REMA 1000
Encyclopedia
Reitan Group
Reitan Group or Reitangruppen is a Norwegian wholesaler and retail franchiser. Included in its portfolio is REMA 1000, 7-Eleven, HydroTexaco, Easy24, Narvesen, Spaceworld and Pressbyrån. The company has most of its 1,979 stores in Norway, but also some in Sweden, Denmark and Latvia...
(Reitangruppen). REMA is a short for REitan MAt (Reitan Food), referring to Odd Reitan (founder of the company). 1000 refers to the concept of offering a selection of only one thousand different products (refer to the history section).
With their headquarters located in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, REMA 1000 includes businesses in Norway, Denmark, Sweden. The chain is based on a franchised
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
discount
Discount store
A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances...
concept: buying large quantities of a limited range of products and offering these to semi-independent owners under their brand. By 2004, REMA 1000 includes 444 supermarkets spread around Scandinavia.
In Norway, the supermarket chain captured 17.5% (2004) of the total revenue by all Norwegian supermarkets, taking the lead over its closest rival RIMI
RIMI
RIMI is a grocery store chain with 279 retail outlets throughout Norway. The chain is owned by ICA, but can trace itself back to 1977 when it was founded as RIMI 500 by Stein Erik Hagen....
. By market share it is therefore the single largest supermarket chain in the country.
The supermarkets
REMA 1000 supermarkets are known for not spending large sums on aestheticsAesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. As a matter of fact one of the chain’s slogans
Advertising slogan
Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...
is “The simple is often the best” (Norwegian: “Det enkle er ofte det beste”) and this reflects on the layout concept in the supermarkets. Products are mostly positioned by crate or even by pallet
Pallet
A pallet , sometimes called a skid, is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies...
to save the cost of positioning them in a more attractive way, a strategy not unique to REMA. It’s still REMA 1000’s official policy of not letting cost-saving damage the basic idea of simplicity (in accordance with the slogan). Wide corridors and informative signs are therefore present to simplify the shopping.
History
Odd Reitan, the founder of the company, opened the first REMA supermarket in TrondheimTrondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, Norway, 15 February 1979. Originally some stores were named 'REMA 500', indicating its number of food variety (later to be expanded). The owners had recently visited Germany where they had been impressed by the Albrecht brothers (Theo
Theo Albrecht
Theodor Paul Albrecht , generally known as Theo Albrecht, was a German entrepreneur, who in 2010 was ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the world, with a net worth of $16.7 billion. He owned and was the CEO of the Aldi Nord discount supermarket chain. In the US he owned the Trader Joe's...
and Karl
Karl Albrecht
Karl Hans Albrecht is a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He is among the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth in 2011 of $25.5 billion according to Forbes, which ranks him 12th in its 2011 list of billionaires - making him...
) supermarket chain ALDI’s
ALDI
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
success. They wanted to adapt the ALDI concept to Norwegian conditions.
Originally REMA attempted success with a selection of only 500-600 different products, but soon realised that this selection was too narrow. The success of the third REMA supermarket (opened in Mo i Rana
Mo i Rana
Mo i Rana is a town in the municipality of Rana, Nordland, Norway, located just south of the Arctic Circle and in the region Helgeland. The town is called "Mo i Rana" to distinquish it from other places named Mo - most notably the town of Mosjøen, also in Helgeland - though locally the town is...
, 8 May 1980) with a selection of 1,000 different products, paved way for the REMA 1000 brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
. Since then, REMA 1000 have expanded their selection to more than 2,500 different products http://www.rema1000.net/web/webdoc.nsf/web/omrema.html, but the name hasn’t been updated along the way.
In 2004, the chain celebrated its 25-year anniversary.
REMA 1000 is a sponsor of Rosenborg BK.
Countries with REMA 1000 supermarkets
| Supermarkets | Country | Employees | Revenue Revenue In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover.... | Market share | Debut year | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 320 (2004) | Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
5,450 (2004) | NOK Norwegian krone The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"... 17,621 mill ( 4.6%) (2004) |
17.5% (2004) | 1979 | headquarters located in Oslo Oslo Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King... |
| 123 (2004) | Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
846 (2004) | NOK Norwegian krone The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"... 2,935 mill ( 10.2%) (2004) |
3% (2004) | 1994 | — |
| 1 (2004) | Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
16 (2004) | NOK Norwegian krone The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"... 42 mill ( -19.8%) (2004) |
? | 1991 | the one supermarket is located in Svinesund Svinesund Svinesund is a sound separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad in the province of Bohuslän in the county of Västra Götaland from the Norwegian municipality of Halden in the county of Østfold.... |
| 20 | Slovakia Slovakia The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south... |
? | ? | ? | 1993 | the supermarkets are sold, but the brand is kept |
| 0 | Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... |
— | — | — | 1993 | sold in 2003 |
| 0 | Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... |
— | — | — | 1998 | sold in 2002 |