Industries

Fast-moving consumer goods

Fast-moving consumer goods include food, drink, technochemical products, household papers, tobacco products, magazines and everyday cosmetics. In 2017, the total sales of FMCG in Finland was EUR 17.6 bn.

A grocery shop is a primarily self-service market shop selling a full range of grocery goods and this is the daily consumer goods trade. In addition to market trade, the daily consumer goods sales of foodstuff special shops, service stations and discount stores are also counted in the retail trade of daily consumer goods. The daily consumer good market also includes the food supply of Foodservice (HoReCa) wholesale trade clients, like public facilities, and the sales of other clients, such as private-sector restaurants, cafés and canteens. In EU statistics, the retail trade in alcoholic beverages is also included in the daily consumer goods market.

Concatenation and logistical concentration are typical of the Finnish daily consumer goods trade. The situation is the same in the other Nordic countries, because without large collected volumes, a high enough efficiency cannot be achieved in these vast and sparsely populated countries. Weaker cost efficiency would mean higher prices, narrower selections and worse service and availability. Even though the volume of sales is concentrated in larger shops, the smaller corner shops have an important role as the protector of the whole country’s habitability and food supply. In the future, as the population ages, services that are close to home and accessible even without a car become more and more necessary.

Specialty goods trade

Specialty goods shops are retail shops that offer specialty goods and services relating to them. Specialty goods shops include clothing and shoe shops, furniture and interior decoration shops, appliance and photo shops, hardware and construction goods shops, bookshops, jewellers, health shops, opticians and pharmacies and other retail shops specialising in certain consumer products.

Specialty goods shops represent different businesses with common characteristics, both structurally and business-wise. The core of specialty goods shops’ operations is personal service, a high level of specialty and specialised product selection. Specialty gods shops typically aim for a central location in the city structure and tend to gather closely together, as dense service clusters are appealing shopping environments.

The majority of all retail shops are specialty goods shops. The size of specialty goods trade companies varies from small private companies to national franchises. The internationalisation of retail trade in Finland began in the specialty goods trade sector as long ago as the 1980s. Of the chains in the specialty goods sector, some are privately owned multi-shop companies, some are franchising chains and some are so-called voluntary chains consisting of independent companies which cooperate mainly in marketing and purchasing.

Technical trade

Technical trade mainly refers to trade between companies: import and sales of goods needed by industry and construction, such as raw materials, parts, components, equipment, machines and systems, and provision of related solutions and services.

Technical trade has a central role in the development of industry and the competitiveness of the construction sector. Technical trade maintains the availability of products necessary for the industry’s competitiveness and ensures their quality.

Companies import not only products, but also international skills with the support of their clients. With their know-how, companies are able to improve their clients’ effectiveness and products, which helps the development of industry’s competitiveness.

The significance of solutions and services in technical trade companies’ operations continues to grow. Technical trade also exports Finnish industrial products abroad.

Clients include all business branches of industry, construction and the public sector and also retail trade, both in Finland and the neighbouring areas.Central industrial clients include the technology industry, especially workshops and docks, the forestry industry, such as the paper and chemical pulp industry, and also the construction, chemistry and mining industries.

Looking at consumer products, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, light gardening and forestry machinery and batteries are classed as technical trade.

Wholesale trade

Wholesale trade procures goods from both Finnish and foreign industries and sells them on. Wholesale trade serves retail trade and other companies and public administration.Importing is also integral to wholesale trade.

Today, in addition to selling goods on, wholesale trade is increasingly about service operations.

The main business branches of wholesale trade can be divided byproducts, operations and partners into wholesale trade in daily consumer goods, wholesale trade in utilities and consumer products, agricultural wholesale trade, technical wholesale trade, wholesale trade in construction business, information and communications technical wholesale trade and wholesale trade in fuel. The wholesale trade in the car business is not technically wholesale trade within the business branch classification.

The wholesale trade in consumer products, daily consumer goods and technical wares each cover about a fifth of total wholesale trade revenue. In revenue, the wholesale trade sector is considerably larger than retail trade, but the number of companies and personnel is lower than in retail trade.