On Thursday, the Swedish food giants Ica and Axfood, owners of the chains Hemköp and Willys, presented their first quarterly report for 2024.
The ICA group reported a profit of one billion kroner, which is an increase of 25 percent compared to the same period last year, while Axfood increased its profit from 600 to 720 billion kroner, also in comparison to the same period last year.
At the same time, their customers have to take the brunt of inflation and increased food prices.
– Food price inflation is significantly lower, so it is very positive for customers. But of course we see that it is still tough for many customers, so we look humbly at how this year will turn out, says Nina Jönsson, CEO of the Ica group, in a press statement.
Receipt for good concepts
Axfood’s president and CEO Klas Balkow, for his part, only seems to be satisfied.
– This is positive evidence that our customers appreciate the offer in our various concepts, he says in a press statement.
According to research from Lund University, the increase in profits is not solely due to customer satisfaction, but above all to a lack of competition between the food giants on the Swedish market. ICA, Coop and Axfood together own over 90 percent of the market, which is considered to be the main reason for the high food prices.
– Competition in the food chain matters. Older studies also show that a greater proportion of price increases on agricultural goods are passed on to consumers in Sweden than in other comparable countries, Fredrik Wilhelmsson, director of Lund University’s Agrifood Economic Centre, previously told Dagens ETC.
No weirdness
According to Statistics Norway, the food price increase last year was the highest in over ten years. And it has hardly gone down since then.
– You can sit back and ask yourself which for-profit company voluntarily reduces its profits in order to be good? We live in a capitalist market economy. It’s nothing strange to take the opportunity to take out as much profit as you can, says Stefan Carlén, Chief Economist at Handels.
