Kesko Food and Viinilehti opened wine search service at plussa.com

Kesko Food Ltd and Viinilehti Oy have opened a new search service at plussa.com, the web service for the K-Alliance’s loyal customers. The service, available in Finnish and the first of its kind in Finland, helps customers to choose the right wines for their meals.

Ruoasta viiniin (From Food to Wine) search complements the Pirkka recipe bank at plussa.com that offers nearly 2,000 food recipes. The recommendations of the search are based on the database of the ‘Viinistä viiniin’ (From Wine to Wine) guidebook published by Viinilehti Oy. All the wines the search suggests are available at Alko stores.

Customers can search for the wine on the basis of their meal’s main ingredient, cooking method and the possible gravy or sauce. The search also allows for the determination of price limits, wine type and country of origin. The service gives five alternative wines for meals. The service will be updated continuously.

”According to the ’Keittiö 2003’ (Kitchen 2003) survey, Finnish consumers’ interest in food is at a high level and search for recipes at the Internet in particular has grown strongly. Kesko Food wants to be a pioneer and provide added value to its customers with this new service”, says Vice President Jaakko-Pekka Vehmas of Kesko Food Ltd.

”This is the most comprehensive web service pairing food and wine ever in Finland and, as far as we know, this service is unique in the whole world”, says Managing Director Juha Berglund of Viinilehti Oy.

The search is free for K-stores’ Plussa customers. The total number of Plussa cardholders is 2.9 million. Plussa.com pages have some 150,000 different visitors each month, and the number has been on a clear increase. Last October the number of visitors was 35 percent higher than the year before.

The 'Viinistä viiniin' guidebook published by Viinilehti Oy comes out in print once a year. The company also publishes the 'Viini' magazine that comes out six times a year.

Further information:
Vice President Jaakko-Pekka Vehmas, Marketing, Kesko Food Ltd, tel. +358 1053 22511
Managing Director Juha Berglund, Viinilehti Oy, tel. +358 9 6860 410