Industry Retail Area served Denmark Headquarters Rødovre, Denmark Founded 1886 | Genre Supermarket Founder Karen Marie Schepler | |
 | ||
Parent organizations Coop Danmark A/S, Coop Norden Profiles | ||
Irma A/S is a Danish supermarket chain, part of the Coop Danmark group. It was founded in 1886 by Carl Schepler, as a small grocery store selling eggs in Ravnsborggade in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. The chain is the second oldest groceries chain in the world, after Marks & Spencer. As of August 2006, the chain had 71 stores, mostly located in the Metropolitan Copenhagen area.
Contents
Irma also operates an express version of the store, known as Irma City. These stores are smaller than the normal Irma, with longer opening hours and a range of organic take away food.
Concept
Irma is quality-oriented mainly aiming for quality-conscious and environment-aware customers by focusing on fresh and organic products as well as packaging. Therefore, the stores have a great variety of organic products compared to other Danish supermarket, and packaging containing PVC and excessive amounts of aluminium are banned from the shelves. The same goes for chlorine-bleached products.
In 2006, Irma had discounts on many organic products, leading to a world record with over 40% of their sales being organic.
Expansion and future plans
Irma has almost always only been located in the Capital Region, with a few exceptions in the 1980s where Irma tried, unsuccessfully, to locate themselves in Odense.
In April 2008, Irma once again experimented with stores outside the Capital Region, in a deal with the department store chain Magasin du Nord, which saw Irma take over their grocery departments, Mad & Vin (lit. Food and Wine), in the stores in both Odense and Århus. The projects failed and the stores closed in 2012.