{mosimage}Aiken, who was chief operating officer, reports to Lawrence Benjamin, who was appointed chief operating officer, U.S., and remains ceo of Columbia, MD-based U.S. Foodservice.
As for its plans to divest itself of U.S. Foodservice, Royal Ahold said:
"We are pleased with the progress made at U.S. Foodservice following our decision to retain this business in 2003. Since that time we have created significant shareholder value. We have improved the company's financial performance through restructuring and rebuilding the organization and culture and have resolved legal matters related to 2003. Our new long-term strategy for U.S. Foodservice launched at the end of 2005 is showing good results.
"U.S. Foodservice has the potential to further improve its performance, but we see limited near-term synergies between it and retail operations. Therefore, we have decided to focus our resources and expertise wholly on the future growth of our retail businesses. We will complete our exit from the foodservice industry by divesting U.S. Foodservice."
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