Reitan Convenience Special – a leader in the Nordics and Baltics

Reitan Retail is a Nordic retail giant with 3,850 stores. We talk to Reitan Convenience CEO Mariette Kristensen together with Malin Eklund, her Sustainability Director at Reitan Convenience.

Reitan Convenience operates 8 brands (including 7 Eleven) across 2,000 stores in 7 countries. This highly successful business has always made its customers’ lives easier and the world better by staying very close to latest trends. Why does Reitan see the PBX brand as so vital to the future?

Reitan Convenience received the 2022 NACS European Convenience Retail Sustainability Award in Berlin earlier this year for its experiential ‘living lab’  PBX store in Sweden. Mariette and Malin share with us how sustainability goes beyond the products and the store itself and their journey of creating a sustainable ecosystem which encompasses their employees, suppliers and customers. It’s all about making sustainability convenient.

Mariette begins the episode by sharing with us the rich history and background of the Reitan business and their transition from Norwegian to international retailer. The 15bn NOK Reitan Convenience business is the market leader in 6 out of 7 countries they operate in. Mariette points to the strong portfolio of local and international brands that make up their over 2,000 store network as she goes on to talk about the scale of the business and their customer proposition.

Malin Eklund, Sustainability Director Reitan Convenience then joins Mariette – the discussion begins with the question: ‘What is different about their award winning PBX store format in Sweden?

However, it’s the answer to the question ‘Why PBX’ that really hits home – “Because there is no business on a dead planet”.

In this discussion Mariette and Malin talk about the importance of ensuring sustainably is commercially viable by making sustainably convenient. And therefore the need to find news ways of communicating with customers and accelerating the demand for sustainable convenience.

By bringing suppliers closer into their operations and motivating suppliers to support the sustainability journey is a key pillar to the strategy. ‘It takes many of us working closely together to succeed’ says Mariette. The ripple effect goes beyond suppliers. Critically for employee engagement and recruitment – the overall value package is important, working for an organisation with purpose and one that values sustainability is increasingly important.

Their holistic, authentic and commercially realistic approach to sustainability comes through strongly in the discussion and is certainly why, as leaders in our global industry, they were awarded the 2022 NACS European Convenience Retail Sustainability accolade.