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One of the objectives for Kesko's strategy – which was updated last summer – is to profitably gain market share in grocery trade. Key measures taken to achieve this are:

• Strengthening store-specific business ideas: focusing on strengthening our chosen competitive advantages and further improving the quality of K Group grocery stores

• Developing our store network: making targeted investments in the store network, with an emphasis on growth centres; and

• Improving our price competitiveness: strengthening the price competitiveness of our grocery stores and improving their price image.

Kesko is the quality leader in Finnish grocery, and we will not be compromising on quality at any point. At the start of January, we announced a new price programme that will cut prices on over 1,200 products in K Group grocery stores. K Group cuts the prices of some 1,000 everyday brand staples and some 200 popular Pirkka K Group private label products, in other words everyday staples that consumers buy often and that account for a significant portion of sales. Price reductions of branded products are on average 4–6 percent, but at best, the price cuts can be as much as 15–20 percent. For Pirkka private label products, the price reductions are on average 9-12 percent. Campaigns and offers are in our DNA, and we will continue them also in 2025, but the price programme is a more long-term effort, with significant investments in the basic price levels of our stores.

The price reductions have been made in close cooperation between Kesko, the K-retailers, and product suppliers. Kesko and K-retailers together will invest some €50 million in the programme during 2025. Reducing the price of popular branded products fits Kesko’s strategy better than, for example, adding cheap foreign products to our selections.

In addition to the investments made in basic price levels, K Group's grocery stores will continue to offer their popular OmaPlussa mobile benefits, the reasonably priced Pirkka private label range with over 2,600 products, and various other offers and campaigns.

As stated when we launched the updated strategy, investments in price and the store network will have a slight impact on the profitability of the grocery trade division in the coming years. However, despite the investments, the grocery trade division’s operating profit development will continue to be stable, and our aim is to keep the division’s profitability clearly above 6% during the 2024-2026 strategy period.

Kesko will publish its financial statements release for 2024 on Wednesday, 5 February 2025, at around 8.00 am Finnish time. An English audiocast/teleconference for investors and analysts will be held at 9.00 am Finnish time, and can be accessed here.

NEWS, FINANCIALS AND SHARES

• Presentation for Kesko’s Q4 investor roadshow meetings. (presentation)
  
  

SALES DEVELOPMENT

• Kesko’s sales in October. (release)

• Kesko’s sales in November. (release)
  
  Sales figures for December will be released in mid-January.
  
  

SUSTAINABILITY

• Kesko was once again included in the Dow Jones sustainability indices the DJSI World and the DJSI Europe. In the DJSI Europe index, Kesko ranked as the best company in its industry (Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail) for the third consecutive year. In the global DJSI World index, Kesko ranked fourth highest in its industry. (release)

• Kesko updated its sustainability strategy: the four main strategic focus areas continue to be he climate and nature, value chain, people, and good governance, with increased focus now also placed on supply chain sustainability, water use and biodiversity. Kesko will be setting emission reduction targets for its own operations extending to year 2034. (release)

   
  

GROCERY TRADE

• New K-Citymarket opened in Helsinki. In its continued effort to update its store network with focus on growth centres, Kesko opened the K-Citymarket Vuokki store in Eastern Helsinki in November. This was the first of the announced 7 new hypermarkets to be opened by Kesko in 2024-2028. In total, Kesko now has 82 K-Citymarket hypermarkets. (release in Finnish) 

• More K Group grocery stores received international recognition. The UK-based Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) named K-Citymarket Vantaa Jumbo as its ”Store of the month” in November 2024 (release in Finnish), while K-Market Iso Omena in Espoo made IGD’s list of "2025 Must-see stores" (release in Finnish).
  
  

CAR TRADE

• "Profitability is central to all areas of Kesko’s car trade”, says the President of Kesko’s car trade division Johanna Ali in our investor blog interview, where she also expands on K-Auto’s competitive advantages as well as the changing landscape, growth opportunities and the division’s plans for the future. (blog post)

• Kesko is set to renovate its largest K-Auto showroom complex in Helsinki, and build a new large-scale damage repair unit in Vantaa. The projects aim to improve customer experience for Kesko’s car trade customers and support K-Auto's strategic goal of building a nationwide multichannel service network for Finnish motorists. (release).