Analysts said yesterday the new Coop Norden grocery conglomerate should be streamlined and rid of surplus baggage if it is to stand any chance of success. They also said the idea behind consumer co-operation is either dead or dying, and recommended democracy for members should be pruned hard to make room for professional management.
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However, this tough message is denied by all three parties in the merger, which is to be finalised this coming weekend. A majority of the delegates in Coop Norden could well vote no to the project because they fear that the new company will become too much business orientated and concentrate too little on cooperation.
Ebbe Lundgaard, foreman of Danish FDB and Göran Axel, foreman of Swedish Kooperativa Förbundet (KF) both reject the idea of professional management. They think that much of the new Coop Norden’s strength will be precisely because it is member-owned and member-influenced.
But retail analyst Erik Stockmann told Danish news paper Jylland Posten he found it grotesque. “FDB’s association ideas have outlived themselves, what does a policeman from a little town like Sæby know about managing such a large retail group?” he asked, referring to FDB’s current management.
Frederik Lange PhD of Stockholm’s Business Schools Research Centre for Marketing pointed out that the cooperative movements old byword – getting consumers good quality goods at low prices – had long been lost to the competitors. “Everyone knows that the private owned concerns are cheaper. That’s how it has been the past 25 years. Besides, the Swedish KF also has an image problem in that it is connected to the old Trades Union movement, which makes a lot of Swedes shop somewhere else.”
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