OREANDA-NEWS. June 13, 2012. Delhaize Group (NYSE Euronext Brussels: DELB – NYSE: DEG) the Belgian international food retailer presents its fifth Sustainability Progress Report. The online report reflects on the Group’s sustainability performance over the period 2009-2011 and confirms its long term commitment to sustainability. This is reinforced by the Group’s membership of The Sustainability Consortium, the independent group of organizations working to develop tools to improve the sustainability of consumer goods.

‘Over the period 2009 - 2011 we worked as a truly global business to build strong Group-wide sustainability programs, in line with our Group strategy, the New Game Plan’, said Pierre-Olivier Beckers, President and CEO of Delhaize Group. ‘Through this work we have been putting the foundations in place to strengthen our performance not only on Sustainability but also on Growth and on Efficiency, the other two pillars of our Group strategy. We have also developed close relationships with stakeholders to help accelerate our progress. The next steps in our journey will be defined by our 2020 sustainability strategy, which we will announce in more detail later this year.

The 2011 Sustainability Progress Report

Delhaize Group’s 2011 sustainability report gives a short overview of the Group’s activities and key learnings over the three –year period 2009-2011. A special focus is put on last year’s performance for each of the Group’s strategic sustainability areas of Products, People and Planet. Achievements and challenges are equally presented and further confirmed by quotes from internal as well as external stakeholders.

This is the second report in which the Group moved to limited assurance for a selected number of indicators. In 2010 and 2011 Delhaize Group’s Internal Audit and Ernst & Young provided assurance on those indicators. The company plans to gradually move towards external assurance on all sustainable indicators.