Irma A/S is a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 supermarket chain, part of the Coop Danmark group. It was founded in 1886 by Carl Schepler, as a small grocery store selling eggs in Ravnsborggade in Nørrebro

Nørrebro

Nørrebro is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is northwest of the city centre, beyond the location of the old Northern Gate , which, until dismantled in 1856, was near the current Nørreport station.-Geography:...

, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. The chain is the second oldest groceries chain in the world, after Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

. As of August 2006, the chain had 71 stores, mostly located in the Metropolitan Copenhagen

Metropolitan Copenhagen

The term Metropolitan Copenhagen consist of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities and the former Copenhagen County, except for the municipalities Høje-Taastrup, Ledøje-Smørum, in all, 18 municipalities, and except parts of Ballerup, Greve , Ishøj, former Søllerød and former Værløse, ...

 area.

Irma also operates an express version of the store, known as Irma City. These stores are smaller than the normal Irma, with longer opening hours and a range of organic take away food.

Concept

Irma is quality-oriented mainly aiming for quality-conscious and environment

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

-aware customer

Customer

A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...

s by focusing on fresh and organic

Organic food

Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...

 products as well as packaging. Therefore, the stores have a great variety of organic products compared to other Danish supermarket, and packaging containing PVC

PVC

Polyvinyl chloride is a plastic.PVC may also refer to:*Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honor*Peripheral venous catheter, a small, flexible tube placed into a peripheral vein in order to administer medication or fluids...

 and excessive amounts of aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 are banned from the shelves. The same goes for chlorine

Chlorine

Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...

-bleached products.

In 2006, Irma had discounts on many organic products, leading to a world record with over 40% of their sales being organic.

Expansion and future plans

Irma has almost always only been located in the Capital Region

Region Hovedstaden

The Capital Region of Denmark is an administrative region of Denmark established on January 1, 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which replaced the traditional counties with five larger regions. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the...

, with a few exceptions in the 1980s where Irma tried, unsuccessfully, to locate themselves in Odense

Odense

The city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.Odense City has a population of 167,615 and is the main city of the island of Funen...

. But in April 2008 Irma opened their first stores outside the Capital Region, in a deal with the department store chain Magasin du Nord, which saw Irma take over their grocery departments, Mad & Vin (lit. Food and Wine), in the stores in Odense and Århus.