Coop united and strong

Last year, the Coop group succeeded in executing the major points of its medium term strategy accepted in 2006. The IT system was modernised, many new franchise partners joined the group and many green field projects were also completed. – I think 2007 was not a good year for the Hungarian economy. Though sales had been better than expected in the first half, the signs of recession were fully felt in the second half – says László Murányi, CEO of Co-op Hungary Zrt. Recession however, had no effect of Coop projects, which focused on three priorities. One was the IT system, where the objective was to develop a system that can establish direct communication between different levels (stores, customer centres, regional HQ-s and national HQ) and is based on the bar code system of cash registers in stores. As a result of this project, 80 per cent of turnover will be handled by the new integrated system by 2009. Another major achievement is that the joint data bank has been completed, which will allow special sales reports to be prepared. At present, they are working on electronic invoicing which would also bring substantial savings in costs. Development of their retail network was also a priority last year. Specific routes of development were defined for each store. Full modernisation of the stores will continue to remain a priority. The almost three thousand stores are supplied by an integrated logistic system, which needs to be developed further to cope with new categories and operation should also be made more efficient. A report has recently been completed about the current logistic system which makes recommendations for possible development. At the end of 2007, the Coop chain had nearly 750 private label products, accounting for 20 per cent of their turnover. 80 per cent of the products on the shelves of Coop stores come from Hungarian suppliers. In 2008, co-operation between Coop companies is to be further improved in order to maintain their market share.