Simone Margulies new president and CEO of Axfood
In Sweden, the two most successful chains, ICA and Axfood, are now led by women. In Norway, we have no women at the CEO level, not in NorgesGruppen, not in Rema 1000 and not in Coop.
Axfood – the condensed version
Axfood company family includes the store chains Willys and Hemköp, as well as Tempo and Handlar'n.Wholesale sales take place through Axfood Snabbgross and the support company Dagab is responsible for the group's product development, purchasing and logistics.
The Axfood family also includes Mat.se, Middagsfrid and Urban Deli as well as part-owned Apohem and Eurocash.
Together, the group has just over 10,000 employees and a turnover of just under SEK 50 billion.
Axfood's shares have been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 1997 and the main owner is Axel Johnson AB.
What is the reason? Are Swedish women more ambitious than their Norwegian sisters? We do not know but leave it to our readers to speculate.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how Simone Margulies will run Axfood in the future. Will she be as successful as outgoing president, Klas Balkow? Will she do many changes, in personnel, in strategy, in marketing?
Axfood is listed on the stock exchange, so there will be many opportunities to follow her closely. And the market will do, for sure! Even in Sweden it is still not quite common to have female top managers in large, private companies
Simone Margulies started her post as president and CEO of Axfood last week.
Long tenure in the company
Simone Margulies comes most recently from the role of CEO of Hemköpskedjan AB, and before that the role of Deputy CEO of Axfood's purchasing and logistics company Dagab. Simone has a total of over 18 years of experience in the grocery industry.
“I am both honoured and happy that the board has given me this trust, and with great enthusiasm I am ready to get started. There is enormous capacity in this group, and I look forward to collaborating with all driven employees to write the next chapter in Axfood's history and take further steps towards being a leader in affordable, good, and sustainable food,” says Simone Margulies.
In mid-august, Shoan Etemadi, former vice president and sales manager for Hemköp, took over as the new CEO of the Hemköp chain.
Sources: Axfood, DN, Nordnet.