7% sales growth with the produce category at ICA Sweden

“We finally see positive trends at the second half of 2024 on the Swedish market, also at Fruit Logistica last week; the negative trend of inflation and declining consumption finally reversed” said Maria Wieloch. She confirms until last year Swedish consumers were more price focussed due to higher inflation. In Sweden the total market volume decline for fruit and vegetables between 2021 and 2024 was 6%, then started to reverse with a +7% in volume for ICA Q4 2024. “Consumers want again to buy some more products that bring added-value like flavour and health benefits, like switching from a more standard galas to a new apple brand” said Maria.

Investing in activities to reverse decline in consumption

Offering products at a competitive price with value attributes is so far one of the winning strategies at ICA. The chain has invested in various activities for fruit and vegetables, in order to reverse consumption trend. “Stores are managed by independent owners and are free to setup their own prices; we at ICA Sverige are providing the stores with the possibility to best meet the demands of the local market with an attractive and fair consumer price since many Swedish consumers see fruit and vegetables as an expansive category” explained Maria. “Each store owner knows their market best and know how to present the best fruit and veg offer, including assortment, offering and prices. The produce category represents in average 10-13% of the retail sales at ICA stores, it is also the most strategic one for differentiation and consumption behaviour” she continues.

Strong support to the stores

The Produce category management, sales and store support counts with a team of more than 45 people to support the 1265 independent ICA stores. Their objective is help store managers to stimulate the sales of fruit and vegetables, like with product development, pricing, sales support, activation in stores display and promotion. “It may take 2 to 3 years to reach consumption levels of pre-pandemia” said Maria. Swedish authorities still have the objective of 500 grams of daily consumption for fresh fruit and vegetables. Today’s consumption is around 350 grams. 

Berries and brassicas the winning categories

Berries continue to be a more growing category with +15% sales in 2024, and avocado are also progressing in sales at ICA. “We are still under performing then other countries like UK for the sales of berries; consumers strongly support domestic strawberries in summer, we also offer them a full assortment the rest of the year” said Maria. Kale, cabbage and broccoli are the more growing vegetables. They are interesting for cooking, healthy and trendy, they are also a good value offering. To achieve ICA’s long goal of consumption increase, both domestic and imported products’ seasonality are embraced: what is now in season and what can be better offered to the consumers.

Organics, safe and sustainable

Organics continue to be the main sustainable label preferred by the Swedish consumers, their sales represent today approx. 11% to 12% of the produce category. They are down 15% from 5 years ago but are now stabilized. Other sustainable product lines also emerged: local is seen by many as more sustainable. The main Swedish products represent about 25% of the supply at ICA. They are mainly apples, strawberries, brassicas, potatoes, carrots and greenhouse (tomatoes and cucumbers) vegetables. ICA has setup a broad sustainability agenda, with the objective to offer a large sustainable assortment. “We consider fruit and vegetables as a sustainable food, this is why we push for the whole category” explains Maria.

32% market share

ICA is the only retail group in Sweden which has stores present in 286 out of the country’s 290 municipalities, from North to South. It has an estimated market share of 32% for food and non-food retailing. ICA Sweden includes 1265 grocery stores of different formats: ICA Maxi Stormarknad hypermarkets, ICA Kvantum large supermarkets with strong focus on perishables, ICA supermarket (proximity stores), ICA Nära (convenience stores). ICA Gruppen has in total 1,975 wholly-owned or retailer-owned stores including pharmacies. Axfood Willy’s, Hemköp and Coop are the main competitors.

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