850 million in stock dividends from 25 largest grocery stores • Economy: The state can take responsibility
SEK 850 million.
So much has the 25 largest grocery stores distributed in share dividends since 2024, reports P4.
“It is clear that you can absolutely refrain from this,” Niklas Egels Zandén, professor of business administration, told TV4 News of the juicy payments.
Swedish Radio P4 has reviewed the dividends at the 25 grocery stores in the country with the greatest turnover.
Together, the stores have raised at least SEK 850 million in dividends.
– You can decide not to propose any dividend to the shareholders, says Rolf Dotevall, professor of trade law, to the channel.
Karin Brynell, CEO of Swedish daily trade, in turn stresses that the profitability of the stores has decreased and that the price increases in the stores are due to inflation – not on dividends.
– All companies in Sweden must be allowed to make money. It is the only way to get people to want to run companies, she says.
Could renounce and lower prices
Niklas Egels Zandén is a professor of business administration at the Gothenburg School of Business, and on the question of whether the stores could have waived share dividends, he replies:
– Of course, things are fine. Then it is clear that you as an entrepreneur may not want it. Of course, you also want to pick out a profitability and a profit in your company. But it is clear that you can absolutely refrain from this and then that money could go back to lower prices and thus a reduced profit for your company.
He adds that the state also benefits from the high food prices as the VAT on food remains unchanged.
– Those figures are even much higher than the figures on the trader side. What you see here becomes a problem for a politician where one side wants to put pressure on these players to lower prices and to keep their margins down and in this way respond to this boycott. At the same time as it becomes very clear that there is an actor who could act – one could go in from the government with a lowered food VAT and it had also led to effects on the price picture in that case.
Dissatisfied with the criticism
Niklas Egels Zandén describes it all as a situation that both the food giants and the state are a little satisfied – but at the same time dissatisfied that they are now starting to receive criticism.
He concludes by pointing out a potential compromise between the parties.
– It is quite possible that we can see such a solution in the future where you see a reduction in food VAT, while there is a strong control on the part of the state and the Swedish Competition Authority that prices really go down the corresponding percentage so that the companies do not fit and take more profits.