Systembolaget is the name of Sweden’s monopoly for the distribution of alcoholic beverages. In the off-trade channel wine, beer and spirits can only be bought in the stores of Systembolaget. As an importer it is therefore one of our biggest clients. Our job is to help producers and suppliers offer their products to Systembolaget. Below you can read more about the Swedish monopoly and its tender process.
On this page you will find:
One of the greatest retailers
Systembolaget is the monopoly for the distribution of wine, beer and spirits to 8 million Swedish end-consumers. Today Systembolaget is one of the world’s biggest retailers with over 400 stores and approximately another 500 distribution locations via partner stores covering all of Sweden. The more than 6000 workers also make it one of the biggest employers in the country.
Systembolaget’s range of selections consists of approximately 3000 different products all carefully selected via a strict purchasing process. Every product on the shelves has been tasted and selected by Systembolaget and matches exactly the consumers need.
The monopoly’s goal is to keep the alcohol consumption in Sweden as low as possible. This is done by informing about the risks and limiting opening hours and the buyers age. No one should be harmed by the effects of alcohol like addiction, violence and accidents. Because the monopoly does not want to make profit, there are no price actions like discounts or “two-for-one” offers and no advertisements will be found in the stores. Therefore, the alcohol consumption in countries with an alcohol monopoly like Sweden, Norway and Finland is significantly lower than the European average. At the same time the employees in the stores of Systembolaget provide service and advise to help every buyer to find what they are looking for. The focus during consumption of alcohol should be purely to enjoy it, not abuse it.
Great opportunities and great responsibility
It is a very great opportunity to be a licensed supplier as an import agent which also means big opportunities for our producer partners, but also big responsibilities. To work with Systembolaget, our producers and us have to follow Systembolaget’s rules and do our best to match their tenders to succeed to get into their ordinary ranges. To succeed we believe it is very important to work in close relationships with our international partners to do our best to meet Systembolagets requirements.
Insightful information about Systembolaget
To make it as convenient as possible for you as a producer to get insight into Systembolaget, Concealed Wines has put together some relevant information about Systembolagets purchasing process as well as other relevant information.
Tender process step-by-step
Concealed Wines business is to import and distribute wines and alcohol beverage products in the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian market. Therefore we present you the tender process in detail to have a deep understanding of tender process and what we offer. Below you will find the description of how the tender process goes for submission of offers to Systembolaget, Vinmonopolet and ALKO.
1. You send in the offer
First of all you send us the tender form filled out correctly. Please have a look at the special requirements for each offer which your wine has to fulfill before sending in the offer. You will find this information on “Current tenders” page.
2. We review the offer and complement if necessary
Once we receive your tender form we will review it and if there is any required information which is missing we will let you know and ask you to complement it.
3. We submit the written part of the offer to Systembolaget
Once we have all information needed we submit a written offer of your tender to the monopoly.
4. Sample request
Once we have sent in your written offer, we will send out a first mail regarding a sample request where we ask you to send a specific amount of bottles to our office.
These bottles are for Systembolaget and for us to try your product´s quality, taste and to send it to a laboratory for technical analysis.
5. You send prepared samples
Ater following our request, the next step would be that you send in samples of the wine you have offered. It is important that the wine corresponds to the tender form you sent in at the first step. With the bottles we ask you to send a printed tender form and an internal analysis of the wine.
6. We submit wine to Systembolaget
When we receive your samples we deliver them to the specific monopoly.
7. Systembolaget tastes the wine and returns to us with a result
Once the monopoly receives your samples they will taste the wine and make an analysis of it. Following this tasting they will get back to us with a result, whether your wine has been selected or not. We will let you know as soon as we receive this result. If it has not been selected you will still receive a comment you can consider for future offerings.
To see the tender process in a presentation form, visit our tender process page.
Contact us
Please feel free to contact us if you have any question or concerns about how the Swedish market and Systembolaget is structured.
Questions and Answers about Systembolaget
Systembolaget is the Swedish monopoly for distribution of wine, beer and spirits. Alcoholic beverages can only be bought in stores of Systembolaget and in gastronomy.
Concealed Wines works as a licensed supplier and import agent and provides producers offers to the monopoly. Systembolaget is therefore one of our biggest clients and we work together with the producers to fulfill all its requirements.
All current and upcoming tenders can be found here on our website. To apply to them just send us an e-mail to start the process or directly fill out the form online.
Concealed Wines and Systembolaget need samples of your product to see if quality and taste match the requirements of the tender and to send it to a laboratory for a further technical analysis.
Producers and suppliers will receive a sample request from us and the samples should be send to our office in Stockholm. From there we will deliver them directly to Systembolaget.