Kesko opened K-ruoka, K-rauta and Intersport stores in St. Petersburg

KESKO CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 18.09.2014 AT 11.00 1(1)

Kesko opened three new stores in St. Petersburg today. The new K-ruoka, K-rauta and Intersport stores are located in a property owned by Kesko in the northern part of the city, at Parashutnaya Ulitsa 60, on the main street leading out of the city to the ring road. The neighbouring area currently has a population of around 100,000 and the area is growing rapidly. This is the first time all of Kesko's chains operating in Russia opened their stores on the same site at the same time.

The K-ruoka store is the chain's fifth store. According to Kari Heiskanen, Kesko Food's Country Director for Russia, the K-ruoka stores already operating in St. Petersburg have been excellently received.

"Customers have appreciated the concept that focuses on freshness, high quality and Finnish products."

The new K-rauta replaces the smaller K-rauta store at Shuvalovsky Prospekt. In Russia, K-rauta has a total of 13 stores in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tula, Jaroslav and Kaluga.

Kesko has been a sports trade operator in Russia since 2011. There are currently a total of 19 Intersport stores in the Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk areas.

The stores' website addresses are: www.k-ruoka.ru, www.k-rauta.ru and www.intersport.ru.

Further information is available from Kesko Food's Country Director for Russia, Kari Heiskanen, tel. +7 812 331 7723.

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 EUR12 billion (VAT 0%) in 2013. The K-Group employs around 45,000 people.

Besides Finland, Kesko also seeks growth particularly in the Russian market. In addition to five K-ruoka stores, Kesko has 13 K-rauta stores and 19 Intersport stores in Russia. Konekesko also exports Yamarin boats to Russia.