What is behind the Hannaford (Delhaize) bid? Lets think for a second about which supermarket is benefitting most from our protest and boycott. There is no doubt that Hannafords is seeing record volume day in and day out while we are trying to save Market Basket. Weve all seen pictures of their parking lots being jammed and their help wanted ads from various newspapers. Our movement has been the best thing that has happened to them in a long time. Now lets think about the goings on in their Board room. We have all come to learn recently that Delhaize (Hannafords parent company based in Belgium) is the other bidder for MB. We can only surmise that it is their offer which is making ATDs road to purchasing much more difficult...how can he compete with the deep coffers of that international, publicly traded company? (Ticker symbol on NYSE is DEG) What stinks worse about the whole situation is the previously discussed (wearemarketbasket/something-stinks-in-denmark/) among parties involved. Jim Gooch, two members of the Delhaize board including the chairman, JP Morgan and the MB Boards independent members are each closely linked with each other. These people and entities are intricately involved in the sale of Market Basket and their involvement is, we believe, the key reason why ATD has not been able to complete his purchase of it. If ATDs offering price is pre-crisis as has been reported, Delhaize wouldnt still be in the running if theirs wasnt in the same ballpark. Why would they be offering a premium bid for a business that has crumbled? Why have they not lowered or withdrawn their bid? We fully understand that this is a free market system and that anyone who wants to be involved in the bidding should be involved if they are able. What disgusts us is the appearance of impropriety among some of the players. Hannafords is bringing in record revenues for Delhaize, thereby helping to line the cash reserves so that it can make the purchase. Our Board is allowing F&G to run the company into the ground and eliminating other suitors from the bidding which is helping to pave the way for Delhaize. JP Morgan is the bank hired by our Board to broker the deal and the Chairman of the Delhaize Board also works with them, they also run the 401k program for Hannafords employees. Had we stayed inside and played nice with these people, the sale to Delhaize would be a slam dunk. By staying out and boycotting we have made their job more difficult but it is still their preferred path. As we all know, ASD would do anything to not sell the company to ATD. Delhaize is the perfect partner for him and the absolute wrong solution as far as we are all concerned. They are an international beast which has already changed everything about Hannafords, which used to be an independent and well run competitor and is now just another all about profits retailer. We dont know how to go about getting them exposed as a danger to all that we are fighting for other than to write about them and spread the word. Perhaps some of our contributors can help us uncover more connections here. The appearance of collusion here, coupled with the fact that the Hannaford management team told employees that the rumor of their involvement here is untrue, lead us to conclude that the game is rigged. Something stinks in Belgium. If youd like to let the folks at Delhaize know what you think, click here delhaizegroup/en/Contacts/ContactUs.aspx
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:49:07 +0000
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