In Sweden, grocery retail is conducted in cooperation with independent ICA retailers, who own their own stores. ICA Sweden handles, among other things, joint purchasing, logistics, central market communication and overall development of the store network.
In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all stores are owned and operated by the wholly owned subsidiary Rimi Baltic.
Apotek Hjärtat, with nearly 400 pharmacies in Sweden, is an important part of ICA Gruppen’s endeavour to attain a leading position in health. With respect to purchasing, the customer offering, organisation and loyalty programmes, coordination is conducted with ICA Sweden.
ICA Bank fills several important functions within ICA Gruppen. In addition to providing a growing range of user-friendly banking services – and insurance through ICA Insurance – ICA Bank helps strengthen loyalty to ICA stores while also reducing the cost of financial flows in the ICA system. Commissions, net interest income and other revenue contribute to earnings, while the use of ICA Bank’s own card helps minimise fees to external card companies.
ICA Real Estate is the Nordic region’s largest real estate company in the retail sector. Its overarching role is to meet ICA Gruppen’s long-term need for the right premises at the right locations. This is done through a combination of owning, leasing out and developing marketplaces. The property portfolio is actively managed, and fully developed properties are sold on a continuing basis.
A group structure with great advantages
Since ICA Gruppen was established in 2013 we have made a concerted effort at building a robust and synergistic company structure that is adapted to meet evolving consumer behaviours, a fast pace of digitalisation and widespread sector convergence. Our change work has resulted in a large number of structural changes to give us a greater ability to leverage synergies within the Group. Coordination has successively increased and been deepened and broadened, and today has been extended to encompass central areas such as the offering, customer insights, locations and marketplaces, investments and purchasing. By cooperating and taking advantage of economies of scale – physical as well as digital – advantages are created for our customers, operations, employees, society in general – and ICA Gruppen.
Greater cooperation in multiple areas...
Through coordination between operations we can create strong and relevant customer offerings.
Access to data-driven customer insights from loyalty programmes gives us valuable information about preferences and behaviours – and enables us to personalise offerings.
Co-location strengthens the local marketplaces and makes life easier for customers.
Coordination of investments benefits all operations and at the same time contributes to high financial efficiency.
Through coordinated sourcing we achieve good prices and the right quality. It also enables us to set uniform standards for suppliers with respect to social and environmental factors.
...which provides benefits for:
- Making every day a little easier
- Attractive and relevant offerings
- Co-location of operations means people can get different things done all in one place
- Integrated loyalty programmes – bonuses regardless of channel
- Value for money and quality
- Strong brand loyalty
- Opportunities for synergies and economies of scale
- More attractive marketplaces through co-location of operations
- Access to extensive customer insights
- Ability to make things easier and more sustainable in their daily lives
- Growth that creates development opportunities for individual employees
- Exciting opportunities for internal mobility between different types of operations
- An entrepreneurial culture with considerable opportunities to make a difference, individually and with others
- Coordinated environmental, health and quality initiatives
- Jobs and tax revenue
- Robust rural communities
- Secure and efficient infrastructure for the supply of groceries and medicines, as well as for banking and insurance services
