Per Bank, who recently joined Ahold Delhaize’s Supervisory Board, is the President and CEO of Loblaw Companies Limited, which has a shameful track record when it comes to animal welfare and ethics more broadly. His appointment to the board is yet another glaring example of Ahold Delhaize’s blatant disregard for animal welfare.
Under Per’s leadership, the grocery store Loblaws continues to source eggs from suppliers that confine hens to cramped, filthy cages, despite a promise made nearly a decade ago to go cage-free by 2025.
And this isn’t the only controversy surrounding the company. Under Per’s watch, Loblaws agreed to pay over $250 million to settle a bread price-fixing class-action lawsuit, after it was caught secretly coordinating with suppliers to keep bread prices artificially high, impacting millions of Canadians and highlighting Loblaw’s choosing profits over customers.
Nearly a decade ago, companies that would become Ahold Delhaize—the parent company of grocers such as Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Giant Food, and The Giant Company—promised consumers they would end the very worst abuses of hens in their supply chains. However, Ahold Delhaize still has not fulfilled this sustainability goal. This greedy corporation is only 100% cage-free in states where it’s legally required, such as Massachusetts. The company continues to sell eggs that come from extremely cruel, dirty, and inhumane conditions in states where it’s not illegal to do so. Consumers are outraged. They are demanding that Ahold Delhaize take its commitment seriously and follow through on its promise to stop supporting the cruel caging of egg-laying hens.
As consumers—and Ahold Delhaize’s own leaders—know, making a promise is not the same as making good on a promise.
Caged egg-laying hens spend their lives crammed together in barren wire cages. They cannot dust-bathe or express most of their natural behaviors. Often, they suffer from broken bones and mental anguish. Each hen is unable even to spread her wings, and she only has as much space as the size of a sheet of standard printer paper within which to live her entire, miserable life. Ahold Delhaize claims to be “a passionate supporter of the well-being and welfare of farm animals,” yet its brands continue to support a practice so cruel that many states have made it illegal.
True leadership means acting with integrity everywhere, not just where the law requires it. That’s why we’re calling on Per lead Ahold Delhaize in going 100% cage-free across all its stores.
Will Per Bank choose to do the right thing and encourage his fellow leaders to ensure Ahold Delhaize fulfills its cage-free egg promise, or will he continue to let Ahold Delhaize fail to fulfill its sustainability commitment?
Click "Take Action" below to urge Ahold Delhaize to appoint board members who care about animal welfare—something the company has claimed it supports.