Grocery sales in Finland were 3.4% higher in February compared to the same month in 2017, according to Päivittäistavarakauppa ry, the Finnish retail trade authority.
Grocery sales for the month stood at €1.27 billion for the period, with the price of daily consumer goods rising by 1.8% compared to the same month the previous year, and prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rising by 3%.
Prices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco rose by 6.9% compared to the same month the previous year, due to the introduction of higher alcohol and tobacco taxes in January 2018.
Consumer price inflation was 0.8% for the month, compared to 0.6% in January.
Positive Growth
"Growth in grocery sales have been at a good level during the start of the year," said Kari Luoto, managing director of Päivittäistavarakauppa ry. "Especially strong growth has been seen in supermarkets, whose combined sales growth was +7.6% in the first half of the year."
Luoto added that a loosening of Finnish retail legislation which restricted the size of certain store types, has enabled stores to "better develop their operations to meet consumer demand. At present, small and large supermarkets account for about half (50.6%) of the Finnish grocery market."
Grocery sales were highest in small supermarkets, which saw 8.8% growth compared to February 2017. Sales in large supermarkets increased by 6.4% for the period, while sales in hypermarkets were up 3.2%.
Standard-sized supermarkets saw a decline in sales, however, by 6.2%.
Päivittäistavarakauppa ry's data covers groups including K-Citymarket, K-Supermarket, K-Market, Neste K and other K-ruokakaupat stores, Alepa, Sale, Prisma, S-market, Herkku and ABC, Lidl, Tokmanni, M-ketju, Minimani and R-kioski.
Hypermarket Performance
Positive growth in the hypermarket channel was recently highlighted by Finnish retailer S Group, which said earlier this month that its Prisma hypermarket chain posted 4.3% sales growth last year.
S Group currently holds 45.9% of the Finnish market, ahead of rival K Group, which holds 35.8%. Lidl is a distant third, on 9.3%, with other retailers including Tokmanni, Stockmann and Minimani comprising the remainder of the market, according to Nielsen data.
The value of grocery sales in Finland in 2017 was around €17.6 billion, 1% higher than last year.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
