Reitan threatens Coop collaboration – E24

– If the challenge cannot be resolved politically or regulatory, we are happy to have a new chat with Coop about Core. He had created a balance between the players and the conditions had to be the same. The agreement has been written and is in the drawer, says Ole Robert Reitan in a message to E24.

The deal is called Core, and it has also been discussed before and was used as a means of pressure when Ica and Norgesgruppen wanted to start a purchasing collaboration in 2013.

Core was designed for Rema and Coop to merge their purchases and thus gain greater purchasing power than Kiwi owner Norgesgruppen, who today has the largest market share in the industry. Because the more you buy, the lower the price you will get.

Now the deal, which in theory can change purchasing power in Norway, is relevant again.

There are only a few days left until the Storting’s business committee decides whether stricter requirements will be introduced to give large differences in purchase prices when suppliers sell food to supermarket chains.

Rema and Coop, who receive lower purchase prices than Norgesgruppen today, have wanted the price differences of dominant suppliers to be documented in a specific consideration and to demonstrate that they are not anti-competitive.

If the cooperative team Coop and Reitan, owned by Reitan, can shop together, there will actually only be two shopping groups at the Norwegian supermarket.

Reitan: – Worried.

The White Paper on Competition in the Grocery Industry is due to be completed by Christmas, and Reitan wants action.

– I am concerned that the Storting does not understand how critical the differential treatment of food industry players is to food prices in Norway. We could have saved consumers billions of crowns every year if we had had the same purchasing conditions as Norgesgruppen, Reitan writes to E24.

When asked which of the Storting signs he is concerned about, Rema Summit replies:

– I don’t think the authorities understand how critical discrimination itself is. That is the biggest problem right now. By trying to solve many problems at once, I am afraid that none of the measures will lead to better competition and lower prices.

Most parties have put forward proposals that are highly intrusive, ranging from splitting the Norway Group, which is the largest player, to preventing supermarket chains from selling their own products (EMV journaln.anm.).

When E24 spoke to spokesperson Kårstein Løvaas in October, it stated that measures that will have a “very intrusive effect” on industry players cannot be avoided.

But for Reitan and Coop, the measures related to purchase differences are much more important than any other proposal.

Coop: an opportunity, but not an approach

When the Core deal was announced in 2013, both Coop and Rema clearly communicated that purchasing collaboration was a necessary evil. Now Coop is also open to considering a collaboration if things don’t go their way at the Storting.

– We are waiting for the authorities to address the large differences in purchase prices that have been disclosed by the Norwegian Competition Authority, says Geir Inge Stokke, CEO of Coop Norge.

He tells E24 that if nothing is done at the Storting, “we must consider different alternatives.”

– An alternative may be to seek a collaboration in purchasing, but that is not something we are focusing on at the moment, says Stokke.

Last year, the Norwegian Competition Authority revealed large purchasing differences in the grocery industry, showing that Norgesgruppen received much better purchasing conditions than its competitors from major suppliers.

When Rema and Coop announced an acquisition collaboration in 2013, it was on the condition that the plans would be canceled if Ica and the Norgesgruppen deal did not materialize, which was also the result.

Therefore, the Authority has not evaluated a purchasing collaboration between the second and third largest grocery constellations in Norway.