ICA AB
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| Private Aktiebolag | |
| Genre | Retailing, banking |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Headquarters | Solna, Stockholm, Sweden |
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Area served
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Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania and Latvia |
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Key people
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Per Strömberg (CEO) |
| Revenue | 96,863 MSEK (2012) |
| Owner | Hakon Invest (100%) |
| Website | www |
ICA Gruppen AB (publ) ("ICA Group"; Inköpscentralernas aktiebolag, lit. the Purchasing Centres' Corporation) is a Swedish retailer with a focus on food and health. The group also owns a bank, real estate division, a pharmacy chain and the Hemtex soft furnishings chain.
The company was started in 1938, based on a business model which was introduced by Hakonbolagen in 1917. Most of its operations are based in Scandinavia, and the company is the largest retail company in the Nordic countries.
The company was owned by the participating retailers until 2000 when half of the company was sold to the Dutch retailer Ahold. It acquired a further 10% in 2004. Ahold is prevented by contractual obligation from exercising majority control over ICA. In 2013 Ahold sold its shares to Hakon for $3.1bn.
An approximation of the usual pronunciation of the name in Sweden for an English speaker would be 'ee-kah'.
In Sweden, ICA Sverige AB operates about 1,350 retail stores as of 2009. The stores have different profiles, depending on location, range of products and size:
Each store is owned and operated separately, but operations are coordinated within the group. All feature ICA brand products.
During 2009, ICA Sverige AB had sales of 59 billion SEK (excluding VAT). A major ICA location is in Västerås, where they have a logistics center.
Since December 2001, ICA has run a series of television commercials featuring the staff and customers of a fictional ICA store. As of Mid January 2015 512 commercials have aired. Since 2007 it is listed at the Guinness World Records as the longest running television advertising drama.
In December 2007, a meat repackaging fraud scheme was made known to the public. Hans Hallén, a former quality control manager for supermarket chain ICA has revealed that the company knew that meat was being illegally repackaged as early as 2003. Hans Hallén, who monitored ICA stores in southern Sweden from 2003–2005, said he had informed the company's managers of the exact practices that were exposed on 5 December 2007 by the Sveriges Television in its weekly investigative television programme Uppdrag granskning. According to Hallén, many stores engaged in practices such as repackaging meat in order to change the expiry date.
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Wikipedia