Cooperativa Förbundet
Kooperativa Förbundet , often abbreviated to KF , is a Swedish consumer cooperative and the umbrella organization of around 60 consumer associations in Sweden, which together have around 2.9 million members. Its seat is in Stockholm .
History until 1945
The Kooperativa Förbundet, KF, was founded on September 4, 1899 as a major purchasing company for Swedish consumer cooperatives. The British cooperative system, namely the British Co-operative Wholesale Society, served as a model. The idea was to offer the member cooperatives cheap and high quality everyday goods for resale and to combat monopoly tendencies in trade. The profit should, after necessary investments, flow back to the members.
When KF was founded, bourgeois-liberal cooperative advocates were also active, such as Gerhard Halfred von Koch . The consumer cooperative system mainly affected the less well-off part of the population, which is why the movement of the cooperative Förbundet is also closely linked to the Swedish labor movement . KF was initially exposed to delivery blockages from important suppliers (e.g. from the margarine industry), which is why it soon became necessary to produce in its own factories and offer its own brands. This led to KF, under its longstanding and charismatic General Director Albin Johansson , operating a highly active anti-monopoly policy in the interwar period. In 1921 the first own margarine factory started in Norrköping and KF was soon able to reduce margarine prices. In time with its own expansion, KF was able to gradually reduce the food costs for its members. Non-food products were added, for example KF challenged the international light bulb cartel with its in-house production of light bulbs ( Luma ) . Other areas of in-house production concerned porcelain ( Gustavsberg ) and rubber products such as galoshes and later car tires ( Gislaved ) . These were sold in the store chains of the member cooperatives ( Konsum ) and their own department stores, for example ( PUB , 1934 , Domus , from 1956, from 1970 in the self-service wholesalers OBS! ) In their own architecture office ( KFAI ), which continued into the 1970s existed, the factories, department stores and convenience stores were designed by well-known architects.During the 1930s, KF was one of the most important companies in Sweden and dominated the retail sector .
History after 1945
After the Second World War , new European and overseas markets opened up, and more free trade was the motto. The tendencies of private retailers to organize grew stronger and the convenience stores faced increasing competition from chain organizations like ICA. Time and again, the umbrella organization KF had to help out financially some troubled member cooperatives, which caused tensions with the better-performing members. In addition, rival companies in the retail sector were not prepared to include excellent and inexpensive products from KF in their range. The economic advantages of own production disappeared more and more because it became cheaper to import finished products. As a result, KF chose the path of stopping its own production of goods and selling the means of production in the course of the 1970s and 1980s. In this way, the necessary structural change within the Swedish consumer cooperative movement, i.e. the dismantling of the federal model and the transition to a more standardized group structure, could be financed. At the end of the 1990s , the joint stock company Coop Norden was formed together with the Danish and Norwegian consumer cooperatives . In 2007 the cooperation was ended again.
KF today
For KF, the transition process after 1980 was long, difficult and complicated. For the group, the early years of the 21st century had little in common with the brilliant period from 1930 to 1970. KF lost important market shares to its Swedish competitor ICA and to low-price chains such as Lidl . In 2006, however, KF was again a profitable company with annual sales of around 2.6 billion euros.
literature
- Olof Ruin: Kooperativa förbundet 1899-1929. En organizational study. Rabén & Sjögren Verlag, Stockholm 1960.
- Hugo Kylebäck: Konsumentkooperation i Strukturomvandling 3 parts (Volume 1: 1946–1960; Volume 2, 1960–1985, Volume 3, 1985–95), Stockholm from 1983
- Johann Brazda, Gerhard Rönnebeck, Robert Schediwy (eds.): Pioneer cooperatives using the example of consumer cooperatives in Great Britain, Sweden and Japan , Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1996
- Herman and Sven Stolpe: Boken om Albin Johansson , 2 volumes, Stockholm 1969
