Corporate Vision July 2017

14 CORPORATE VISION / July 2017 , EROSKI is a consumer cooperative made up of worker-members and consumer-members. As a part of our 2017 Spanish Enterprise Awards, we invited the firm’s Chairman AgustínMarkaide to reveal more about this cooperative, made up of worker and consumer-members. With you, a new way of reaching our customers EROSKI is a different social business model, that is a cooperative model where consumers form part of the cooperative and of the corporate governing bodies. Thus, company policies emerge from the concerns of consumers in general. Worker- members participate in the equity of the company, form part of the decision-making bodies and are therefore highly involved in the business. The firm’s Chairman Agustín Markaide begins by telling us more about the impressive work of the firm, the role innovation plays in what they do and how their ‘With you’ model offers a greater freedom of choice to consumers. “EROSKI is the largest cooperative organisation in Spain. It is also one of the main distribution companies in Spain, with more than 1,800 stores of various formats and types, more than 33,000 workers and an annual turnover of 6,000 million Euros a year. It offers consumer goods and services to customers and provides a satisfactory shopping experience in conformable and modern stores. “Innovating is reinventing oneself and if there is one thing that summarises EROSKI’s activity in recent years it is transformation; comprehensive innovation committed to the optimisation of the value chain, the development of new store models and a new way of relating to customers through the EROSKI Club loyalty programme. “Our ‘With you’ model stores offer greater freedom of choice to consumers, because a varied diet is the key to a healthier diet. This new ‘with you’ business model, goes further into fresh produce specialisation, by opening the stores as close as possible to locally produced products, thus promoting the diversity of agri-food sector’s productive network. It also establishes a more personalised relationship with customers, from the service in the store to the bond with the brand through the EROSKI Club card. “Also, the ‘With you’ stores are constructed with the contributions, ideas, opinions and needs of the member customers, who are at the heart of the organisation, in keeping with its identity as a consumer cooperative.” A staggering 31,000 member customers have participated in programmes to assess the transformation of EROSKI stores, to the ‘with you’ model, mainly via face-to-face surveys and group activities, together with the workers of their usual store. Agustín is keen to reveal more. “The ‘with you’ store does not only imply a physical transformation but, above all, a major cultural change in the organisation which involves placing member customers in the centre, orienting the whole organisation towards the stores, as privileged relationship places, and promoting the self- management of the teams in each store. “These teams, as owners of the company for which they work, focus their efforts on adjusting the business proposal of their store to the competitive setting and to the specific expectations of their customers.” EROSKI’s strategy for the next years focuses on differentiation Agustín underlines, a point he goes on to develop, before offering his closing remarks on the firm’s consumer magazine and his thoughts on being included in the 2017 Spanish Enterprise Awards. “With this aim in mind, its commitment to health, wellbeing and sustainability will be 1750CV17 EROSKI’s latest milestones • 40th anniversary of its own brand : EROSKI was a pioneer in the creation of the own-label brand in Spain and is still a pioneer through the continuous launch of new solutions to the market under its own-label umbrella. And the proof of this is that EROSKI has just received 10 «Salute to Excellence Awards» 2017 from the PLMA, honouring retailers for their innovation in private label products and packaging. • Sustainability : Care for the environment is part of EROSKI’s identity. The proof of this is that EROSKI has been the first retail chain in Spain to pass the audit of the international organisation Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to certify the chain of custody of fresh fish, from sustainable fisheries. • EROSKI club : The loyalty programme EROSKI club has been in existence for nearly 3 years now and has more than 3.2 million members. • At present, EROSKI has more than 500 new generation stores already and continues with the plan to transform stores to the new ‘with you’ model.