K-CITYMARKET AND K-SUPERMARKET GREW THEIR MARKET SHARES IN THE GROCERY TRADE, WHILE THE SHARE OF SMALL K-FOOD STORES DROPPED

In 2002, K-food stores’ retail sales in Finland grew by 3.6 percent. According to A.C.Nielsen that carries out market research, last year the market share of K-food stores in the grocery trade was 36.0 percent, representing a decrease of 0.5 percentage points. According to A.C.Nielsen, the Finnish grocery retail market totalled about EUR 11.0 billion last year.

The K-Alliance’s biggest food store chains, K-citymarket and K-supermarket, increased their sales and their shares of the grocery market.
The K-citymarket chain’s grocery sales increased by 8.9 percent. Its market share grew from 8.7 percent to 9.1 percent.
The K-supermarket chain’s sales increased by 7.0 percent. Its market share grew from 11.4 percent to 11.7 percent. The K-supermarket chain was the biggest K-food store chain in the grocery trade.
The K-market chain’s sales increased by 4.3 percent. The chain’s market share was 8.7 percent, representing a drop of 0.1 percentage points.

Instead, sales of the smallest K-food stores diminished. Their combined market share decreased from 7.6 percent to 6.5 percent. The major reason for the drop in the market share was the decrease in the number of neighbourhood stores.

Last year, Kesko Food continued to concentrate and strengthen its retail store chains. The transfer to five K-food store chains that started at the beginning of 2002 has brought about considerable changes in various chains. The K-citymarket, K-supermarket and K-market chains all operate nationwide, whereas K-pikkolos are a chain of urban neighbourdhood stores and K-extras a chain of rural neighbourhood stores.

The number of stores in the K-market chain grew by 21 and in the K-supermarket chain by 13. Additionally, 6 new K-citymarkets were opened. However, the total number of K-food stores dropped by 33, because many small K-food stores closed down. At the end of 2002, the number of K-food stores totalled 1,124, including 37 mobile stores.

In recent years, Kesko Food has also strongly expanded its operations in the Baltic countries. Kesko Food has about 50 stores in Estonia and the retail store network is nearly completed. Building the store network in Latvia in underway and three first stores have been opened there.

* incl. home and speciality goods sales

Further information:
Vice President Jaakko-Pekka Vehmas, Kesko Food Ltd, Marketing, tel. +358 1053 22511