After several years of declining numbers, supermarket chain Rema 1000 won the battle for Norwegian consumers during the Corona crisis. In March, the market share increased by 0.3 percent: from 23.3 to 23.6 percent. The competitors; NorgesGruppen, Coop and Bunnpris, fell 0.3 percent in the same period.
The changes may seem small, but they are large amounts: in 2019, the turnover of the Norwegian supermarkets was according to statistics agency Nielsen 178 billion krone (about € 16 billion). In recent years, Rema had lost market shares in the battle for the discount consumer and in 2016 still had a market share of 24.4 percent.
"Could be a tipping point"
Trond Bentestuen, director of Rema, says the development in recent months could be a tipping point: “Yes, maybe. The situation is of course different now that part of the turnover has moved from the catering industry to the supermarket, plus consumers are now unable to shop in Sweden."
Rema's growth preceded Kiwi's announcement to cut prices of 200 products by 20 percent. Kiwi assumes that it will cost around 200 million krone (€ 17.5 million). Coop responded to Kiwi's promotion by lowering prices on the same 200, and an additional 25 products. Rema then made it clear that they have the same low prices as their competitors.
Rema won the VG price survey
In the price poll of the newspaper VG, which was published on Thursday, Rema came out as the cheapest of the three discount supermarkets. The total price of 43 products at Rema was 8.70 krone (€ 0.76) lower than Kiwi and 24.33 krone (€ 2.14) lower than Coop Extra.
Source: nationen.no