Kesko Food appoints new management

Kesko Food, the subsidiary of Finnish owned conglomerate Kesko Group,  has appointed Mika Rautiainen as Vice President responsible for the food trade in the K-citymarket chain and Ari Svensk as Vice President responsible for the K-market unit. Both appointments will be effective as of June 1, 2007.

Rautiainen was previously European Trade Director for AMS, a European food and non-food buying alliance, in Holland and Switzerland in 1999-2003. Svensk has been with Kesko since 1993. He was Kesko Food's Purchasing Director responsible for groceries, and prior to that held the position of Director, Hypermarkets and Director, Central Sourcing in the Baltic countries.

Karri Pulli, the current Vice President for the food trade in the K-citymarket chain resigns at his own request and will continue in Kesko Food's project assignments until the end of November.

In April, Pulli announced that Kesko Food was looking into opportunities to divest its wholesale subsidiary, Kespro Ltd. By selling the business, Kesko Food hoped to focus more on its core K-food retail business in Finland. In Q1 2007, Kesko reported an 11.3% growth in net sales. The group's net sales amounted to €2,193m in this period, increasing by over 8.0% in Finland and 27.0% abroad. Kesko Food's net sales totalled €883 million.