Closure of remaining Irma supermarkets delayed
The popular Irma supermarket chain, slated for closure this year, will hang on a little longer after a delay was announced on shuttering the remaining stores.
While some Irma stores have already closed, the remaining ones are now likely to stay in place until spring 2024 instead of closing during 2023 as previously announced, the chain’s acting director Martin Brinch Jöhncke told newspaper Politiken.
The reason given for the delay is a “larger change” to the concept of the stores that will replace Irma, he said.
Parent company Coop announced in January a major rebranding with includes its Kvickly, SuperBrugsen and Irma chains all being renamed. The number of supermarket chains will be reduced from eight to three by the restructuring.
Of the original 65 Irma stores, 9 were to be given the “Coop” brand, 28 changed to low price 365discount stores and the 11 smallest to Brugsen mini markets. The remaining 17 were slated to close.
Most of the closures and rebrandings were to be completed by the end of the summer, Coop said in January.
“We have continually worked on the new Coop supermarket concept that will replace Irma and we have raised our ambitions a little during that process,” Jöhncke said.
“We are making some larger changes than we originally planned to. It will therefore take longer. Apart from that it’s going exactly as planned,” he said without giving more specific details as to the change of plans.
Coops annual results, published in April, showed a loss of 628 million kroner for 2022, the largest in the company’s history.
The sizeable loss was related to investments in the new 365discount chain alongside inflation, Coop CEO Kræn Østergaard Nielsen said at the time.
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While some Irma stores have already closed, the remaining ones are now likely to stay in place until spring 2024 instead of closing during 2023 as previously announced, the chain’s acting director Martin Brinch Jöhncke told newspaper Politiken.
The reason given for the delay is a “larger change” to the concept of the stores that will replace Irma, he said.
Parent company Coop announced in January a major rebranding with includes its Kvickly, SuperBrugsen and Irma chains all being renamed. The number of supermarket chains will be reduced from eight to three by the restructuring.
Of the original 65 Irma stores, 9 were to be given the “Coop” brand, 28 changed to low price 365discount stores and the 11 smallest to Brugsen mini markets. The remaining 17 were slated to close.
Most of the closures and rebrandings were to be completed by the end of the summer, Coop said in January.
“We have continually worked on the new Coop supermarket concept that will replace Irma and we have raised our ambitions a little during that process,” Jöhncke said.
“We are making some larger changes than we originally planned to. It will therefore take longer. Apart from that it’s going exactly as planned,” he said without giving more specific details as to the change of plans.
Coops annual results, published in April, showed a loss of 628 million kroner for 2022, the largest in the company’s history.
The sizeable loss was related to investments in the new 365discount chain alongside inflation, Coop CEO Kræn Østergaard Nielsen said at the time.
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