Finish retail chains invest in larger stores

According to last week’s Nielsen statistics, the market share of the leading Finnish grocery retailer K Group (Kesko) totaled 33.7% in 2024 (34.3% in 2023). The decrease was more prominent in 2023 by -0.9%. The online grocery trade of K Group exceeded 40% market share. Total market growth for online grocery in Finland was 10.8%, while K Group outpaced this with a growth rate of 13.5 %. Reversing the market share trend is an important objective for Kesko's grocery trade. It is focusing its efforts to improve three specific areas: the store network, its price competitiveness and the quality level of the stores.

Updating and expanding store network

As opposite to the countries of Southern Europe like France and Spain, Finnish customers are increasingly shopping their grocery in bigger stores – hypermarkets and large supermarkets. The trend in K Group market share continued to be impacted by the significant investments made by competitors to open new larger stores, while the impact of K Group investments in its store network is gradually becoming more visible. Kesko is set to open several new hypermarket-sized stores over the next few years. The total number of K Group grocery stores decreased by 80 in 2024, partly because Kesko withdrew from the grocery operations at Neste K service stations.

Improving price competitiveness

Grocery customers continue to be very price-driven. Kesko and K Group launched an extensive in January, cutting prices on more than 1,200 everyday references, inclusive fresh produce like fruit and vegetables, across the three grocery store chains. The program has been positively received by customers. At the same time, Kesko has continued to focus on the great offers by K Group stores.

Further elevating quality in the stores 

K Group is the quality leader in Finnish grocery trade, with competitive advantages that include extensive selections and a unique retailer-run business model that enables high-quality service and the development of store-specific business ideas based on local customer data. Digitally-assisted services enable an increasingly individual customer experience, and relevant personalized benefits are very important. Kesko will invest on average €200 to €250 million annually in stores openings and updates. In 2024 the group remodeled 44 and opened 15 new stores. In 2025 in plans to remodel 48 stores and open 15 new ones.

K-store to be heated by heat waste of a data center

The K-Supermarket Mankkaa grocery store and atNorth's data center in Espoo are launching a groundbreaking collaboration in which waste heat from the data center will be used to cover almost all the heating energy needed by the store. The project will reduce emissions from all of Kesko's district heating use by almost 1% from the waste of a data center. A heat pump system enabling the use of waste heat will be installed in K-Supermarket Mankkaa in the autumn. In practice, the store can start receiving waste heat from the data center around November 2025 - January 2026.

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