Finland's K Group's 2016 market share stood at 37.7%, according to research conducted by Nielsen.
The figure is the highest for the group in fifteen years and the company attributes part of this increase to national shop opening hour liberalisation and to the acquisition of Suomen Lähikauppa.
According to Nielsen’s Grocery Shop Directory, K-food stores’ market share was up 3.4% to 36.2% in 2016. Add to that Suomen Lähikauppa’s 1.5% market share following the acquisition and the market share rises to 37.7%.
Nielsen's report has K Group’s food store network as the widest in Finland; there were 1,448 K-food stores at the end of 2016. Nielsen’s data is based on full-year 2016 figures.
Opening Hour Liberalisation And Plans For The Future
"Last year’s 1.6% volume growth is the best since 2007. The increase was particularly supported by the liberalisation of food store opening hours and the decrease in the food price level. In 2016, liberalised opening hours impacted especially on the performances of large supermarkets and hypermarkets,” said Jorma Rauhala, Kesko’s executive vice president and president of the grocery trade.
K Group intends to continue to develop its grocery trade division and all food store chains and plans to invest tens of millions of euros of capital expenditure on the existing and the new store network over the next few years.
The K-Market brand reform, launched last year, will be followed this year by the renewal of the K-Supermarket and K-Citymarket chain brands.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Gavin Ryan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
