Swedish wonders - Ridderheims and Sibylla

Selling of Fallbygdens business is fine and okay, cheeses really do not belong to meat processing company’s repertoire.  Here are the arguments given by Atria.

”Atria focuses on its core business in Sweden and therefore Atria Sverige AB has made an agreement to sell the Falbygdens cheese business to Arla Foods AB.”

However by the same grounds, Ridderheims should be sold as well. What has Atria to do with Italian olives?  They for example are contained in the company’s product range.  In addition, I ponder if Ridderheims truly is an appealing brand or even a well-known brand.  Namely the company has been campaigning to raise its brand awareness.  The company’s attention-grabbing advertising campaign in September was targeted for busy people making their career.  Really, one must conclude that Ridderheims is not a power brand.  Not even in Sweden.

Ridderheims’ products, to a large extent, are imported but at the same time the company is geared towards building export and currently Norway is the biggest market.  Finns have not yet adopted its products and export to Russia is currently not an option.  How could Ridderheims take foothold anywhere abroad? Why should anyone want his or her Prosciutto di Parma not to come straight from Italy but for instance via Gothenburg, with only Ridderheims’ logo added?  Products something like this.

Perhaps Ridderheims is not the kind of crown jewel that one could have though. Maybe Atria will sell Ridderheims as soon as someone wants to buy it.

What about the other Swedish wonder, Sibylla, and especially its progress in Finland?  Web pages tell that the number of point of sales is promising, about 300.

But what is the target? It is 400 sales outlets and reaching the top five the very near future.  It means that after this target is reached there will still be too many larger chains, namely a couple of chains which everyone knows, and a couple of chains, of which no one has ever heard of. Okay, their final target is top three.  That would be fine.

Perhaps Sibylla’s outlets are too small. Maybe fast food is associated also with social needs and some special needs such as desire to be seen. Or is it the case that fast food de facto is only for teens and families with children.  If so, Sibylla’s mini-outlets will never prosper.

We will look at Atria again later but on Friday, November 7th, we are going to look at HKScan’s businesses. Finno-Ugric peoples concisely.

This is Artoparto and here is my Disclaimer.  Please read it.

Disclaimer:  All content provided on this site is for entertainment purposes only.  This site does not provide any investment advice and content on this site should not be construed as recommendation to buy or sell any financial instruments.  Please consult a qualified financial adviser before making any financial decision.  I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity, of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  I will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from displaying or using any content provided on this site.  I am not responsible for users' comments.  I reserve the right to update or delete any content on this site for any reason.

HKScan Finland - fragmentary observations about Flodins brand and Finnish meat product export potential

What will happen to the Group's renewed Flodins brand which is committed to using only meat from the company's own market area. This is what we asked in this blog about a month ago. Well, now Flodins is in stores, at least in Finland, a few products of domestic origin.   The net pages in Finnish are in fact partly in English. Not a very impressive start.

What about the commitment?  Somewhat alarming is the fact that for horeca sectorin Finland, HKScan offers 11 Flodins products, of which a significant part is not from the group’s market area. A blatant example of cooked minced beef: born, raised, slaughtered, cut, cooked and packaged in Brazil.  Horeca pages are not up to date?  Or is it that the promise of HKScan’s own market area origin has been thrown out right away?

In a seminar arranged by Makery Oy in September, Petri Haaparanta, VP HKScan Export, has given a presentation.  Material available in the net is mostly in English.  The theme of the seminar was that Finnish food export has great potential and Haaparanta shed light on the situation from HKScan's point of view. At least my knowledge increases when he tells of the Group's export distribution by country: the largest export markets are Russia 16%, UK 12%, New Zealand 8% and Hong Kong 8%.

But also here we have one alarming piece of info. The presentation includes a diagram of how reliable do consumers consider processed meat products manufactured in different countries.   The online presentation unfortunately does not tell the countries in which the survey was conducted and what countries were involved in the comparison. Haaaparanta’s chart includes Finland, Belarus, Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.

 

The result is shocking.  It is no surprise that Finnish meat products are trusted most, average on a 7-point scale is 5.4.  However, difference to Belarus and Russia is negligible, both of them having average of 5.2.  And yes, the survey truly found differences, namely Estonia got a low reading of 4.4 and Poland a reading of only 3.3.

Once again it should be emphasized that there is no information about what are the countries where the survey was conducted, but whatever they are, the results tells a terrible thing, that on those markets Finnish meat products, when it comes to trustworthiness, have no lead compared for instance to Russian meat products.

Hence these Haaparanta’s statements in the presentation seem fairly arrogant and even funny.

Choose your partner – don’t let your partner choose you.

Our offering comes with a promise of delicious food, Nordic purity and responsibility. That promise applies to every step in the meat value chain and every person involved in what we do.

We will discuss HKScan later but on Friday, October 24^th, we are going to look at Atria’s businesses.  Okay, Estonian meat food is not trusted, the survey says. So, let's look at the atmosphere in Tartu food and beer festival. Please note that one alcohol brand is featured prominently in the video.

This is Artoparto and here is my Disclaimer.  Please read it.

Disclaimer:  All content provided on this site is for entertainment purposes only.  This site does not provide any investment advice and content on this site should not be construed as recommendation to buy or sell any financial instruments.  Please consult a qualified financial adviser before making any financial decision.  I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity, of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  I will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from displaying or using any content provided on this site.  I am not responsible for users' comments.  I reserve the right to update or delete any content on this site for any reason.