REMA 1000

Infobox Chain
name = REMA 1000

type = Discount store
structure = Franchise
owner = Reitangruppen
foundation = 1979 in Trondheim, Norway
area_served = Scandinavia
locations = 444
revenue = NOK 20.6 billion (2004)
num_employees = 6,312 (2004)
private_labels =
slogan = "Bare lave priser"
homepage = [http://www.rema.no/ www.rema.no]
footnotes =

REMA 1000 is a multinational no-frills supermarket chain owned entirely by the Reitan Group (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, Norway, REMA 1000 includes businesses in Norway, Denmark, Sweden. The chain is based on a franchised discount 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. 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 aesthetics. As a matter of fact one of the chain’s slogans 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 to save the cost of positioning them in a more attractive way. 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.

Some critics claim that REMA 1000 supermarkets are without personality and resemble warehouses more than they resemble shops, and thereby making the shopping a tiresome process.

History

It all started when Odd Reitan, the founder of the company, opened the first REMA (only 'REMA', no '1000', at the time) supermarket in Trondheim, Norway 15 February 1979. The owners had recently visited Germany where they had been impressed by the Albrecht brothers (Theo and Karl) supermarket chain ALDI’s 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, 8 May 1980) with a selection of 1,000 different products, paved way for the REMA 1000 brand. 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.

Countries with REMA 1000 supermarkets

External links

* [http://www.rema.no/ The official REMA 1000 website (only available in Norwegian)]
* [http://www.reitangruppen.no/ The official Reitan Group (Reitangruppen) website (the owner of REMA 1000)]
* [http://www.reitangruppen.no/pub/config/dir_struc_root/pdf/2004_Reitangruppen_NO.pdf The 2004 annual review of the Reitan Group (Reitangruppen) (in Norwegian only)]