Coop Arvidsjaur receives record breaking delivery after the fire in May.
View pictures of the installation at the end of this article
On Tuesday, May 28, a large fire broke out at Coop Arvidsjaur. The fire could not be stopped, and the building burned to the ground.
Arvidsjaur lost one of its two grocery stores, and Coop, which according to its own data accounts for 70% of sales in the area, needed to act quickly.
Just two weeks later, a new temporary location was found, a vacant space in the Ugglanhuset mall. The challenge of opening a completely new grocery store with everything it entails remained, and for Coop Norrbotten, time was of the essence.
WICA has a long-standing and highly functional partnership as a supplier to Coop Norrbotten, and here we faced a difficult task: to deliver a whole store's worth of new refrigerated cabinets in record time! As you know, we produce according to the just-in-time (JIT) principle, which means we don't have any remote cabinetsin stock, instead everything is custom-made in Sweden for each individual project, with typical lead times of around 10 weeks. Not good enough this time.
It has now been less than 4 weeks since Coop Norrbotten could finalize a layout for Coop Arvidsjaur, and new refrigerated cabinets are already in place in the store where installation is proceeding at an amazing pace – A RECORD in terms of delivery time.
Daniel Kronstedt, production manager at Wica in Småland, has this to say about the project:
"It is not an easy task considering that we are already producing at full capacity and material need to be available to succeed with such a solution. But given the urgent situation for Coop Arvidsjaur, all tricks in the book were used to push the cabinets through production without other projects being affected. Luckily, we are geographically close to our customers and have great flexibility in the factory."
These types of solutions should not be taken for granted. Unique situations require unique solutions, and we are sure that, regardless of loyalty to different grocery chains, you can appreciate that in times of crisis, it is possible to do something extraordinary. This is not the first time WICA has had the chance to help a store in need – just two years ago, a similar effort was required after ICA SM Rottne burned to the ground. Whether it’s a cabinet failure, fire, or other emergency situation, we are here.
We are extremely grateful for Coop's trust in WICA, but also proud of our own capability, from purchasing materials to production in the Småland factory, preparation of PREFAB and technology, to completed installation in the store, in just 4 weeks. Absolutely incredible.
Judging from Coop Arvidsjaur's own social channels, locals in the area are grateful that things are moving quickly. We are not finished yet but soon, so thank you to Coop and everyone involved for this unique solution.
View pictures from the unfinished installation below.
