At Askeladden & Co, we believe in testing new market alternatives and adjusting as we go. However, it is crucial that our ventures deliver on three things: satisfied customers, happy employees, and solid profitability. Unfortunately, some of our companies were unable to meet all of these. As part of our social responsibility, we ensure a proper and orderly end, including fulfilling outstanding claims and being considerate towards our employees and the partners who have supported us.
Food & Beverages
December 2020 – October 2021
Munnfull was a buffet restaurant, aiming to provide value for money and to be a place for the whole family. Having in mind that people love the concept of a great hotel breakfast buffet, Munnfull wanted to transfer these positive connotations onto dinner.
Munnfull suffered from an overly high cash burn and too much pivoting resulting in the brand not being distinct enough, which is utterly important in a very competitive market. Operating during COVID also brought its challenges, such as a temporary nationwide ban on buffets altogether, as well as several lockdowns. Munnfull was shut down in October 2021.
Food & Beverages
November 2020 – February 2022
Kopp was a combined café and winebar, serving coffee, snacks and food during the day, and wine in the evening. With Norway being on top of coffee statistics worldwide, Kopp felt like a safe bet. Serving wine in the evenings was meant to increase utilization in typical off-peak hours for cafés.
Kopp ended up mixing too many concepts to communicate the value proposition clearly. We also misjudged the price-sensitivity Norwegians have towards coffee, meaning our slightly lower price-point wasn’t enough to drive traffic. It didn’t help that the same day Kopp opened its doors, COVID slammed them shut, having to stay closed for an extended amount of time. Kopp finally closed its doors in December 2021.
Food & Beverages
January 2021 – February 2022
Food Society was a restaurant and delivery concept which offered dishes from several specialized kitchens (e.g. Street; Indian; Thai; Korean; Greens; Japanese). The premise was that a family or group could all get food according to their own preference, while still ordering from the same place - a digital food hall.
The concept brought operational complexity due to the vast number of dishes a cook needed to master. Also the business model was based on scale benefits achieved at high volumes, which was made more difficult to achieve due to COVID. The concept did not achieve sufficient volumes to reach profitability, and was therefore closed down in January 2021
Consumer Services & Entertainment
2019 – October 2023
Vater is a company specializing in outdoor and indoor blinds. The company was founded in 2019, and was brought under the A&CO-umbrella in 2021, as a result of impressive initial growth. The company expanded into heat pumps, interior painting, as well as light carpentry work, with the ambition to move further into the home interior upgrade market.
Unfortunately, due to challenging macroeconomic conditions, the company had to temporarily cut growth ambitions and downsize its staff. At this point, A&CO decided to withdraw from the company, selling the majority of shares to the founder, and retaining a 15% stake. After the home-improvement sector continued to plunge, the company eventually had to close down in October 2023.
Technology
April 2022 – July 2024
Swash was intended to develop a chain of car-washes. After facing difficulties locating attractive locations, the company pivoted to developing and providing the necessary technology to operate and use car-washes, focusing on easy-of-use. The company attained a few chains as customers, and sold technology-licenses from April 2022.
In the end, the market for technology alone turned out to be too limited. Even with paying customers and low cost, Askeladden & Co decided that the upside potential in continuing operations didn’t justify the required effort. As a result, a controlled liquidation was initiated. The company will seize operations in July 2024, having begun offboarding the existing customers.
New Retail
August 2023 – January 2024
Bandit was a group-buying app modelled on the chinese megasucces PinDuoDuo. The concept is to let consumers go together in groups to get discounted prices on products from well-known brands. Cutting out the middlemen, this model should give consumers better prices and producers higher margins. After launching in August 23, the company achieved impressive growth in users and orders.
Due to the high development cost, and a business model that requires high-columes, Bandit was dependent on securing funding for further development and growth. Despite the impressive metrics, the market for VC-funding was completely dry. After a last effort to secure capital from the exisiting investors didn’t succeed, the company unfortunately had to close down.
New Retail
November 2021 – January 2025
Okkult was launched with the intention of providing affordable quality eyewear and free eye-exams utilizing innovative technology. Focusing on design, quality and great customer service, the brand opened its first store in Hegdehaugsveien in Oslo, aiming to compete with the national optical retailers.
Although Okkult sold thousands of glasses and achieved very high customer satisfaction, the company didn’t manage to attract enough customers at a sustainable acquisition cost. After opening a total of three stores, varying performance across the stores made overall profitability hard to achieve, and with no liqudity to continue operations, the company closed down in January 2025
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