The first Norwegian cooperative societies were founded in the middle of the 1860’s and took a firm root in the 1870s new consumer patterns were developing and in the rural areas the transition from grain-growing to animal husbandry quickly led to a commercialisation of agriculture. In this situation, it was important for the farmers to gain control of their own supply of groceries. Townspeople had previously had the sole right to trade outside towns. This privilege was abolished and the cooperative societies used this to their advantage.

By 1875 a total of about 300 societies had been established. Only a few of them were located in urban communities and in this way member-controlled consumer cooperation became a rural movement. In 1906, a joint organisation, the Norwegian Co-operative Union and Wholesale Society (NKL), was founded. It had 28 member societies, but it took a long time before it became a nation-wide organisation.

By 1925, the majority of cooperative societies had joined NKL. In 1911, a cooperation agreement was signed between NKL and LO (Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions). This alliance with labour movement made NKL a participant in the reorganisation of society. It helped to push NKL’s membership up from 100.000 in 1920 to 400.000 in 1970. The cooperative societies established competitive grocery shops and NKL built up companies for the manufacture of groceries. The organisation was also granted permission to found a bank and a life insurance company. After the Second World War NKL took an active part in consumer policy-making. The cooperative societies were the first to introduce self-service shops at the end of the 1940’s, and in the early 1960’s they also started the first retail chain (Domus). In the field of distribution, they used new technology and developed efficient logistics systems. The result was well-driven chains of shops and successful consumer cooperation.

In the new age of oil and prosperity in the 1970s and 80s, the consumer societies fell on bad times. Accounts showed red figures and, for the first time since the founding of NKL, membership numbers began to fall. This crisis led to a restructuring, which was soon to bring new growth. The societies turns to more aggressive forms of business and Coop, which was NKL’s new name, now targeted “busy people who are primarily interested in a profitable deal”. Its new flagships in Norway were Prix, Obs and Mega.

Now NKL has registered more than a million members. A total of 165 cooperative societies now run more than 1000 shops.

Coop Norge AS is a subsidiary of a Nordic group, Coop Norden, and is responsible for purchasing, the supply of goods, chain operations and marketing. Every fourth bag of groceries sold in Norway comes from one of Coop's shops: Marked, Prix, Mega, Extra and Obs!

In addition to groceries Coop sell various types of kitchenware and homeware, sports, DIY and electrical goods from shops such as Coop Kjøkken & Hjem, Coop Sport, Coop Byggmix, Coop Extra Bygg, Coop Obs Bygg and Coop Elektro.

Coop Norden Code of Conduct - Ethical Trade