Rusta was founded in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1986 by Anders Forsgren and Bengt-Olov Forssell based on an idea born in 1979 during Forsgren’s and Forssell’s research studies at Uppsala University. Forsgren and Forssell created a store where Swedish people could buy everyday use products at the best possible prices. In 1986, the first store opened in Gävle, Sweden.
The first international expansion took place in 2014, when Rusta opened its first store in Norway. In 2017, the first store in Germany opened and in 2018 Rusta acquired and integrated the Finnish discounter Hong Kong into Rusta and launched in Finland. In 2020, the complementary online store was launched. Rusta has developed one successful store concept that is implemented in all stores across all markets.
In 2016, Rusta started the loyalty customer program Club Rusta. After approximately two years, Club Rusta reached 1.7 million members. Today, there are more than 5 million members across Rusta’s markets and they stand for approximately 80 percent of the annual sales.
Today, Rusta has more than 200 stores in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany, which is complemented by the Rusta online store in Sweden and Finland. Rusta has a Nordic focused pipeline of new stores, but is also expanding in key locations in Germany, with the long-term vision to become the leading and most trusted variety hard discount retailer in Europe.
