Our Culture and History Canica is a family-owned company, guided by a set of core values, which drives our passion for excellence. Our values are a constant reminder for us to treat every interaction with the highest level of loyalty and respect. Be it with our employees, society at large or family members. The commitment, focus and deep-held values of the owners, coupled with the professionalism and efficiency of the company's leadership and employees, assure that Canica remains modern, entrepreneurial and prepared to take on new challenges. We believe that a well-run company secures family assets, assures continuation and the ability to do sustainable business in a long-term perspective. Stein Erik Hagen Our Culture Our team is our greatest asset We are passionate about the welfare and success of our employees, our companies and society as a whole. As an investment company, we have an obligation and opportunity to make a difference. Our people are our greatest asset. As owners we want to ensure that our companies create a positive work environment, and we encourage them to take actions that benefit the value creation, our employees and society as a whole. Canica Brand Leadership Program To ensure proper onboarding of key employees in our operational retail investments, we have in collaboration with Orkla designed Canica Brand Leadership Program. This is a program running over six months with divided into three modules that each last for three days. We create groups of 20-30 people mixed from different companies holding different positions within the Canica family. The group stays the same through all three sessions ensuring that the participants get a good connection with each other. The Canica Brand Leadership Program focuses on core value creating processes linked to positioning and building strong brands. Each of the three modules has a main topic. Brand Strategy & Brand Positioning, Innovation & Business Development and last Consumer Communication. Upon completion of the Canica Brand Leadership Program the participants will have a knowledge of how to build strong brands and how to apply this into their own organizations. They will also have formed relationsto peers outside their own company which they can benefit from at a later point. Canica Growth Awards Canica Growth Awards focuses on the overall target of creating business growth. All the activities we do have the common goal of creating profitable business growth and by this yearly event, gathering the management teams in all our operating companies, we recognize and reward those initiatives delivering such growth focusing on: Best Innovation Best Event Best Customer Communication Best Canica Company The event brings together both internal and external speakers who are experts within their domain and each year we have a different main topic. Canica Growth Awards has become an important part of our culture. Value & Vision Creating value through excellence At Canica we aim to pursue our values at all times and the philosophy of our strategy goes hand in hand with these three words: Courage – Consistency – Competency Courage means that we aim to show a will to win in every aspect of our business. We seek to acquire and develop companies that offer the potential to earn sustainable and attractive returns on our capital, as well as creating value and employment. We strive for, and celebrate good results. And finally, we are passionate about all our investments and brands. Consistency. We aim for a long-term approach towards our investments, always striving for a solid and stable economic foundation to ensure business continuity. When we look for new investment opportunities we mainly look for companies operating in sectors we know, and we value depth over breadth. We always seek to build credibility with customers, investors and financiers, treating every interaction with respect, honesty and excellence. We are committed to our goals and values. We expect our companies to set specific goals to ensure that their value creation is sustainable. Competency. We offer core expertise within the fields of business development, retail, brand development, real estate and finance, as well as capital and network in order to create value and employment in a long-term perspective. We have over 40 years of experience from the retail industry and we focus on developing lean and effective management teams, and are fully committed to all employees of our companies. We appreciate and always strive for a good company culture within the organizations. We highly value our moral compass: pursuing excellence in everything we do; from the way business is conducted to interactions with each other, our companies, the communities around us and other stakeholders. We see that sustainability is becoming an important aspect of competitiveness and value creation. Therefore we expect all our portfolio companies to develop strategies to implement sustainability and promote actions to reduce risks and commercialize business opportunities. Sustainability We are long-term owners with an obligation towards society. We have a responsibility to contribute to global sustainable development – a development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A key success factor is ensuring that we are part of tomorrow’s solutions. Our greatest contribution is therefore how we manage our assets and the expectations we place on our investments. We wish to enable our companies to invest in people and solutions for a sustainable future. In this way, we contribute to solving the challenges of the future whilst also creating long-term value for society as a whole. Read our Sustainability guidelines here History The story of Canica really began in Oslo in 1953 when a young grocer from the valleys came to the city and started a company under his own name: Odd Hagen AS. By 1976 Odd Hagen's company had grown to incorporate several grocery stores. His son, Stein Erik, was twenty years old and started to work for his father as a store manager. Stein Erik Hagen proved to be both very ambitious and incredibly entrepreneurial. Only one year after starting to work for his father, he opened three stores - now under the name Rimi, with the slogan Easiest is Cheapest. Both the name, the slogan and Stein Erik's business idea proved to be genius and soon Rimi became a Norwegian household word. Stein Erik took over his father’s companies in 1980. In 1987 the Rimi Group consisted of 53 stores with a combined turnover of NOK 1.9 billion. After ICA Handlarnas AB became a shareholder in 1992, the Group grew to 550 stores by the following year. In 1996 the group consisted of 1209 nation-wide stores with a combined turnover of NOK 18.6 billion. The Group eventually achieved a market share of 25%. Stein Erik sold his last Rimi-shares in 2004 – 27 years after opening his first store. Canica was established as an investment company in 1985, focusing on retail, real estate and financial investments. In the late 1990´s the company bought its first shares in the Norwegian industrial conglomerate Orkla ASA. As of 2021, Canica controls 25% of Orkla, where Stein Erik has been Chairman of the Board since 2006. From 2009 three of Stein Erik's children – Camilla, Caroline and Carl Erik have all taken a major role in the operation and governance of Canica and its investments. Caroline assumed the role as Canica’s Chairman, while Camilla and Carl Erik both hold several board positions in companies within the Canica sphere - in addition to taking an active part in the day-to-day operation of the company. Nicolai is still attending his studies in the UK. Camilla lives in Norway, while both Carl Erik and Caroline live in Switzerland, where Caroline's husband, Christer Kjos, is the CEO of Canica Holding AG and Canica’s Swiss office. Stein Erik has over the years transferred most of his holdings to his children. Odd Hagen died in 2011. His son, Stein Erik, still plays an active part in Canica's operations, while taking great pride in seeing the company's third generation flourish. Philanthropy “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pike For decades, Canica has supported medical research within several disciplines. Contributions have primarily been made in four main categories within medical research: chronic diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and auto immune disorders. A substantsial amount has been donated so far, and our strategy is to continue supporting outstanding research communities for years to come. Canica strive to contribute towards university environments nationally and internationally in order for the research to benefit as many people as possible. Examples of areas that have been focused on up until now is: cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, auto immune disorders in the digestive system. And recently emergency aid for research of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canica is especially proud to have contributed to the education of professors, diverse doctoral theses and protocols used to treat several diseases. Our Art Collection The Canica Art Collection is first and foremost comprised of Nordic and Northern European fine art from the 19th and 20th Century – painting, sculpture and graphic work. Essentially, art historical movements of interest are: the Nordic avant-garde from the period around the First World War, abstract and nonfigurative art from the 1920s, Expressionism, Surrealism – artists associated with the CoBrA-group. Key artists among others are: J.F. Willumsen, Edvard Munch, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, Erik Olson, Franciska Clausen, Freddie, Arne Ekeland, Vilhelm Lunststrøm – and especially Asger Jorn, who is represented with more than 30 paintings. Also in the substantial print collection, Asger Jorn is an artist of key importance – represented with 300 works, including several of his most important graphical series. Other leading printmakers counts Edvard Munch, Rolf Nesch, Ludvig Eikaas, Knut Rumohr and Per Kleiva. The Canica Art Collection collaborates closely with museums worldwide and works of art from the collection are on loan to several museum exhibitions, in Norway and abroad, at any given time. Norway Karenslyst allé 4, 5th fl., NO-0278 Oslo, Norway P.O. Box 313 Skøyen, NO-0213 Oslo, Norway Tel + 47 24 13 30 00 post@canica.no Switzerland Bahnhofstrasse 1 8808 Pfäffikon SZ, Switzerland Tel + 41 (0) 55 415 14 90 post@canica.ch BACK TO TOP Privacy Photo: Carl Erik Hagen | Camilla Hagen Sørli | Colin Eick | GettyImages