Kesko Food opened its fourth K-ruoka food store in St. Petersburg, Russia

Kesko Food today opened its fourth food store in the St. Petersburg area. In addition to the four stores already in operation, Kesko Food’s objective is to open three new large food stores in the St. Petersburg area by the end of 2014 and then to continue expansion in the St. Petersburg area and subsequently also in the Moscow area. The objective is to achieve net sales of €500 million and a positive result by 2017. Kesko has also 14 K-rauta stores and 20 Intersport stores in Russia.

Helsinki, Finland, 13-12-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — According to Kesko Food’s Country Director Kari Heiskanen, the existing K-ruoka stores in St. Petersburg have received an excellent welcome.

– Customers have valued the concept which emphasizes freshness, good quality and Finnish products.

The fourth store now opened is located at Urkhov Pereulok 7A on Ulitsa Marshala Govorova, one of the main streets leading south from downtown St. Petersburg. The store has a sales area of around 1,500 m2 and it operates on premises owned by Kesko. There are around 100 car parking spaces in connection with the store.

– Also this store has an emphasis on high-quality fruits, vegetables, bread and service counters for meat, fish and ready meals, says Oleg Buyalski, General Director of Kesko Food Rus.

The store’s web pages are available at www.k-ruoka.ru.

Further information is available from Country Director Kari Heiskanen, tel. +7 921 988 6047

Kesko (www.kesko.fi) is a highly valued listed trading sector company. It manages retail store chains that are valued by customers and efficiently produces services for retail store chains’ purchasing, logistics, network development and data management. Kesko’s operations include the food, home and speciality goods, building and home improvement, and car and machine trades. Its division parent companies and chains act in close cooperation with retailer entrepreneurs and other partners. Kesko has about 2,000 stores engaged in chain operations in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Belarus. Kesko and K-retailers form the K-Group, whose retail sales totalled around €12 billion (VAT 0%) in 2012. The K-Group employs around 45,000 people.

Besides Finland, Kesko also seeks growth in the Russian market, in particular, which is growing faster than the Nordic and Baltic markets. In addition to four K-ruoka stores, Kesko has 14 K-rauta stores and 20 Intersport stores in Russia. Konekesko markets construction, materials handling and environmental machinery in St. Petersburg through its own dealer network.

###