Scandinavian retail and wholesale cooperative Coop Norden has reported a net loss for the first third of the year of 224m Swedish kronor (US$28.75), compared with a loss of 170m kronor in the same period a year ago.
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The Norwegian business has continued to perform well, and the Danish one has reversed a downward trend. The Swedish business continues to operate at a loss, the company said.
“In Denmark we’re delighted to see an improvement in the financial result, and Norway continues to perform well,” said Svein E Skorstad, acting CEO of Coop Norden. “This shows that our measures have started to take effect in the Danish business, and that Coop Norden’s synergy benefits are becoming more evident, including competitive prices that the customers are experiencing. However, we still face a challenge in the Swedish business.”
“We now need to make a real effort to turn around the Swedish business as well,” he said. “Reversing the trend in an industry with tough competition and several new players requires perseverance. It also takes time for price reductions to have an impact. We will continue our chosen path by renovating stores and opening new ones, rationalising and reducing costs, and benefiting from the advantages of the Nordic purchasing operation. But we must also take extraordinary steps. A special team of managers will be appointed at once to provide support and development drive to the Swedish hypermarkets and to work on logistics. The team will work quickly and in a practical way to help reverse the trend.”
Coop Norden will be reinstating national management teams so that a strong, cohesive Nordic organisation can be combined with an increased national focus on operations, it said. The president of Coop Danmark (Denmark) will be Per Bank and the president of Coop Sverige (Sweden) will be Thomas Evertsson.
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