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TWST: Let’s begin with a quick introduction to Delhaize (NYSE: DEG) and a picture of your core activities today.

Mr. Elewaut: Delhaize Group is a Belgian company listed on both the EuroNext Brussels and the New York Stock Exchange. It’s a company that is specialized in food retail, particularly via the supermarket format. We operate in ten countries. In Europe, we are located in Belgium, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. We are also very present in the United States, especially on the East Coast. Then, since 1997 we have also been operating in Asia, particularly in Thailand and Indonesia. Delhaize is an old company, founded more than 135 years ago. If you look at the composition of the company, approximately 80 percent of our profitability and 73 percent of our sales comes from the US.

TWST: How would you describe the overall health of your markets at the moment and your performance over the last 12 months or so?

Mr. Elewaut: I can speak on the sales for the full year 2003 because they’re already public and I can talk about the earnings for the first nine months of 2003. On the sales, in the US we have seen a gradual improvement throughout 2003 in the South East, which was the market that suffered most in 2002 from the weakening US economy. We have seen some improvement in consumer confidence in the US couple with the fact that the competition environment didn’t worsen. There is no doubt that it is still aggressive, but it didn’t get worse and therefore as a consequence our sales improved throughout the year. In our second largest market, the Belgium economy has been one of the strongest in Europe for several years and that continued to be the case in 2003. As a result, our Belgium banner performed very well. We have also seen satisfying performance for Greece. The Czech Republic has remained challenging because of the aggressive competition and also deflation in the market.

TWST: What’s the strategy for your company over the next couple of years? What are the headline objectives?

Mr. Elewaut: The most important objective is to grow sustainable sales across our different banners. That creates two different challenges here. In Belgium and Hannaford, which is our North Eastern US banner, sales are very strong and we therefore need to continue that performance and maintain momentum. At Food Lion and Kash n’ Karry, two of the US banners, the momentum was rather weak in 2002, accelerated in 2003, but it is not yet sufficient. It is therefore important we improve the merchandising of the organization and get our sales per store up and increase the momentum. Second, on the margin side it continues to be important to keep our costs under control. We have done that very significantly at Food Lion during 2003 and we will continue that during 2004. That is not only about the SG&A, i.e. keeping the channel costs under control, but also to have support in the gross margin. The third objective is to continue to generate free cash flow in the organization. We have rather high debt, a high leverage in the company, and so we want to continue to deleverage the organization.

TWST: What are some of the initiatives available to increase the sales and keep control of costs?

Mr. Elewaut: There are a number of different initiatives to increase the sales. Let me talk about a few more specifically. At Food Lion, our largest banner, in the fall of 2003 for the first time we launched a full market remodeling. This means we have remodeled 68 stores in one specific market, Raleigh, and we have succeeded in creating a full momentum in that market. We will do the same thing for another large Food Lion market in 2004. The second example on sales concerns our Kash n’ Karry banner in Florida. There, we have just announced the closing of 34 stores before the end of February and that will have a positive impact on the cost side, to answer the second part of your question. At the same time, we will refocus our capex to one of our core markets where we will relaunch again a full market at the end of 2004.

TWST: What metrics will you be looking at over the next couple of years to measure your success and what should potential investors keep an eye on?

Mr. Elewaut: We always guide on a yearly basis on earnings and the sales, of course, but I think there are a few additional criteria to consider. Top line sales growth is very important for our business and I that remains a key indicator, particularly what I call the organic sales growth, which is the sales growth excluding acquisitions and divestitures and excluding currency movements. That gives a good idea of the underlying sales growth. It is redundant to say you have to look at the earnings growth, but it is worth mentioning that at same moment free cash flow generation is important. This is a highly free cash flow generative business and that will allow us to continue to deleverage the business while at the same time being able to invest in the growth of the business where necessary.