Kesko Food's first wine in Alko

Kesko Food starts wine retailing through Alko. The first wine imported by Kesko Food will be available in Alko stores at the end of September. Kesko Food has acted as a wholesaler and importer of wines and other alcoholic beverages for nearly ten years.

Kesko Food starts wine retailing in order to gain synergy benefits from imports combined with alcohol wholesaling. It also aims at increasing co-operation with its subsidiaries in the Baltic countries, where alcohol can be sold in food stores.

The wine to be introduced in Alko stores is an Italian red wine, Sartori Regolo 2000, which comes from the Sartori winery in Verona in the Valpolicella region. This winery is over one hundred years old and is one of the most important wine producers in Verona.

- Kesko Food’s co-operation with Sartori is long-established in the wholesale trade, and retailing is a natural expansion. We wanted to introduce a moderately priced quality wine, suitable for enjoying in the autumn and to match the Finnish palate, says Product Manager Juho Jokinen of Kesko Food.

In the next few years, Kesko Food intends to launch more own wines and strong alcoholic beverages on the retail market.

- We want to offer Alko new products whenever their request is for beverages in which we have co-operation with producers, says Jokinen.

Kesko Food is the market leader in Finland in the sales of alcoholic beverages targeted at restaurants. Its product selections include over one thousand alcoholic products, of which more than half are wines. About 20 percent of the wines are own label products. Alko is a trading chain specialising in alcoholic beverages. With a few exceptions, it holds a monopoly in the retail trade of alcoholic beverages in the Finnish market.

Further information:
Category Director Timo Heikkilä, Kesko Food Ltd, tel. +358 1053 22041
Product Manager Juho Jokinen, Kesko Food Ltd, tel. +3581053 24135