Coop amba

Coop Danmark is the second-biggest retailer of consumer goods in Denmark, with a market share of 40% and 1.4 million members.[5] Its main competitors are the dominant Salling Group (covering Netto, Føtex and Bilka), REMA 1000, Dagrofa (covering SPAR, Meny and Kiwi) and Lidl.[6] With around 1,200 supermarkets, discount stores and hypermarkets in Denmark,[5] Coop Danmark operates the following stores: Kvickly, Brugsen, SuperBrugsen, Dagli'Brugsen, LokalBrugsen, Fakta, Irma.[1] Coop Danmark and its subsidiaries have more than 36,000 employees and post a yearly turnover of 50 billion DKK.[7]

In April 2017, Coop Danmark launched a digital crowdfunding platform in cooperation with Lendino. Major projects includes the development of environmentally friendly cattle feeding with a budget of 2.5 million DKK, an apple orchard on Fejø for 660.000 DKK, and a whiskey distillery on Ærø.[8][9]

The headquarters of Irma Center located in Rødovre

Irma, a supermarket chain now operated by Coop Danmark,[1] was founded in 1886 by Carl Schepler as a small grocery store selling eggs in Ravnsborggade in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. The chain is the second oldest groceries chain in the world, after Marks & Spencer. As of 2015, the chain had 80 stores,[10] mostly located in the Metropolitan Copenhagen area.[11]

An Irma store in Copenhagen East

Irma is quality-oriented mainly aiming for quality-conscious and environment-aware customers by focusing on fresh and organic products as well as packaging. Therefore, the stores have a great variety of organic products compared to other Danish supermarket, and packaging containing PVC and excessive amounts of aluminium are banned from the shelves. The same goes for chlorine-bleached products.[12] Irma banned battery cage eggs in 1994,[13] 8 years before it was banned by the European Union.[14]

In 2007, Irma set a world record with 29,9% of its total sales being organic food.[15] Irma has a goal of having organic products accounting for half of its total food sales before 2025.[16] In 2015, Irma was named the most sustainable brand in Denmark,[17] a title which parent company Coop won in 2016.[18]

Starting in 2001 Irma began operating an express version of the store, known as Irma City. These stores were smaller than the normal Irma, with longer opening hours and a range of organic take away food.[19] In 2015, it was announced that Irma City stores would be replaced by the new concept Lille Irma (Little Irma), where the customers would have a say in the selection of goods available in the stores. The Lille Irma concept is planned to have fully replaced Irma City by the end of 2017.[20]

In April 2008, Irma took over the grocery departments Mad & Vin (Food and Wine) of department store chain Magasin du Nord in the stores in both Odense and Aarhus. The projects failed and the stores closed in 2012.[21]

On 31 January 2023, Coop Danmark announced that all Irma supermarkets will be rebranded or closed in the course of the year.[22]

Brugsen at Copenhagen Central Station

Brugsen was originally the nondescript brand name of Coop amba's retail outlets in Denmark. After opening a series of branded stores starting in 1961 and deciding to focus on its retail operations in the 1980s, Coop began shuttering factories and spun off its larger Brugsen stores as SuperBrugsen in 1991 and its smaller ones as Dagli'Brugsen the next year. In 1995, the smallest convenience stores were organized as LokalBrugsen.[3]

After a failed attempt to merge their operations with Norway's Coop Norge (NKL) and Sweden's Kooperativa Förbundet (KF) as Coop Norden in 2002, Coop amba regained sole ownership of the group's Danish operations, Coop Danmark, in 2008.[3] Coop Denmark continues to operate the SuperBrugsen, Dagli'Brugsen, and LokalBrugsen chains as separate divisions of its operations.

Since 2016, Coop has re-branded four of the existing Coop stores to Brugsen once again,[23] including a flagship store inside the hall of Copenhagen Central Station.[24]

Kvickly in Roskilde, Denmark

Kvickly was in the beginning a Swedish food market chain owned by the 'consumers organization' ('Konsumentföreningen') in Sweden. The first store opened in the 1950s in the Stockholm area. The company name was changed to Domus in Sweden in the late 1960s/early 1970s when the stores became superstores selling more than food.

The first Kvickly store was opened by FDB in Denmark in 1961.[3][25] In Denmark, the sister chain remains Kvickly, which has a large selection of items, and were in 2010 named by the Danish Ministry of Health as the easiest place in Denmark to buy healthy food. Headquartered in Albertslund, there are 81 Kvickly stores.[25]

Fakta in East Copenhagen

Fakta, a chain of discount stores, was founded in 1981 as Dansk Discount A/S, with the current name being adopted in 1982. Six years later, the chain became a part of what is now Coop Danmark.[26] In May 2011, Fakta had 374 stores with around 6000 employees.[27] They also operate stores located at more central urban places, called Fakta Q, which sell food, primarily convenience food. These stores will, however, be replaced by regular Fakta stores as the Fakta Q concept being discontinued in 2017.[28] Fakta's slogan is "Det er Fakta" ("It's a fact" or "It's Fakta"). The old slogan "Det er sund fornuft" ("It's common sense"), however, does still exist, as it is printed on products sold under Faktas' own name. Since the new century their slogan has been: "det tager kun 5 min" ("it only takes 5mins"). In 2013, Fakta opened its first two stores in Germany, just south of the Danish border.[29]