The History
SPAR was founded in the Netherlands in 1932 by Adriaan van Well, as a voluntary chain of grocers under the name "De Spar". His purpose was to secure cooperation between independent wholesalers and retailers as a response to the emergence of grocery chains in Europe.
"DESPAR" is the acronym for the Dutch sentence "Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig" which translates into "We all benefit from joint cooperation".
Van Well used the symbol of the fir tree, SPAR in Dutch, to identify the organization and it became the SPAR logo.
Development of the SPAR logo up to today
The SPAR concept began to extend outside of the Netherlands at the end of the 1940's when Belgium became the second SPAR country in 1947. During the 1950's there was a rapid expansion of the SPAR concept throughout Europe. This was initiated by the establishment of International SPAR in 1953 with Mr. van Well as the first president.
The next twenty years saw SPAR continuing to expand within Europe and also into two new continents. In 1963 SPAR South Africa joined while in 1977 SPAR was established in Japan.
The last twenty years have been a period in which SPAR has grown most rapidly. During these years SPAR was introduced into the Eastern European countries. SPAR is now present in 33 countries spread over 4 continents.
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