Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs, Retail

Coop will use the name Coop Maksimarket for its hypermarkets and Coop Konsum for its supermarkets in the future. The A ja O brand will be discontinued, Coop said in a press release.

"By now we have opened three Coop hypermarkets of the new concept already – in the Kvartal and Lounakeskus malls in Tartu and at Lasnamae in Tallinn – and we are planning to take the new concept to several more hypermarkets within the next year," Coop Eesti Keskuhistu CEO Jaanus Vihand said.

"Using the common Coop brand with our stores will definitely make us more visible for the consumer and thereby stronger still on the market," the CEO added.

The name change will be conducted step by step, in accordance with existing plans for the renovation of stores, Vihand said.

He said that a transition period of one and a half years on the one hand gives customers time to get used to the new brand, while allowing the owner to avoid unnecessarily big one-off costs on the other.

Made up of 350 stores, Coop Eesti is the biggest food and basic consumer goods chain in Estonia.

The consolidated revenue of Coop Eesti Keskuhistu, the parent group of the Coop operation in Estonia, grew 5.1% year over year to 313.9 million euros in 2016 and net profit increased 12.4% to 2.4 million euros. At the end of the year Coop Eesti Keskuhistu had 19 member associations with altogether 80,000 physical persons as owners.

In addition to retail operations, Coop is about to launch a banking operation via its stores under the Coop Pank brand in the fall.