Kesko Oyj : K-food stores’ parcel and postal transactions quadrupled in 2016

A parcel or postal point can be found in approximately 800 K-food stores throughout Finland and the network will continue to grow. In addition to Posti's postal service points and parcel collection lockers, K-food stores also include UPS pick-up points, DHL packstations and an expansive Matkahuolto delivery network, which continues in the K-Markets that were previously Siwa and Valintatalo stores.

According to the Suomi Syö 2016 study, customers found that postal services are Finland's most valued customer service after ATMs and that the importance of postal services has been growing for many years. According to the study, the installing of parcel lockers on store premises is especially appreciated by families with children under the age of six.

The current trend is that parcels are increasingly picked up in the evenings and at weekends. The K-Market retailer, Toni Penttala, whose two stores are located in Kivenlahti, Espoo, has discovered that this is true of his own store. In fact, K-Market Kivenlahdenkatu has one of the busiest parcel points of all the K-food stores.

"We have a lot of parcels that are collected in the afternoons and they also move briskly in and out at weekends. Customers collecting and sending our parcels clearly appreciate the flexibility offered by longer opening hours," says Penttala. In support of that observation Petri Toivonen, Kesko's Services Director, says "The demands of our parcel and mail customers has also increased. In K-food stores, parcel services are part of our normal operations,"

The K Group and DB Schenker signed a nationwide cooperation agreement in April to extend DB Schenker's pick-up network to K-food stores. The aim is to have DB Schenker pick-up points becoming established in K-food stores alongside other parcel points by the end of the year.

"The parcel and postal service network of K-food stores is already the most extensive of any grocery store chain in Finland and our agreement with DB Schenker and Matkahuolto as well as the strong growth of co-operation between K-food stores and Posti will mean that almost every type of parcel can be collected from a local K-store when people go grocery shopping in the future," says Toivonen.

"K-stores will further diversify the network of our widespread pick-up points and we will also deliver online purchase shipments via DB Schenker's own international network, even from China to your local K-store or carried and installed directly in the consumer's home. We also support online vendors with ready-made IT interfaces, which means using our distribution and pickup network is smooth," says Antti Jarva, Head of DB Schenker's Parcel Finland.