Coop Danmark, Albertslund

Facts

The tale of the Cirkel Coffee girl

By Kathrine G. Bjerregaard, Cand.mag i historie og filosofi / Master of Arts, History and Philosophy (33 stories)

Back in the 1960s, the standard of living was rising in Denmark. The shops were busy. The supermarket shelves needed stocking regularly. And that required large warehouses. The FDB chain therefore built a modern central warehouse and headquarters in 1963 on a field in Albertslund. It was comfortably close to Roskildevej, a main road into Copenhagen, as well as the railway. Here, at a workplace the size of a small village, a new efficient storage and distribution system was introduced. And all Copenhagen's Brugsen, Kvickly, Fakta and Irma shops are still supplied with the convenience goods from the Coop Danmark Group.

Not a public place

Selected entry

The Cirkel Girl" "

Story written by Kathrine G. Bjerregaard

Time / Periode 1963

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Most Danes know the Cirkel girl", either from the tall coffee tower at Coop Danmark's headquarters on the way into Copenhagen, from the old FDB coffee tins or from Brugsen's own "Cirkel Coffee" logo on the product's packaging. The Cirkel Girl has been an icon for FDB for years. She was created in 1955 by artist Aage Sikker Hansen, who also drew the famous "Davre Girls" on boxes of oatmeal. In 2004, the Cirkel Girl was awarded the Classic Prize by the Danish Design Centre: "The beautiful black girl in profile on coffee from Brugsen receives the classic prize for having brought art into the everyday life of coffee-drinking Danes for 49 years. The Cirkel Girl is enchantingly lovely and simple. She still functions perfectly as intended half a century after her birth." "