The new Coop boss has fired half the management team

Photo: Agriculture Minister Sylvi Listhaug and CEO of Coop, Geir Inge Stokke. Cuts mutton. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

The new Coop boss Geir Inge Stokke has undertaken a rapid clean-up and slimmed down the management team in the group from 24 to 11 people, writes the newspaper Aftenposten.

When Stokke took over as Coop CEO last November, he promised to clean up the organization. Now  13 people have been removed from the management group while 650 employees have had to go because of overlapping work for the chain’s acquisition of ICA.

–   24 people who report to me are simply too many. It is not effective, says Stokke to Aftenposten.

He leads a group that is on a roll after the ICA acquisition and are now taking market shares from competitors. This has created an energy and enthusiasm in the Coop system that Stokke would like to utilize.

– We need to be more coordinated and get even more pressure in the organization. Then we need an efficient management team that takes the important discussions, he said.

The change has also meant that  grocery- Norway will get their first woman in the top echelons. Stokke has acquired Gøril Joys Johnsen as deputy chief, one in three women in the new management team.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today