KESKO PURCHASED A GROCERY STORE CHAIN IN ESTONIA

On 9 May 2001, Kesko Corporation´s subsidiary Kesko Food Ltd made an agreement to purchase the whole share capital of Kinnisvaravalduse AS, which owns Estonia´s largest discounter store chain, Säästumarket. The final deal was concluded today.

The Säästumarket chain has 17 retail stores in Estonia, and its net sales for 2000 totalled EEK 323 million (about EUR 21 million). During 2001, the number of stores is estimated to almost double and the net sales to amount to over EEK 1 billion (over EUR 64 million).

The purchase of the Säästumarket chain is part of Kesko´s internationalisation strategy. Kesko´s target is a market share of 20-25 percent of the Baltic grocery market of about EUR 4.0 billion. Kesko has this spring opened in Estonia a logistics centre that meets the EU standards. At present, two SuperNetto stores operate in Tallinn, one store in Tartu and a new store will be opened in Pärnu towards the end of the year. A large grocery outlet will be opened close to Tallinn harbour in 2002. In Latvia, Kesko aims to open four hypermarkets in Riga by the end of 2002.

Kesko also owns Estonia´s largest hardware store chain, Ehitusmaailm, which has four hardware stores in Estonia and one store in Latvia. In addition, Kesko is building a comprehensive chain of agricultural and machinery stores, with regional sales outlets, in the Baltic countries. An agricultural and machinery centre was opened in Riga last week. At present Kesko has a total of over 1,000 employees in the Baltic countries.

For further information, please contact Kalervo Haapaniemi, President of Kesko Food Ltd, telephone +358 10 5311, or Timo Valla, Director of the Baltic operations, telephone +371 7860 235 or +371 6565 077.

Kesko Corporation
Corporate Communications

Erkki Heikkinen
Senior Vice President

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