Robert Borode, 51, and his partner Jan Lederer Isachsen, 63, grew up in families who ran grocery stores. 23 years ago, they opened their own Kiwi shop in Asker.
With NOK 600,000 in savings, they secured a franchise agreement with the Kiwi chain and 60 percent ownership in Oslofjordmat. The rest is owned by NorgesGruppen, which later increased its stake to 51 percent.
After several years of working around the clock, the duo eventually ended up owning and operating 23 stores with nearly $1.5 billion in annual sales, but last year Burud and Isaksen sold their stake in Oslofjordmat to Norgesgruppen.
But that wasn’t the only thing Boroud and Isaksen did that year. Industry newspaper Bygg wrote in May last year that Jaro Invest It sold its stake of 51 percent In the contractor Olaf E Eriksen AS of SGF Entreprenør and investment company Frey. You brought money into the coffers.
| (NK million) | 2022 | 2021 |
| operating income | 3.2 | 4.0 |
| playback result | -4.8 | -2.2 |
| The result is before taxes | 228.8 | 24.2 |
| The result after tax | 228.8 | 24.2 |
More than 200 million
The parties did not want to disclose the sale price in connection with the sale of 23 Kiwi stores, and the Olaf E. Eriksen sale price is unknown. But Jaro Invest’s annual result still points to plenty of profit.
Financial income was NOK 235.4 million last year, which can likely be linked to sales. This resulted in a profit after tax of NOK 228.8 million.
Finansavisen has tried to get a hold of Burud, but has been unsuccessful so far. Dagens Næringsliv discussed the annual accounts first.
Managing a Kiwi shop was unknown to Broad. His cousin Per Eric Borod was the principal and owner of the chain, which he bought in 1991. It then consisted of eight local shops in Buskerud.
Being cousins with the kiwi chief did not give you any special advantages, quite the opposite. Robert and Jean worked hard and took every risk. Confused, the kiwi took over.
In the first year, they had a turnover of 13.8 million and lost half a million kroner. Borrow money from family and friends to pay employees on time. Time has shown that the investment and all the work was worth it.
Not everyday food
It’s not every day that the food giant buys 23 Kiwi Stores from its franchisee.
The decision was made to buy Burud and Isaksen directly at the top of the Norgesgruppen. The board, where the powerful Johansson family holds the leadership position, brought the matter to the table in April last year.
“The dialogue about a potential sale has been going on for a while, but when it came to pricing and final negotiations, things moved relatively quickly,” Stein Romerod, Communications Director at Norgsgruppen told Finansavisen when the sale became known.
At the beginning of 2022, there were 689 kiwi stores in Norway. 99 of them were owned by local merchants who had a franchise agreement with the grocery giant.
Now that Norgesgruppen has secured full control of 23 new stores, there are only about 70 merchant-owned Kiwi stores left in Norway.
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