ICA Gruppen reports on continued high pace of investment and prioritised step-changes at Capital Markets Day

At ICA Gruppen’s Capital Markets Day today the company will present prioritised step-changes for the Group adopted by the Board of Directors. The step-changes pinpoint where ICA Gruppen needs to consolidate its strengths during the next three years. ICA Gruppen will also report that the capex level for 2020 is expected to be SEK 4 billion, and that capital expenditures for 2019 are expected to total SEK 3.3 billion, which is slightly lower than the company’s previous estimate.

“ICA is well positioned and have taken big steps to use the potential in our group structure. But to ensure continued success in a changing business environment, and to take full advantage of our opportunities, we need to consolidate our strengths in a number of key areas. We are therefore singling out our prioritised step-changes that we will be working with during the next three years. Internally we will set targets for each area and will measure our progress every year,” comments Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen.

Five of the step-changes pertain to all or large parts of the Group.

 *   Common sourcing within ICA Gruppen

 *   Creating business value through AI and advanced analytics

 *   Transformation to reduce costs and build new capabilities

 *   Climate beyond neutrality

 *   Strengthened food ecosystem (ICA Sweden, Apotek Hjärtat and ICA Banken)

In addition to these are a number of other step-changes that pertain to the respective companies’ specific operations. These will be available in the documentation from the Capital Markets Day.

The step-change areas replace ICA Gruppen’s previous strategic priorities.

Capital expenditures (capex) in 2020 are expected to total SEK 4 billion. Capital expenditures for 2019 are estimated to amount to approximately SEK 3.3 billion by year-end, which is lower than the SEK 4 billion figure disclosed by the company at the previous Capital Markets Day, mainly owing to phasing effects. ICA Gruppen continues to make large investments in the store network as well as in IT, CRM and e-commerce solutions, and is maintaining a high pace of investment in Rimi Baltic designed among other things to expand the store network and complete construction of the new, main warehouse in Riga.

Presentations and a recording from the Capital Markets Day will be available at www.icagruppen.se no later than thusday morning.

For more information
ICA Gruppen press service, telephone number: +46 (0)10 422 52 52

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is a leading retail company with a focus on food and health. The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic which mainly conduct grocery retail, ICA Real Estate which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank which offers financial services and Apotek Hjärtat which conducts pharmacy operations. For more information see icagruppen.se