly important in light of the current turbulent economic environment. As a consequence of the improved balance sheet strength, our performance in 2007, and the future outlook for the business, we also decided to reinstate annual dividend payments.

We have made changes to our company structure to share best practice more easily across our operating companies and leverage our scale. We reorganized our operations into two continental structures: Europe under the leadership of Dick Boer, and the United States led by Lawrence Benjamin.

In support of our company-wide Corporate Social Responsibility strategy I have changed the organization to ensure that initiatives are properly coordinated and driven from the top. CSR is no longer an optional activity but is central to the success, even survival, of our business.

We have made a number of other senior management appointments, some internal and some external, to strengthen our capabilities to ensure that we have the right skills to address the challenges we face. I am particularly pleased that Peter Wakkie has decided to stand for reappointment at this year's Annual General Meeting and that Kimberly Ross accepted the position of CFO.

I would also like to thank Anders Moberg for his many contributions to the Company.

Much of our focus in the past year has, of course, been on growth and, in particular, on transforming Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover. We launched what we call the "Value Improvement Program" in September 2006 to address value (price and quality) and costs and to strengthen the brands. We are on track with rolling out the program, category by category, and had completed 70% by the end of 2007.

As part of our strategy to build powerful local consumer brands, we also announced, and are progressing well with, the repositioning and rebranding of our operations in the Czech Republic.

Performance at Albert Heijn was exceptional during 2007, with identical sales growth of 7.9% and operating margins of 7.2% as we continued to benefit from the repositioning activity undertaken since 2003.

Giant-Carlisle also continued its impressive performance record with 51 quarters of identical sales growth and a robust financial performance in a very competitive market.

ICA had a mixed year, with good profits in Sweden (despite the start-up costs for the new distribution center at Helsingborg) and the Baltics, partially offset by losses in Norway. The team there is focused on improving results in all countries, with particular emphasis on Norway, which is undergoing a major repositioning program.

Early in 2008, we announced our plans to divest our majority interest in Schuitema and fully focus our efforts in the Netherlands on the growth strategy for Albert Heijn.

The progress we have made in 2007 is thanks to the hard work of our employees who are committed to serving our customers, generating improved returns for our shareholders and driving our corporate social responsibility agenda forward. I am grateful for their dedication.

I am confident that we can re-establish Ahold as a leading food retailer on both continents and achieve our longer term targets of a sustainable 5% net sales growth and a 5% retail operating margin.

On behalf of the Corporate Executive Board,

John Rishton
CEO
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 5, 2008