Kingfisher chief executive Thierry Garnier is stepping down to take the top job at grocery giant Ahold Delhaize, replacing long-serving boss Frans Muller next year.
Ahold Delhaize said its supervisory board has nominated Garnier to join its management board and become president and chief executive, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. He is expected to succeed Muller around the supermarket group’s AGM in April 2027.
Garnier has led Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Dépôt, since September 2019. Before joining the DIY group, he spent more than two decades at Carrefour, where he held senior roles including chief executive of Carrefour International and Carrefour Asia.
He is also a non-executive director at Tesco.
Kingfisher confirmed Garnier had resigned after nearly seven years in the role “to take up a senior leadership role at another company outside of Kingfisher’s markets”.
The retailer said he would serve a 12-month notice period and remain focused on the business while its board searches for a successor.
Kingfisher chair Claudia Arney thanked Garnier for his “outstanding leadership”, pointing to his role in launching its Powered by Kingfisher strategy, steering the business through the pandemic, expanding its marketplace proposition and developing its trade business.
Ahold Delhaize chair Wiebe Draijer described Garnier as “a seasoned leader with a strong track record in retail, digital transformation, deep international experience, and a clear focus on customers, associates and the future of grocery retail”.
He added that Garnier’s approach to balancing group scale with local market execution “aligns well with Ahold Delhaize’s identity as a family of great local brands”.
Muller, who has led Ahold Delhaize since July 2018, will retire from the company as part of a planned succession process. He joined in 2013 as chief executive of Delhaize Group and later became deputy chief executive and chief integration officer following the 2016 merger of Ahold and Delhaize.
The Dutch supermarket group also announced that Claude Sarrailh, chief executive of Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia, will leave the business to become chief executive of Italian food retailer Esselunga. A search for his successor has begun.
The leadership changes came as Ahold Delhaize posted first-quarter net sales of €22.3bn, up two per cent at constant exchange rates but down 4.3 per cent at actual exchange rates. Comparable sales excluding fuel also rose two per cent.
Operating income came in at €895m, while diluted earnings per share and diluted underlying earnings per share both stood at €0.62. Underlying EPS rose 8.9 per cent at constant exchange rates.
In the US, net sales rose 1.5 per cent at constant exchange rates, although they fell 9 per cent at actual exchange rates. European net sales increased 2.7 per cent, with comparable sales excluding fuel up 2.6 per cent.
Ahold Delhaize said it was continuing to invest in AI across areas including shopping, marketing, sourcing, merchandising and store operations, with more than 100 use cases already active across the business.
The company reiterated its 2026 outlook, including an underlying operating margin of around 4 per cent, mid- to high-single-digit diluted underlying EPS growth at constant exchange rates, free cash flow of at least €2.3bn and gross cash capital expenditure of around €2.7bn.
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