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Danish low-price chain Normal has adventurous turnover growth and improved profits. They completely crush the competitors Europris and Nille.
Normal describes itself as a chain of stores that sells completely normal products at abnormal prices. Common items include Ajax for cleaning, Gillette shaving kit, hair care from L’Oreal, toothpaste from Colgate, and makeup from Maybelline. The segment is non-food, that is, non-food.
The strategy is to buy brands where they are cheapest and sell them at low and fixed prices. The low-priced chains Europris and Nille are perhaps the closest Norwegian concepts to Normal, we’ll get back to that.
The first store in Norway arrived in the early summer of 2017 and, over the course of three years, the low-price chain has grown from 0 to almost 1.5 billion in turnover.
Also read: Normal breaks cheap chains in price tests
Very proud
– We are very proud of the growth we have had, it is strong growth where we have stayed together in the crown era, says General Manager Michael Eeg at Normal Norway to Nettavisen Økonomi. The female-dominated company has 1,058 women and 197 men.
Normal has deviated financial years, from August 1 to July 31. The chain increased the number of stores during the fiscal year from 80 to 93, which explains much of the revenue growth.
Normal Norway managed to increase turnover by up to 53 percent from 2019 to 2020, from NOK 944.4 million to NOK 1445.3 million.
Normal completely crushes Europris and Nille. Nille has not presented figures for 2020, but had a lower turnover in 2019 than in 2018. Europris is doing better and has a turnover growth of 26 percent, that is, half that of Normal. However, the Europris figures are very strong, especially since they are much larger than normal.
Eeg argues that they actually have no competitors in Norway.
-I have a lot of respect for Nille and Europris, they are very good at what they do. But they are too different from us, I don’t see them as competitors, he says.
Normal’s operating profit for the period improved from NOK 45.7 million to NOK 129.7 million, the profit before tax from NOK 37.3 million to NOK 117.4 million.
– How did the crown crisis affect the figures for March to August?
– At first it affected us negatively, but little by little there has been positive growth. In general, shopping malls have done well in Norway, Eeg says. Besides Denmark and Norway, Normal has also established itself in Sweden, the Netherlands and France.
Normal Norway’s board writes in the annual report that they are less affected by the pandemic than other industries. According to Eeg, its growth has been generally strong, there are no special areas that stand out.
Also read: The coronavirus generates record sales for Europris
Customer growth
– How was the crown harvest?
– It is the same trend, the number of customers continues to increase in our stores as long as we buy the right products, answers the Danish Eeg, who has moved to Norway. The head office is in Kristiansand and the company is part of the Danish group Heartland AS through the parent company Normal Danmark.
Also read: Ripped off the shelves after extreme price war: now kiwi traders are taking action
Broad range
– Who is the typical normal customer?
– That’s what is so exciting about our concept, we embrace a wide range, replies Eeg.
It will not quantify the goals for next year. Eeg says the ambition remains to serve customers so they have a good experience and the staff are okay.
– We have not set any objective in terms of the number of establishments, but we continue to see opportunities where there is a lot of traffic. And then we will find ourselves where there are other strong concepts nearby. That’s an advantage for us, says Eeg.
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