Willys opens its 100th store

A new Super-Willys store is set to open on 3 November in Skene. This marks the 100th store in Axfood’s wholly owned discount chain Willys, located nationwide in Sweden from Ystad in the south to Luleå in the north. After expanding from 12 to 100 stores in only six years, this further affirms Willys’ undisputed position as Sweden’s largest discount chain.

Since the start, Willys has experienced strong development of sales as well as earnings. Sales have grown from SEK 2 billion in 1999 to nearly SEK 12 billion today. “We have built 19 entirely new stores and converted or taken over another 69, which makes us the leader of the discount trend that we started 30 years ago,” says Urban Dahl, newly installed President of Willys AB. Willys stores work in the discount segment and feature a wide array of products, in contrast to other discount stores that often have a much narrower product range. Willys stores have an offering of approximately 7,500 items, covering 95% of shoppers’ yearly grocery purchases. The stores have a particular focus on fresh products such as fruits and vegetables, processed meats and dairy products. The main reason why Willys can keep their prices so low is that the stores are run with a high degree of efficiency and low cost prices. Axfood’s goal is to have 120 wholly owned stores by 2008, including 15 Super-Willys – stores with an attractively priced line of specialty products – to be opened during the same period.