There is an animal cruelty crisis at Ahold Delhaize.
Wiebe Draijer can help.
*Image representative of battery cage facility.
Meet Ahold Delhaize’s New Leader
Wiebe Draijer is the newest Board Director with Ahold Delhaize, a supermarket conglomerate known for its U.S. chains Giant, Stop & Shop, Hannaford, and Food Lion.
Wiebe’s first order of business should be addressing the company’s longstanding animal cruelty scandals. In the U.S., Ahold Delhaize still sources the vast majority of its eggs from controversial battery cage facilities where chickens are confined in cages so small that they can barely move. This practice is so unsafe and inhumane that it is illegal in many U.S. states and the entire European Union.
Ahold Delhaize has repeatedly misled stakeholders with greenwashing and delaying action. Wiebe must step in and push the Board of Directors toward progress on this issue.
HOW CAN AHOLD DELHAIZE NEGLECT THIS CRUELTY?
For over a year, nonprofit organizations have called on Ahold Delhaize USA to end one of the most extreme forms of animal cruelty in its supply chain: battery cages for egg-laying hens.
Ahold Delhaize’s home country, the Netherlands, outlawed them over a decade ago, and for good reason. These are facilities you’d never want to step foot in. Filthy, dark sheds in which thousands of egg-laying hens are crammed inside tiny wire cages.
Before their eggs hit the shelves, hens are forced to eat, sleep, defecate, and lay eggs in the same cage day after day. Animal welfare scientists have documented birds with broken bones, twisted toes, and organs that shut down from lack of use. Under such extreme stress, animals sometimes cannibalize each other.
Ahold Delhaize talks a lot about sustainability and social responsibility at the global level. In the U.S., it’s just greenwashing.
Representative Image
Who is Wiebe Draijer?
Wiebe Draijer is a Dutch business leader best known as CEO of Rabobank from 2014 to 2022, after serving as McKinsey’s managing partner for the Netherlands and chairing the Dutch Social and Economic Council (SER) from 2012 to 2014. Since leaving Rabobank he has moved into non-executive roles, including chairing the Supervisory Board of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and serving on the board of Air France-KLM.
In 2025, not only was he nominated to join the board at Ahold Delhaize but the intention is to appoint him as Chair, giving him the most power and influence a leader can have at the company.
Rabobank has long been criticized for its greenwashing and financing of harmful industries, including factory farms that use practices such as battery cages. It may be naive to think someone such as Wiebe would use his power to enact meaningful sustainability policies. For now, let’s hope Wiebe will surprise us.