Norwegian online grocer Oda has named retail veteran Pål Wibe as its new chair. Wibe, who has spent almost three decades in Norwegian retail, including as top executive at Nille, Europris and XXL, takes over from the Dane Jesper Højer, who has left to become chief executive of Dutch grocery chain Jumbo.
Wibe is no stranger to the company. He sat on Oda’s board from 2016, when the business was still called Kolonial, until 2021. He has recently become a full-time board professional and currently chairs Posten Bring and the Danish company Whiteaway, which owns appliance retailer Skousen, alongside several other board seats. He told E24 he has long been convinced the model can work. “I have always thought online grocery must be profitable,” he said, even in small markets such as Norway and Sweden.
Oda has not yet reached that point. Recent years have brought deep losses and layoffs, although the 2025 accounts showed a sharp improvement worth around a billion kroner, driven mainly by a turnaround in Sweden. After failed ventures in Finland and Germany, expansion into new countries has been taken off the table. Instead the company plans to grow internationally by selling its logistics technology to other grocery chains, an initiative chief executive André Knüppel launched about a year and a half ago. No agreement has been signed so far, but Knüppel rejected the idea that interest is weaker than hoped. “Appetite is bigger than ever,” he said, describing the deals as industrial projects that take time and noting that work on layouts and concepts is under way with potential partners.
Wibe said his background in fine-tuning retail systems and his board work selling systems to grocery chains around the world make for a good combination at Oda. He also described himself as a loyal customer for years and said he does not plan to micromanage, though people who know him would call him engaged. Knüppel said that is what he wants. Wibe added that he is in talks about investing in Oda himself, since he prefers to take an ownership stake in the companies he chairs.
Looking ahead, Wibe said Oda has been through a major restructuring and now needs to build on it. At some point, he said, the company will have to show that it can deliver its solutions outside the Nordic region, which is where its plan to sell technology rather than groceries will be judged.
