Grocery players are waiting for a bonus party after competitor’s money spills

On Monday it was announced that Norgesgruppen before Christmas will give an additional pay to its 30,000 employees who have worked during the corona pandemic.

– This is a pat on the back and thanks for last year’s efforts, Executive Vice President of Communications Stein Rømmerud at Norgesgruppen told E24 on Monday.

Coop has not yet decided whether it will give a similar pay to its employees.

– We have not specifically discussed whether we should do something in the future, but in that case it will be a decision for our board, which represents our 1.8 million owners, says communications director Bjørn Takle Friis at Coop Norway.

Returning to the members

Coop in Norway is organized into around 80 cooperatives that run the stores, and have their own salary schemes for employees.

– Several cooperatives paid bonuses this summer in the same size as Norgesgruppen, says Friis.

Norgesgruppen awards NOK 10,000 to those who have worked full time throughout the pandemic, and a lower rate depending on the vacancy rate for other employees.

Friis believes that it is difficult for Coop to decide to grant such bonuses, because the chain is a cooperative organization and not a private company.

– Coop stores’ profits go back to members, says Friis.

Rema 1000 merchants choose for themselves

Rema 1000 has also not announced that they will give employees an appreciation due to the corona pandemic.

– At Rema 1000 Norge AS, we have several bonus schemes that take care of our employees’ efforts, also in this special year, says CEO Trond Bentestuen in an email to E24.

This type of bonus is also awarded in ordinary years.

– In an extraordinary year like 2020, we expect this payment to be extraordinary, says Bentestuen.

Bonus schemes in the company include head office, regional offices, warehouse, transportation, and industrial companies.

– Our stores are run by freelance traders who themselves consider how they reward their employees, says the director of Rema 1000.

A potential in-store bonus is made by each individual merchant when the year’s bottom line is in place, he says.

– Naturally that falls on the employees

Nor at Kolonial.no, which sells food online, has it been decided whether employees will receive extra recognition this year.

– There are slightly different proposals on the table, but it has not finally been decided, says communications director Louise Fuchs at Kolonial.no.

They haven’t given bonuses before, but they did give employees a box of Easter food on the previous holidays.

In August, the company reached a billion billion turnover, while interest in online grocery purchases increased during the corona pandemic. Thus, they were already on par with the turnover of all of last year.

– It’s very nice and natural that when things go well, it falls to the employees, says Fuchs.

However, the company has not yet declared whether it will end the year with a positive result, after an after-tax loss of NOK 138 million last year.