Merja Haverinen appointed Kesko's District Director of the Finnish Lakeland to Jyväskylä
Merja Haverinen, 45, M.Soc.Sc., has been appointed Kesko's Director of the Finnish Lakeland District as of 1 January 2008. The Finnish Lakeland consists of the regions of Central Finland and Southern Savo. The office location of the district will be Jyväskylä. There are 145 K-Group stores in the Finnish Lakeland and their sales totalled €537 million in 2006. Kesko and the K-stores have approximately 1,690 employees in the district.
Merja Haverinen joins Kesko from TeliaSonera where she works as CRM Director responsible for developing customer relationships of small and medium-sized firms in Finland. She has worked for TeliaSonera for 1996-2007 in several different duties: for the past two years in the corporate customer business and prior to this in the consumer customer segment, primarily in various mobile communications duties, for over ten years. She was born in Kuopio. The position of District Director of the Finnish Lakeland is new in the Kesko Group.
"I'm looking forward to the opportunity of working with the people and enterprises of the Finnish Lakeland. I'm also looking forward to being able to contribute to building the new position in the geographically important area. Besides store site projects, my duties will also include promoting Kesko's interests in the district. As the most diversified retail company in Finland, Kesko plays a significant role in the development of the economy and services of the district, which makes my future job extremely interesting," says Merja Haverinen.
Kesko is implementing or planning to implement several important store site projects in the Finnish Lakeland. A K-supermarket will be opened in Viitasaari in summer 2008. The K-citymarket hypermarket in Jämsä is at the zoning phase and will probably be opened in late 2008. A new K-market will be opened in Palokka, near Jyväskylä at the turn of November and December and the store plan of the K-citymarket in Keljo is being updated to enable an extension of about 6,000 m². The Forum premises in Jyväskylä will be enhanced in cooperation with Citycon Oyj during the next few years. The extension of the K-citymarket in Mikkeli, now at the planning stage, will be implemented in late 2008 and early 2009. K-supermarket Tahiti in Pieksämäki was expanded and turned into a K-citymarket, and opened to customers again in May. The K-citymarket in Savonlinna will be refurbished either at the present location or in the Savola area.
Kesko's District Directors represent the whole Kesko Group in their areas and are responsible for local operations. The most important duties include the planning and implementation of local store site projects in all divisions. Local communications and stakeholder cooperation are also carried out under their control. District Directors report to Kesko's President and CEO and to other members of the Corporate Management Board.
Kesko strengthened its district organisation at the beginning of this year. Kesko's Finnish districts and their office locations are the following: the Greater Helsinki Area: Helsinki; Uusimaa: Helsinki; Southeastern Finland: Lahti; Southwestern Finland: Turku; Pirkanmaa: Tampere; Finnish Lakeland: Jyväskylä; Eastern Finland: Kuopio; Ostrobothnia: Seinäjoki, and Northern Finland: Oulu.
Pertti Rusanen will continue as Kesko's District Director responsible for Eastern Finland, which consists of the regions of Northern Savo and Northern Karelia.
The photo of Merja Haverinen can be downloaded at www.kesko.fi/materialbank at Current issues.
Further information:
Matti Halmesmäki, President and CEO, Kesko Corporation, tel. +358 1053 22201
Terho Kalliokoski, President, Kesko Food Ltd, tel. +358 1053 22204
Merja Haverinen, District Director of Finnish Lakeland (as of 1 January 2008), tel. +358 50 386 0672
Kesko (www.kesko.fi) is a Finnish retail specialist whose stores offer quality to the daily lives of consumers through valued products and services at competitive prices. Kesko has about 2,000 stores engaged in chain operations in the Nordic and Baltic countries, and Russia.
