The purchasing operations of our owners are locally carried out by each company. The Nordic negotiations are coordinated through a Nordic collaboration. Individual purchasers from each company come together in category-based purchasing groups within United Nordic.
Each purchasing group is led by a Chief buyer who is ultimately responsible for the purchasing process. The Chief Buyer is the suppliers’ primary contact during the negotiation phase. The Chief Buyer is supported by the United Nordic Support Office. The support contains a UN Procurement Manager for strategy and coordination, an QA Manager for specifications, packaging and CSR issues, an IT manager for technical support and a buying assistance for contracts etc.
The alliance of 13 members and partners, covering 250 grocery retail chains in 16 countries, representing 56,000 points of sales, cumulating a potential consumer turnover of 180 billion Euro in Europe.
United Nordic owners have been members since 1993 and have today a tight cooperation within the alliance both on A Brands and Private label.
The cooperation within Private Label have improved over time and since 2023 we are working tight with retailers like Colruyt and companies like Euromadi (Spain), Superunie (NL), Selex (IT) and Markant (DE). We are doing more and more tenders and purchasing projects together where we also share knowledge, suppliers, specifications and experiences in a good way.
The purchasing process follows a structured purchasing model and ends in contracts between suppliers and an individual United Nordic member company. The individual company takes on the tasks of design developments, quality assurance and logistics.
United Nordic has over 60 years history of seamless cross-border cooperation and mutual trust in handling negotiations and purchases, which are critical success factors.
Buyers from each member company join category-based purchasing groups, led by a Chief Buyer who manages negotiations with suppliers.
The Chief Buyer is supported by United Nordic’s support office, providing expertise in strategy, quality, IT, and administration during the negotiation phase.
Each individual member company signs contracts with suppliers and is responsible for product design, quality assurance, and logistics.
Our strength lies in uniting local insight with Nordic coordination—delivering efficient, transparent, and future-ready purchasing.
Namn Namnsson
Chief Buyer, United Nordic
