After the Danish retail giant Salling Group acquired the Baltic retail chain "Salling" in early June,Rimi", Vaidas Lukoševičius, General Director of Lithuanian stores, says that by 2026, they intend to implement a new strategy and propose changes in the assortment, pricing, product layout, and communication.
"At the end of last year, the largest study in the history of Rimi was conducted, during which we saw that seven out of ten shoppers want to save money when going to the store. (…) Seeing these changes in our market, we, as a chain, must respond, and we will implement strategic changes specifically in three main groups," said V. Lukoševičius, presenting the chain's strategy at a press conference on Monday.
According to him, Rimi intends to expand the range of the economy segment by up to 18 percent - it currently stands at 13 percent. It also intends to increase the share of private labels by up to a third.
"We understand that we are part of that Lithuanian ecosystem, and today more than 50 percent of private products are purchased in Lithuania from local manufacturers. (…) And looking at our internal sales, our internal information, today one in four purchased goods is already a private label product," said the CEO of Rimi.
According to him, the retail chain also recently launched a best-of-breed program, which selected 600 of the most commonly purchased food products.
"We ensure that the price of these products will be competitive on the market," said V. Lukoševičius.
When asked at the time about store expansion and possible investments, the Rimi manager said he could not give a precise answer at this time.
"No specific amounts have been named yet, but without a doubt, by acquiring the network, Salling Group is demonstrating its own development, as well as its strategic, in fact, sign. (…) But the fact is that investments will definitely not be stopped," said V. Lukoševičius.
According to him, decisions on how Rimi would expand and change the chain's operations after the acquisition of Salling Group will be made within a year.
"We have already communicated that we are, we have agreed on a period of one year during which we will have to adjust our private label, again, assortment in our supermarkets," said the general director of the retail chain.
BNS wrote that in early June, Danish retail giant Salling Group finally completed the acquisition of Rimi, a retail chain operating in three Baltic countries.
Salling Group has acquired the chain's operator Rimi Baltic from Swedish retail group ICA Gruppen for 1,3 billion euros and will operate all Rimi stores in the Baltics, the company announced on Monday.
Salling Group previously said that after the transaction, it would operate 2,1 stores in the Baltics, Denmark, Germany and in PolandThe company also plans to invest in the development of Rimi and strengthen the retail chain's position in the market.
The Rimi business is being sold after ICA Gruppen decided to focus its operations on the local Swedish market, where the group also operates in the pharmaceutical, banking, insurance and real estate sectors.
Author Algimantė Ambrulaitytė
[email protected], BNS Plus
