The heart of ICA Gruppen’s operations is grocery retail, where the hub consists of some 1,300 grocery stores in Sweden. Surrounding these, a number of operations have been built up – each on their own and in cooperation – which are to support the core businesses and have the potential to be further developed into new business opportunities. This helps us create an attractive customer offering and stable market position.
In Sweden, grocery retail is conducted in cooperation with independent ICA retailers, who own their own stores. ICA Sweden handles, among other things, joint purchasing, logistics, central market communication and overall development of the store network.
Apotek Hjärtat, with nearly 400 pharmacies in Sweden, is an important part of ICA Gruppen’s endeavour to attain a leading position in health. With respect to purchasing, the customer offering, organisation and loyalty programmes, coordination is conducted with ICA Sweden.
ICA Bank fills several important functions within ICA Gruppen. In addition to providing a growing range of user-friendly banking services – and insurance through ICA Insurance – ICA Bank helps strengthen loyalty to ICA stores while also reducing the cost of financial flows in the ICA system. Commissions, net interest income and other revenue contribute to earnings, while the use of ICA Bank’s own card helps minimise fees to external card companies.
ICA Real Estate is the Nordic region’s largest real estate company in the retail sector. Its overarching role is to meet ICA Gruppen’s long-term need for the right premises at the right locations. This is done through a combination of owning, leasing out and developing marketplaces. The property portfolio is actively managed, and fully developed properties are sold on a continuing basis.
Since ICA Gruppen was established in 2013 we have made a concerted effort at building a robust and synergistic company structure that is adapted to meet evolving consumer behaviours, a fast pace of digitalisation and widespread sector convergence. Our change work has resulted in a large number of structural changes to give us a greater ability to leverage synergies within the Group. Coordination has successively increased and been deepened and broadened, and today has been extended to encompass central areas such as the offering, customer insights, locations and marketplaces, investments and purchasing. By cooperating and taking advantage of economies of scale – physical as well as digital – advantages are created for our customers, operations, employees, society in general – and ICA Gruppen.
Coordination between the businesses makes it possible to provide strong, relevant customer offerings.
Access to data-driven customer insights from loyalty programmes provides valuable information on preferences and behaviours – and also enables personal offers to be made.
Co-location strengthens local marketplaces and makes life easier for customers.
Coordinated online solutions and development of food ecosystems.
Coordinating investments benefits all operations and promotes financial efficiency.
Coordinated sourcing ensures good prices and the right quality. It also enables the Group to have coordinated social and environmental requirements for suppliers.