Plus Brand Guidelines: A 1928 Grocers’ Co-operative, 4=6, Plusmarkt and the Coop Merger

Grocers buying together since 1928.

Plus is not a company founded by one person but a co-operative of grocers. Dutch Wikipedia traces its origins to dozens of local co-operatives active in the 1920s, which in 1928 set up a joint buying association with a long formal name — in English, roughly the Co-operative Union of Grocers’ Buying Association of the Netherlands Sperwer League — and traded under the short name Sperwer, the Dutch word for the sparrowhawk. The sources used for this guide do not say how the Sperwer co-operative operated during the occupation of 1940–1945.

The store names changed several times. Dutch Wikipedia says the Sperwer formula grew in the following decades but was phased out in the 1960s and replaced by 4=6, a name taken from a savings-stamp scheme in which shoppers who filled a book of stamps got back more than they had paid for them. The 4=6 stores were later renamed Plusmarkt. Sources differ on the year: Dutch Wikipedia gives 1987 in its history and 1988 in its summary box, while English Wikipedia says the Plusmarkt formula was created in 1988 to replace the 4=6 chain. In 2001 Plusmarkt was shortened to Plus, which both encyclopaedias agree on; the company styles the name in capitals.

The structure behind the sign stayed co-operative. English Wikipedia describes the members as independent entrepreneurs who run their own stores and trade as Plus under licence from a holding company, Plus Holding, which runs marketing on their behalf and supervises the formula. It gave 259 member owners running 270 stores as of 2020. Plus buys through Superunie, a purchasing co-operative shared by several Dutch supermarket groups, according to both English and Dutch Wikipedia.

Edah, two lost contests and Coop.

The biggest step in its growth before 2021 came from the break-up of the Laurus retail group. In 2006, in a consortium with the food wholesaler Sligro, Sperwer took over the Edah chain from Laurus, English and Dutch Wikipedia say; eighty Edah branches went to Sperwer and were converted into Plus supermarkets, while another eighty went to Sligro.

Two further takeover attempts did not succeed. In 2009 Sperwer bid for the Super de Boer chain and lost to Jumbo, and in 2018 Plus lost the contest for EMTÉ, again to Jumbo, according to Dutch Wikipedia. Online shopping, with home delivery or collection from selected stores, arrived in 2015, English Wikipedia says.

The decisive change was a merger of two co-operatives. On 6 September 2021 Plus and Coop, another Dutch supermarket co-operative, announced an agreement to merge, with the combined stores to trade as Plus and the Coop name to disappear, English Wikipedia says. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, the ACM, cleared the merger on condition that 12 supermarket locations were sold to competitors, in small rural places including Harmelen, Ruurlo, Stolwijk and the island of Vlieland, the regulator said in a notice dated 23 December 2021. The ACM found no competition concerns at national level, and noted that the two chains together ran about 600 locations and that Plus also held a stake in the Spar chain.

The merger was ratified by the members of both co-operatives, Co-operative News reported on 7 January 2022. The new co-operative kept the Plus name, its head office in Utrecht and a supervisory board with representatives of both organisations, and began converting Coop stores to Plus. English Wikipedia says the merger was completed early in 2022 and that the conversion of the Coop stores ran until 2024; Dutch Wikipedia gives 2025 for the end of the conversions.

Signs, own-label packs and store formats.

Europe’s supermarket, discount and variety chains show themselves first through the shop sign. A short name, a monogram or a block of colour has to work on a high-street fascia, a carrier bag, a trolley and a staff uniform at once. When Rewe renamed its Austrian Merkur stores Billa Plus in April 2021, the Austrian broadcaster ORF listed exactly those items — logos, shop fronts, bags and work clothing — as the things to be changed over. Albert Heijn’s lower-case “ah” monogram has been used since 1966.

Own-label packaging carries the identity onto the shelf. Chains name their ranges in their own words, from organic lines to entry labels and delicatessen ranges, and heritage archives such as the Stichting Albert Heijn Erfgoed foundation keep older packs that show how those labels looked decades ago. A change of colour or logo usually reaches packs, shelves, store interiors and campaigns in stages, as Billa’s yellow-and-white scheme did in the Czech Republic from 2024.

Formats and networks are part of the picture too. Many chains run several store types under one name — a neighbourhood supermarket, a larger flagship, a convenience shop at a station or filling station, and home delivery — and publish their store and country counts on their own corporate pages. Those counts change often, so this guide gives each one with the date of its source.

Ownership varies widely. Some chains still carry a founder’s name; others belong to listed retail groups, to family holdings or to co-operatives owned by their members or retailers, and several have been bought, merged or renamed over the decades. Corporate pages on founders, owners and retail groups set out those structures, and each guide here states them as dated facts, separating what independent sources record from what the companies say about themselves.

One short word over many independent owners.

Plus is a brand that has to work for hundreds of separate owners at once: each store is run by its own entrepreneur, while the name and the marketing are shared. Dutch Wikipedia describes the work of Plus Retail, the operating company, as guarding the formula and supporting the member entrepreneurs in running their businesses, from a service office in Utrecht and distribution centres in Oss and Gieten for groceries, with fresh and frozen goods supplied through outside distribution centres.

The own-label offer is described in the company’s terms. Dutch Wikipedia says Plus has its own house brand with a more premium variant alongside it, and a line of regional products. The chain has also been visible through football: Plus has been a partner of the Eredivisie, the top Dutch football league, with customer promotions around the league each January and September, and switched the promotion to speed skating with the national skating union in 2010 before returning to football from 2011, Dutch Wikipedia says.

The group behind the stores is wider than the supermarket sign. Dutch Wikipedia names the holding as Coöperatie PLUS U.A., which houses the Plus supermarkets, the operating company Plus Retail and a 45 percent stake in the Spar supermarket chain; the ACM’s 2021 notice also records the stake in Spar. Dutch Wikipedia counts 439 Plus stores as of 2025, and names Aart van Haren as chief executive from 1 April 2024.

For a design guide, Plus shows how one short word can hold together a chain owned by its own grocers, through several names and a merger. Compare Jumbo, the family-owned chain that beat Plus to Super de Boer and EMTÉ, and SPAR, the chain in which the Plus co-operative holds a stake. For this guide we use a market green, a deep forest tone, a tomato red and oat with a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Plus’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.