Conquering Scandinavian markets – Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office support in cooperation of Ukrainian companies with Coop Denmark retailer
June 2022 one of the biggest food and beverage retailer in Denmark - «Coop Denmark A/S» (owns 1000+ supermarkets across Denmark) had a meeting with the Embassy of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Denmark. The retailer wanted to find reliable Ukrainian suppliers in food and agricultural sector to cooperate with. Considering long fruitful cooperation between the SI «Entrepreneurship and export promotion office» and the Embassy of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Denmark, the Office became key partner in the establishing business partnership between Ukrainian and foreign companies.
According to the Coop company request, Sourcing manager of the Office Valentyna Liashenko chose 50+ Ukrainian export oriented entrepreneurs. Importer chose the most relevant companies according to their needs from the list, and arrived in July 2022 to Kyiv for B2B meetings.
As a result of negotiations, «Obolon», «Dubnomoloko» (™ «KOMO»), and «Sovarog» (™ «Happy Flakes») successfully signed contracts with Danish importer to supply their products to Denmark.
Ukrainian products already can be found on the shelves of SuperBrugsen, Kvickly, Dagli'Brugsen, Irma та Coop365discount supermarkets, which are owned by COOP. Ukrainian products are presented in Danish supermarkets in frame of «Good deed tastes good» project, that became the beginning of long term cooperation between the Coop and Ukrainian producers in food sector.
Pavlo Skvorchynskiy, Executive Director, «Sovarog»LLC (™ «Happy Flakes»)
«Danish importers very carefully choose companies for potential cooperation. In most cases, if you sign a contract with a Scandinavian retailer, it means long term cooperation for years. We think that one of the most important criteria in choosing a partner among Ukrainian companies was their production capacity and ability to supply required product volumes to the market in agreed terms. Coop owns 1000+ supermarkets around the country. That is why it is important that customers have access to products from Ukraine announced by the retailer.»
Olshanskyi Volodymyr, Export manager, Enterprises Corporation «Obolon»
«Due to the intense competition on the domestic market in Scandinavian countries, foreign companies are constantly thinking how to conquer the customer. It is almost impossible for a company on its own to negotiate directly with Danish retailers. What is more, negotiation process with a potential supplier usually takes around 6 months. Full scale war became a certain push to accelerate negotiations from the Coop retailer side. Obolon company in two months from the beginning of negotiations sent its first production batch to one of the biggest retail chains in Denmark.»
Coop365discount product catalog with Ukrainian products for customers
Yuriy Shablienko, Export deputy director, «Dubnomoloko» PJSC (™ «Komo»)
«Our team is very grateful to the Entrepreneurship and export promotion office experts and personally to Valentyna Liashenko, who helped to organize meeting with Coop representatives. Thanks to this meeting our company received a unique chance to promote our products to Danish market. To tell the truth it is our first experience to supply cheese directly to the European retailer.»
There is an available section with Ukrainian products on the website of the Coop365discount
«Coop Denmark A/S» short background
Company «Coop Denmark A/S» owns following chains of supermarkets «SuperBrugsen», «Kvickly», «Dagli’Brugsen», «Irma», «365discount», «Fakta» around the country. Company has more than 1000 stores – from big department stores to local mini markets.
The company's share in the total turnover of retail trade enterprises in Denmark is estimated at 38%. After russian invasion in Ukraine on February 24 2022, company decided to stop selling russian and belorussian products, and also stopped buying the advertisement on russian channels. «Coop» company became the first Danish retailer that began to provide Ukraine with the emergency aid – long-term storage products, warm blankets, clothes, hygiene products, and things for basic needs.
In cooperation with Danish companies and the Confederation of Danish industry, 11 trucks with products were sent to Ukraine in total.