Gekås
 Gekås, 2010 | |
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1963 in Ullared, Sweden |
| Founder | Göran Karlsson |
| Headquarters | Falkenberg, Sweden |
| Coordinates | 57°8′3″N 12°42′51″E / 57.13417°N 12.71417°ECoordinates: 57°8′3″N 12°42′51″E / 57.13417°N 12.71417°E |
| Parent | Jantex AB |
| Website |
gekas |
Gekås Ullared AB is a Swedish superstore in Ullared, Sweden, founded in 1963 by Göran Karlsson as Ge-kås Manufaktur. It had an annual turnover of SEK 4.2 B in 2010,[1] with a total store area of over 30,000 m2 (320,000 sq ft) in addition to a 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft) storage area just a few hundred yards away. In 2013, Malin Helde became CEO of the store, while Boris Lennerhov became CEO of the parent company.[2] The store is visited annually by approximately 4.5 million customers,[3] with the 2007 record of 26,200 for a single day, and the average customer travelling 150 km to get to the store. The store has recently opened a camping ground and a motel to accommodate long distance travellers. It has been known for avoiding conventional advertising, instead relying on word of mouth. For three years starting in 2011, a reality television series, Ullared, was filmed in and around the store. It aired in both Norway and Sweden.
The average customer is a woman, at the age of 43, and buys for approx. $446.20 and visits the store twice a year. On 25 July 2011, the superstore was visited by record 29,500 customers during the day. The longest queue outside the superstore ever were recorded on 30 October 2010, when the queue was longer than 1.4 km. In 2011, over 122 million items passed the store's checkouts. The department store's product range consists of over 100,000 items. The value of the goods available in the store is $4.9 million. A fully loaded truck delivers items every 10 minutes.
History
- 1963 – Store founded in Ullared by Göran Karlsson
- 1967 – The store moves to a bigger building
- 1971 – The store changes location again, to its current location
- 1991 – Göran Karlsson sells the company to six employees
- 2003 – The market court forbids Göran Karlsson, who had started a competing business, from using the word "Ullared" in his marketing.[4]
Notes
- Ullared - byn som blev ett varumärke, Torsten Andersson. 2003. Falkenberg: Ge-kås Ullared AB. ISBN 91-631-3660-0
References
- ↑ Sales figures
- ↑ http://www.expressen.se/gt/nu-lamnar-boris-over-till-nya-ullareds-malin/
- ↑ Om Gekås Ullared / Roliga siffror
- ↑ Dom i Marknadsdomstolen
Further reading
- Persson, Anders (1982). Ge-Kåskonflikten - och sedan? : rapport från en kartläggning av konflikten mellan Handelsanställdas förbund och lågprisvaruhuset Ge-Kås i Ullared. GraphicSystems.
- Håkansson, Annlouise (2003). Att fånga tiden : dokumentation av Ge-kås i Ullared år 2002. Länsmuseet Halmstad.