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Kiwi’s market share in September was 23.1 percent, while Rema 1000s was 23.0 and has therefore been overtaken by the green competitor.
This is shown in the figures that Nettavisen has obtained access to since Nielsen’s Market Report for Groceries.
Rema 1000 will continue to be higher in market share for 2020 as a whole, as they were much larger at the beginning of the year. But Kiwi has taken off in the spring and summer and in September it is Norway’s largest supermarket chain.
Reference point
– This is a milestone that we have been waiting for a long time. This is the result of a process where Kiwi has made great progress in market share, while Rema 1000 has stalled, grocery expert Erik Fagerlid tells Nettavisen.
Kiwi have made great strides in the last year, helped by the fact that they have Norway’s largest and most powerful grocery group, Norgesgruppen, behind them. With Kiwi as the spearhead, the group, owned by the wealthy Johanson family, has grown stronger and stronger.
In September, the entire Norgesgruppen, which also includes Meny, Spar and Joker, has a market share of 44.1%, of which Kiwi accounts for more than half. Coop has 29.4 percent, while Rema has 23.0.
Erik Fagerlid admits that it is problematic that Norgesgruppen has grown so much that it has almost half the grocery market.
– Now they are huge among the grocery chains and wholesalers, and it is a faulty construction that is not good for us as consumers, says Fagerlid, who also believes that we cannot just blame them.
– Among providers, such as Tine, Nortura and Orkla, we also see an extreme concentration of power. This is due to other things, such as agricultural policy and the fact that Orkla was allowed to buy many other companies, such as Rieber. But I would say you should be concerned with total concentration of power, he says.
Same age
Kiwi and Rema were founded the same year, in 1979, but the difference between the two was for a long time extremely large. Odd Reitan’s Rema 1000 revolutionized Norwegian food together with Stein Erik Hagen’s Rimi in the 1980s and 1990s, and during the 2010s became the undisputed largest supermarket chain in Norway. Kiwi, on the other hand, got off to a much quieter start and for the first twenty years it was primarily a local chain in the Drammen area.
However, under the leadership of Per-Erik Burud, Kiwi became a national chain in the 2000s. The chain is still expanding after Burud’s tragic death in 2011, now under the leadership of Burud’s close associate. , Jan-Paul Bjørkøy.
In 2014, Kiwi had gained a grocery market share of 17.7 percent, while Rema had 23.7 percent. In the following years, the kiwi has gradually made its way.
– We are talking about major changes in not many years, so it is quite an interesting development, especially since Kiwi has grown mainly through the establishment of new stores. Extra has also seen good growth, but that’s mainly because they’ve taken over stores from other Coop chains, he says.
He says there are several reasons why Kiwi has fared much better than Rema over the last decade.
– Both are very good. They have two very well managed systems, although they are very different. Rema 1000 is the only supermarket chain in the Reitan group, while Kiwi belongs to a larger system that also has other chains, says Fagerlid.
Great power
He also notes that Rema has made mistakes in recent years.
– Rema has admitted that they have made some mistakes. For a long time it was simply “simple is often best”. But then sometimes they would talk too much about things like “food solutions” and confuse the consumer. Investing in the best friend strategy was also something he realized was wrong, says Fagerlid.
In return, he believes Kiwi has been on a steady course all the way.
– For Kiwi, it has been “safe, fast and cheap” all the time. They have been very clear in the way they have communicated, says Fagerlid.
However, he believes that it is, above all, two other things that explain why Kiwi defeated Rema.
Better conditions
One is that Kiwi, as part of Norgesgruppen, has better purchasing conditions than Rema, that is, they buy products from manufacturers cheaper than competitors. This relationship is what the Norwegian Competition Authority is investigating now and where there is political pressure to change it.
– Purchase terms are such a fundamental difference that there is nothing that can compensate otherwise, although Rema probably operates more efficiently than Kiwi. Also, Norgesgruppen is very good at finding and obtaining new business premises. They are completely unbeatable there, says Fagerlid.
Rema will regain position
Calle Hägg, Communications Director for Rema 1000, comments on the figures as follows:
– Market shares fluctuate all the time, and these figures show that Kiwi has made progress. There are many things that come into play, but we have taken several good steps to meet development and regain the leading position in the Norwegian grocery market, he writes in an email to Nettavisen.
– It takes time, but we are already seeing fantastic results in taste tests, more victories in price tests and raising the standards of the store. The recent Schibsted survey shows that more people see the Rema 1000 as their flagship store. We take all of this with us in the further work where we will continue to be offensive and demonstrate to customers that we provide the best shopping experience at the lowest price. Every day, all week. It will be exciting to watch the market share develop in the future, she writes.
Satisfied
Kiwi Communications Manager Kristine Aakvaag Arvin will not confirm the figures to Nettavisen, but says Kiwi is very satisfied with the growth in sales and market share.
– When we look at the development we have had, it indicates that customers are very satisfied with our prices, our concept and, perhaps most importantly, our employees. We have more than 13,000 employees in our 686 stores who have put in a fantastic effort at a demanding time, he writes in an email.
She emphasizes that Rema is still the biggest this year as a whole. As mentioned, this is due to the leadership that the Reitan network had on New Years.
– Kiwifruit will still be the second largest overall when the year ends, but that doesn’t matter to us. We thrive in the role of challengers, it motivates and inspires us, he writes.
