Salling Group

Dansk Supermarked

Company type	Private shareholder company
Industry	Retail
Founded	1964
Founder	Herman Salling
Headquarters	Højbjerg , Denmark
Key people	Erling Jensen, president and CEO
Revenue	7.560 billion EUR (2007)
Net income	270 million EUR (2007)
Owner	A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. / F. Salling A/S
Number of employees	43.000 (2010)
Subsidiaries	Netto, Føtex, Bilka, A-Z, Tøj&Sko, Salling
Website	http://www.dsg.dk/

Dansk Supermarked A/S (The Danish Supermarket Ltd) is a corporation owning several chains of stores. The store chains under Dansk Supermarked only operate in Denmark, except Netto which has expanded to several European countries. The corporation was founded by Herman Salling as Jysk Supermarked, but the name was changed to the Dansk Supermarked A/S when Herman Salling partnered with the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group in 1964.

Early History

The Danish Supermarket was built on the foundation of the Salling Department Store Department Store, created in 1906 by Ferdinand Salling. He worked there until his death in 1953 and he managed to transform his company into public limited company - F. Salling A / S.

After the death of F. Salling, his son Herman Salling took over the company. He traveled all over the world in search for inspiration and new ideas. After that he decided to focus on department stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets chains.

In 1960, Herman Salling opened his first store Føtex, which was a completely new type of store for Denmark. The idea behind that store was to provide both food and textiles under one roof.

Despite, the fact that Føtex is the oldest store in the Dansk Supermarket Group, it has never stopped growing. In 2007, the company decided to open a Føtex Food store, which will offer only quality food and in 2009 the first store was opened in the intersection of Aarhus, Aalborg and Hasseris. Today, there are 6 Føtex Food stores all over Denmark.

A.P. Møller Enters Dansk Supermarked

Herman Salling wanted to expand his venture across Europe, so he started looking for partners to provide him extra funding.

Salling found the right partner in 1964 and he made a deal with A.P. Møller, which acquired him 50% of the company. Møller also suggested that Herman Salling's company - Jysk Supermarket, should change its name to Danish Supermarket A / S.

The Birth of Bilka

In 1970, the Danish Supermarket Group gave the Danes the first discount store in Denmark - Bilka.The first store was located in Tilst, near Aarhus. After the opening of the store, there were more than 50.000 people visiting it every day.

At this point, the customers were becoming more and more price conscious. Some of them, even had extra freezers at their homes, so that they can buy more goods at the discount store.

The idea for the creation of Bilka, came from Herman Salling's visit in West Germany. After that he managed to convince his partner, the shipping magnate Maersk MC - Kiney Moller, that hypermarkets are the way forward.

Chains

The store chains owned by Dansk Supermarked are:

• Netto - discount supermarkets
• Føtex - large supermarkets (with many non food items)
• Bilka - hypermarkets
• Tøj & Sko - clothing and shoe stores
• A-Z - non food only hypermarkets
• Salling - department stores

As of 2007 the total number of stores was 1,171.

Dansk Supermarked Stores

Denmark

Stores	Type
2	Salling department stores
87	food Stores
17	Bilka Stores
2	A-Z Stores
37	Tøj & Sko Clothes & Shoe Shops
411	Netto stores

External links

• Dansk Supermarked official website
• The history of Dansk Supermarked - From the Dansk Supermarked website