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Reitan AS
Reitan is a Norwegian family-owned group that runs discount grocery stores, convenience stores, and fuel stations across the Nordics.
Reitan is a Norwegian family business that most people in the Nordics bump into without noticing. It owns the discount grocery chain Rema 1000, where many Norwegian households do much of their weekly shopping, along with convenience stores and fuel stations that serve drivers on the go.
The business splits roughly into three parts. The grocery arm, Rema 1000, is the biggest: a no-frills discount chain selling a limited range of everyday food and household goods at low prices, competing directly with larger rivals like NorgesGruppen and Coop in Norway. The convenience and fuel business runs the Narvesen kiosk chain, the 7-Eleven stores in Norway and Denmark, and the Uno-X and YX fuel stations, which is a smart pairing — people stopping for gas also grab a coffee and a snack. A third, smaller arm handles real estate and other investments. The company earns money on thin grocery margins multiplied across hundreds of stores, plus the higher-margin snacks, drinks, and ready meals sold at its kiosks and forecourts. It is controlled by the Reitan family, founded by Odd Reitan, who started with a single shop in Trondheim in the 1940s and built it into one of Norway's largest private companies. Being private means no stock market pressure, so the family can think in decades rather than quarters.
Its strength is scale and frugality — Rema 1000 is famous for keeping costs down and fighting price wars with its big rivals. The vulnerability is that grocery retail is a brutal, low-margin grind, and the family faces well-funded competitors in every market it enters.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026