Coop remains Estonia's grocery market leader despite sharp profit decline
Coop retained its leading position in Estonia's food and everyday consumer goods market in 2025 with a 22.8 percent market share. However, lower sales volumes and rising costs pushed operating profit down by 25 percent to €10.2 million.
"Food sales volumes in Estonia have been declining for four consecutive years, and consumers' price sensitivity has not disappeared. People are increasingly shopping at several stores at the same time, looking for the cheapest basket and making smaller purchases," said Rainer Rohtla, Chairman of the Board of Coop Eesti Keskühistu.
According to Veiko Haavapuu, Member of the Management Board and CFO of Coop Eesti Keskühistu, the decline in the Coop retail group's profit reflects a deliberate decision to ease price pressure at a time when consumers' purchasing power has been weak for several years. "If Coop's operating profit was €24.8 million in 2023, then by 2025 it had fallen to €10.2 million. As a result, profitability has reached the level of 1.2 percent," he said.
"If the drop in profit in 2024 was mainly due to Coop absorbing price increases worth more than six million euros, then in 2025 profit declined as a result of wage increases that were not passed on to consumers," Haavapuu said.
"By now, Coop's profitability has fallen so low that growing cost pressure leaves less room to absorb price increases within our cost base. That is why Coop is investing even more strongly in innovation and automation," Haavapuu added.
Due to its cooperative structure, Coop's regional cooperatives do not pay dividends, instead directing all income back into the development of the retail network or into supporting community projects that are important in the cooperative's operating area.
While last year Coop's regional cooperatives opened a total of four new stores and renovated 12, this year the Coop Group plans significantly larger investments in its store network. According to the current plan, Coop will open 13 new stores and renovate 11 stores in 2026. Whereas investment in the four new stores in 2025 amounted to €9 million, this year local cooperatives will invest more than €20 million in new store construction, the group said.
This mainly means replacing depreciated buildings of small local stores with new, more energy‑efficient buildings that better meet local consumers' needs, rather than adding a large number of entirely new stores.
The Keila Maksimarket in Harju County and the Puhja Construction Center in Tartu County have already opened, while the Kehtna store in Rapla County and the Kõrgessaare store on Hiiumaa have been reopened after renovation. Later this year, additional stores will open, including Luunja Konsum, Selja Konsum, Narva Kreenholm Maksimarket/Ehituskeskus, Uulu Konsum, Kose Pappjärve Konsum, and others.
Additional momentum will come from the acquisition of Finnish-owned Prisma Peremarket and its 13 stores in Estonia, which is still awaiting approval from the Competition Authority.
Nationwide, Coop's market share will rise from 23 percent to 28 percent after the transaction is completed. The largest jump will occur in Tallinn, where Coop's market share will increase from 5 percent to 17 percent. Despite this, Coop will still rank fourth in the capital after the deal is finalized.
"Investing in strengthening the store network during economically difficult times has been a deliberate choice for Coop," Rohtla emphasized.
Altogether, Coop's store network will expand by 26 new stores in 2026. In seven cases, this means replacing an existing small store with a larger Coop Konsum grocery store.
Regional inequality is increasing
According to Tarmo Punger, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Coop Eesti Keskühistu and Chairman of the Management Board of the Tartu Consumer Cooperative, a regional analysis carried out by Coop at the end of last year clearly shows that residents of Tallinn, Harju County, and Tartu County are in the best position, where median wages are higher, while coping is becoming increasingly difficult in regions with lower incomes.
"In Tallinn and Harju County, as well as in Tartu County, shopping baskets are more diverse; people buy more higher‑priced, healthier, and convenience products. In Ida‑Viru County, price sensitivity is the highest — there, cheaper staple goods, canned foods, sugary drinks, and certain bakery products make up a larger share of the basket, and the impact of payday on monthly purchasing behavior is very clearly visible," Punger said.
According to Punger, Coop's data also reveals clear regional consumption patterns: in southern Estonia, the older population prefers a stable basket focused on basic foodstuffs, while in coastal and tourism regions purchasing behavior is strongly influenced by seasonality.
"In summer, demand there grows rapidly for grilling products, beverages, and fresh food, while inland the shopping basket is much more strongly shaped by day‑to‑day subsistence. These differences show that regional inequality is no longer reflected only in incomes, but is very clearly visible in what people can afford in their everyday food basket," he explained. According to Punger, this is also the main reason why Coop supports a reduction of VAT on essential foodstuffs.
Coop is Estonia's largest organization engaged in the sale of food and everyday consumer goods by revenue and market share. It operates as a cooperative organization and is owned by more than 60,000 people in Estonia. The Coop retail group consists of 18 regional consumer cooperatives and a central cooperative that coordinates their activities.
At the end of 2025, Coop Estonia operated 315 active retail outlets across the country.
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Editor: Argo Ideon
