Press release Grocery Shop Directory 2014 EMBARGOED UNTIL 10:00 AM 31 MARCH 2015 CONTACTS: Sanna Kotakorpi, Market Leader E-mail:
[email protected] Tel. +358 9 4300 3239, +358 50 363 1068 SEVEN LEAN YEARS IN THE FINNISH GROCERY TRADE During the last seven years, the average volume growth of the Finnish grocery sales has been only 0.2% a year. Such a long period of soft volume growth was not experienced even during the 1990s depression. Last year was the third consecutive year of non-existent development, with growth in volume amounting to only 0.1%. The information is based on Nielsen's annual Grocery Shop Directory. Grocery sales in Finland amounted to EUR 16.705 billion in 2014. The growth in sales value, 0.9%, was moderate compared to 2013. In the soft economic situation, prices have become clearly more important to consumers in the 2010s. Price-quality ratio and price level have become two of the consumers’ three most important criteria for choosing their place of purchase (Source: Nielsen Homescan). Tightest competition over market shares between Lidl and K-Group S Group, the market leader, grew hand in hand with the development of the grocery market and retained its market share, 45.7%. K-Group, on the other hand, lost 0.9 percentage points of its share, ending up with its all-time low market share in the history of the Grocery Shop Directory, 33.1%. Lidl, a success story in the weakly developing grocery market, continued its strong growth and took the third place from Suomen Lähikauppa in terms of market share.