Coop announces gains in market share

Coop increased sales of organic products by 35 per cent in 2001 swissinfo.ch

Switzerland's Coop retail chain, the number two behind Migros, said on Wednesday that sales in 2001 showed an increase in market share.

Coop said in a statement from its headquarters in Basel that sales had increased by 4.8 per cent last year to reach SFr12.7 billion ($7.66 billion).

It added that the first financial year of the new Coop, formed from the merger of regional Coop societies and Coop Switzerland, had been “successful”.

Retail sales increased by 4.5 per cent over 2000 figures to SFr10.4 billion, while sales from subsidiaries including Interdiscount, Radio TV Steiner, Top Tip and petrol stations went up by 6.2 per cent to SFr2.4 billion.

The statement commented that with these “proud sales growth rates” the company had clearly won market shares last year.

Organic products

Coop noted in particular that sales of its organic products under the labels Naturaplan, Naturaline, Oecoplan and Max Havelaar had increased by 35 per cent over the previous year to top the SFr1 billion mark. This was two years earlier than budgeted, the group commented.

Rival Migros reported on Tuesday that sales had exceeded the SFr20 billion mark in 2001 for the first time in its history (+2.9 per cent).

Migros, a federation of cooperatives, said in a statement from its Zurich headquarters that although businesses depending on abroad had felt the effects of the economic slowdown, its group cooperatives had performed well.

Migros said that its 10 regional cooperatives had achieved sales revenues of SFr13.985 billion last year.

Growth was particularly marked in the fourth quarter, with a sales increase of 4 per cent compared with the same period in 2000, the group said.

The statement added that the result showed that Migros had consolidated its position as the market leader.

swissinfo with agencies