Salling Group Denmark: Large-scale retail in Denmark
Focus on the Group that dominates Danish food and non-food retail.
This message is a summary of the corporate culture of one of Denmark’s leading retailers (part of Salling Group): practical words and ethical reassurances, evoking the need to save time during the shopping experience. The message is tailored to modern, sensitive consumers who are focused on simplicity and are well informed on numerous social and eco-sustainable issues, as do those who live and shop in Northern Europe.
The 6 million Danes enjoy a balance between work ethic, institutional organisation, sense of belonging to local communities, social security, respect for the environ ment, efficient healthcare systems and oppor tuni ties provided by educational institutions. Nevertheless, there are some rather worrying aspects in these parts of Northern Europe, such as the excessive cost of living (here, a coffee can cost as much as €6), the complex tax system that burdens the taxpayers, and harsh winter temperatures.
Salling Group figures
(According to official company sources) Salling Group (formerly Dansk Super market A/S) is a leading player in the country, with a 34% market share. This influential operator owns Føtex, with which it is currently experimenting in two supermarket distribution models with specific ‘Food’ and ‘City’ concepts in a variable mix of assortment, space, location and service – Bilka and Netto. The Group employs a total of 56 669 people (as of December 31, 2024).
Bilka, founded in 1970, operates the hypermarket format ‘Varehus’, offering a wide range of products (both food and non-food) at competitive prices in spacious locations, primarily outside major cities. Netto, founded in 1981, is the Salling Group’s brand in the discount channel, targeting consumers in Poland and Germany as well as the Danish domestic market.
It should not be confused with Netto-Marken Discount (also simply ‘Netto’), which is owned by the German company Edeka. As of August 2025, there were 573 Netto discount stores in Denmark, 687 in Poland and 341 in Germany. In Denmark there are 19 Bilka stores and 118 Føtex stores in the classic ‘Food’ and ‘City’ variants.
Strategies and directions In June 2025, it incorporated Rimi Baltic whereby the Group acquired an additional 314 stores and 11 000 employees. This operation allows for a deeper exploration of the strategic prospects for the Estonian, Latvian and Lithu anian distribution markets, leveraging the hard-working operations of the various Rimi Hyper (hyper markets), Rimi Super (supermarkets), Rimi Mini and Rimi Express (small, local stores), as well as making wise use of the now indispensable support of a modern e-commerce platform and collaboration with local Baltic pro ducers. Salling closed its last financial year (2024) with revenues of DKK 72.2 billion (€7 billion), with a profit of DKK 1.7 billion (almost €228 million).
The Salling brands in Denmark have their main competition in Coop Denmark (which also owns the store brand ‘SuperBrugsen’), with which they compete vigorously by offering more good prices every day and, at the same time, by promoting drastic discounts at the end of the day, on bags of unsold fresh products – evident signs of attention and sensitivity towards food waste.
