KARLSTAD, Sweden – Löfbergs continues to grow in Finland: the Swedish coffee roaster is now taking the next step and establishes a Finnish subsidiary, of which Kent Pettersson will be CEO as from 1 July. Kent is currently working as sales director at Löfbergs, in charge of food retail in Sweden and Finland.
“A very exciting assignment. We have doubled our sales in Finland during the last five years. Our task now is to secure continued profitable growth. It should not be impossible considering the response we are getting among Finns, one of the heaviest coffee drinkers in the world,” says Kent Pettersson, future CEO of the subsidiary Löfbergs Finland.
Kent Pettersson has sound experience from the food industry and has worked at Löfbergs since 2009. He has been in charge of sales to food retail in Sweden, Finland and the Baltics.
Dark roast success
The sales of Löfbergs’s coffee in Finland are increasing in food retail as well as among cafés and restaurants. Löfbergs’s positioning with its dark roast coffee proved to be a real hit. While the coffee segment as a whole is stagnant in Finland, the sales of dark roast coffee increase with about 30 per cent per year.
“We got it right with our dark roast coffee and have won the hearts of many Finnish coffee lovers. It is naturally something we will build on. At the same time, we will develop our assortment of cold beverages,” says Kent Pettersson.
Increasing awareness
Löfbergs has, in the recent past, secured several big deals and cooperative arrangements in Finland. Löfbergs is, for example, the official coffee partner of the new multi-purpose arena UROS Live in Tampere, which will be inaugurated in the autumn of 2021.
This and other arena investments are an important part of the work to increase awareness among Finnish consumers.
In 2018, Löfbergs initiated a sales cooperation with Nordqvist tea house to meet an increased demand and strengthen the service degree to Finnish food retail.
“With help from the Nordqvist sales force, we are strengthening our presence in Finnish food retail. Combined with arena investments and other cooperative arrangements, it gives us great opportunities to continue to grow and reach our goal to be the most popular coffee supplier in Finland,” says Kent Pettersson.
