Albert Heijn has taken a further step in the fight against food waste. This week, the Ahold Delhaize subsidiary began rolling out its in-house developed solution for dynamic price management in the bakery department and combining it with the in-house programmed application for demand planning in this product range. Albert Heijn aims to align the volume of bakery products more precisely with actual demand per store and sell off overproduction during the day via increasing discounts.
By summer 2025, Albert Heijn had already integrated the in-house developed demand planning solution ‘Bak’ across all its stores in the Netherlands. The AI-based application continuously provides store staff in the retailer’s bakery departments with store-specific forecasts for the demand for bread and baked goods throughout the day. According to Albert Heijn its use of the application prevented 815,000 kilograms of bread and bakery waste across all its stores in the second half of last year.
Since the beginning of May this year, Albert Heijn has been rolling out its in-house developed solution for dynamic pricing nationwide in its stores in the Netherlands, as a complement to Demand Planning. With this tool, the retailer dynamically reduces the retail prices of bakery products throughout the day and offers discounts of up to 70 per cent. For Albert Heijn customers, the discounted offers are visible in the store on electronic shelf labels and in the AH app under the ‘Laatste Kans Koopjes’ (Last Chance Bargains) section.
Combating food waste with last-minute bargains
The in-house developed solutions to combat food waste in the bakery department are part of Albert Heijn’s comprehensive ‘Laatste Kans Koopjes’ concept. Through this initiative, products from various ranges are offered in stores at a lower price shortly before their best-before date expires. Customers can also view the offers store-specific in real time via the AH app, even before they enter one of the retailer’s sites. The Retail Optimiser reported.
Albert Heijn is working with its partners to reduce food waste throughout the entire supply chain – from producers, through suppliers and stores, right to the customer’s home. The retailer has set a specific target: by 2030, it aims to reduce food waste by 50 per cent compared to 2026. Albert Heijn is thus going beyond the requirements of the EU directives on reducing food waste.
AI teams at Albert Heijn
Albert Heijn employs an in-house tech team for the deployment of AI, as The Retail Optimiser reported. The staff at the internal Gen AI Lab have not only developed the new solution for dynamic pricing in the bakery department, but also numerous functions in the Albert Heijn app, such as recipe search and meal planning, as well as solutions for AI-powered customer advice.
