THE CITYMARKET CHAIN BECOMES 30 YEARS OLD – THE PACE OF GROWTH AND INVESTMENT CONTINUE TO BE BRISK
The Citymarket chain will celebrate its 30-year history in the middle of October. The chain’s first hypermarket started operations in Lahti on October 1971. – 2002 will be for our chain a year of record growth and investments, says Citymarket Oy’s Managing Director Antti Puhakka. According to plan, six new hypermarkets will be opened next year.
There is room for 60 Citymarkets in Finland
According to Antti Puhakka, new Citymarket hypermarkets will be built at least in Lohja, Ruoholahti/Helsinki, Vaasa, Nummela and Leppävaara/Espoo. - In our opinion, there is room for about 60 Citymarket hypermarkets in Finland. At present, the chain includes 41 hypermarkets. The latest opening was at the end of September in the Iso Omena shopping centre in Espoo. In addition, a new Citymarket hypermarket will be opened in Forssa in November. After the building programme of next year, the number of the hypermarkets will be 48. The chain’s net sales are expected to amount to about EUR 1.3 billion this year, and the share of the hypermarket and department store trade to be about 28 percent. Food sales are about two thirds of the chain’s total sales.
A lot of expectations for the rest of the year
In the Citymarket hypermarkets, K-retailers are responsible for food trade and Citymarket Oy owned by Kesko Food Ltd for non-food trade. The operations are based on chain cooperation. The chain unit operates in cooperation with the executive committee elected by the Citymarket retailers in important matters related to the development of the chain. Matti Himberg, retailer in the Citymarket operating in the Jumbo shopping centre in Vantaa, acts as Chairman of the executive committee of the Citymarket retailers.
- The chain’s food selections are mainly determined on national level, but retailers also sell products of regional and local suppliers, according to their market and competition situation, and these products have an important role on local level, says Managing Director Antti Puhakka. On the other hand, the non-food selections are almost entirely nationally determined. –The expectations for the rest of the year are positive. The new chain operation model has been introduced, and we continue to further develop operations together with retailers, says Puhakka.
Operations started in Lahti
The first Citymarket was established in Lahti in 1971. This was a one-floor hypermarket. This type of hypermarkets had been established in Belgium and Sweden at the beginning of the 1960s. The ”two entrepreneur” model applied by Kesko has been developed in the K-Alliance. The Citymarket name partly originates from the City-Otra department store that operated as Kesko’s subsidiary in Tampere at that time, and its selection formed a basis for the non-food selection of Citymarket. The first Managing Director of Citymarket was Timo Karake, who later acted as Kesko’s Deputy Chief Executive. Today, Markku Kääpä is the retailer acting in Lahti.
Seven Citymarkets were built in the 1970s, and in the 1980s the number increased by nine. The 1990s represented a great expansion with a total of 15 new hypermarkets being established.
Further information: Managing Director Antti Puhakka, tel. +358 10153 22224, +358 50 65619.
