Impacts on society

K Group at its core comprises Kesko and independent retailer entrepreneurs in Finland. K Group employs some 45,000 people. Through our supply chain, K Group indirectly creates jobs globally in product development, factories, farms and logistics, for example.

Most of the economic benefit generated by Kesko’s operations – some 85% of Kesko’s net sales – flows to suppliers of goods, purchases from which were valued at €10.1 billion in 2022 (2021: €9.5 billion). In 2022, Kesko had some 23,400 suppliers from whom purchases were valued at a minimum of €1,000 during the year. Of these, some 9,400 operated in Finland, some 11,700 in Kesko’s other operating countries and some 2,300 elsewhere.

In 2022, the K-retailers' direct purchases of goods from Finnish regions amounted to nearly €600 million. 

Kesko’s capital expenditure in 2022 totalled €449.2 million (2021: €276.6 million). The store site network is a strategic competitive factor for K Group. In 2022, capital expenditure on store sites totalled €268.1 million (2021: €129.0 million).

In 2022, Kesko’s income taxes in Finland totalled €118.9 million and in other countries €23.5 million. The Group’s effective tax rate was 19.9%.

In addition to income taxes, Kesko pays, collects and remits various taxes, such as real estate and property taxes, excise duties, and employer’s and employee’s social security contributions and statutory pension insurance premiums. In addition, withholding taxes and taxes at source are collected in Finland from the dividends paid by Kesko. In addition to Kesko, K-retailers pay, collect and remit taxes, too.

We annually report both Kesko’s and K-retailers’ direct purchases of goods, capital expenditure, salaries paid and taxes paid by K-retailers in Finland by region. Economic benefit generated by Kesko and K-retailers to Finnish regions in 2022 table can be loaded as Excel form below.

Economic benefit generated by Kesko and K-retailers to Finnish regions in 2022