Development in 2018
The Finnish market for beer, soft drinks, wine and spirits products was positively affected by extraordinarily good summer weather and the amended alcohol legislation with effect from 1 January 2018, while less beer campaigning affected negatively. According to the new legislation, retail businesses are now allowed to sell certain products that only the Alko monopoly was previously allowed to sell.
Volumes for 2018 showed a 1% increase and were positively impacted by a higher market share within branded products, but negatively impacted by lower beer campaign sales than in 2017. Net revenue for 2018 showed a 10% increase, benefitting from a positive mix effect due to legislative changes, significantly intensified marketing investment and the warm summer.
In 2018, Hartwall maintained a high level of innovation in order to continuously being able to offer the strongest product portfolio in the market based on trends demanded by consumers and customers. Focus has been on specialty beer brands as Aura and Lahden Erikois, and soft drinks products with lower or no sugar content as the new Jaffa sugar fee.
Other key focus areas have been increased involvement and communication with consumers, including introducing new Novelle marketing platform that better resonates to the consumers, as well as large events as the Flow Festival supporting this agenda. One of the biggest activations introduced in 2018 was the introduction of a new event “Greyest Day of the Year” to the Finnish consumers build around Original Long Drink.
FINLAND
| 2018 | 2017 | 2018 | 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1-Q4 | Q1-Q4 | % changes | Q4 | Q4 | % changes | |
| Volume (thousand hectoliters) | 3,113 | 3,094 | 1 | 623 | 719 | -13 |
| Net revenue (mDKK)) | 2,612 | 2,380 | 10 | 574 | 587 | -2 |
Profile
Hartwall is a beverage provider with a broad product range holding a clear runner-up position in Finland. In the Finnish beer and soft drinks market, we offer a combination of our own strong local and national brands and international brands as well as a number of international spirits and wine brands.
In the beer segment, we offer our own brands such as Karjala, Lapin Kulta, Aura, Lahden Erikois and Polar Monkey (specialty beer) as well as the international portfolio from Heineken. Moreover, we offer a number of alcoholic products rooted in Finland such as Original Long Drink in the RTD category as well as Upcider and Happy Joe in the cider category. In the CSD category, we offer our own brands such as Jaffa, ED within energy drinks, Novelle in the mineral water category and international brands from the PepsiCo product portfolio. Hartwall offers a number of international spirits and wine brands such as Johnny Walker, Captain Morgan, Lanson, Baileys and JP. Chenet on an agency basis.
Hartwall has two production facilities in Finland – one in Lahti producing all products but mineral water, and one in Karijoki producing mineral water. A craft/specialty beer brewery was established adjacent to the Lahti brewery in 2017.
A highly effective and efficient national distribution network serves our customers with Best in Class service levels.
