Vending in Finland

2020 IMPACT

Consumers avoid vending locations as COVID-19 hits the country

COVID-19 had a negative impact on vending in Finland in 2020, despite the fact that most products sold in vending are food and drink, which generally speaking performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main reason for the sharp decline in retail current value sales suffered by this channel was that vending machines are most typically located in busy places, such as public transport hubs, which consumers avoided during the COVID-19 pandemic to curb the spread of the virus in the country.

Vending continues to face cross-category competition since the deregulation of shopping hours

Non-vending related issues continue to impact sales of vending in 2020. For instance, the liberalisation of retailing opening hours, which took place in 2016, continued to have a negative impact on vending sales in 2020 as shops are staying open for longer, providing consumers with more opportunities to make their purchases whenever they want.

Limited potential for face-mask vending machines in Finland

During the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Finland, Finnish authorities took a negative stance with regards to the use of face-masks in the country. As such, there were not initially any face-mask vending machine opportunities as consumers were not required to wear masks.

RECOVERY AND OPPORTUNITIES

COVID-19 to have a lasting impact on companies’ finances

COVID-19 was particularly bad for vending machine players’ finances in 2020, and the future for players in this category will depend primarily on their resilience determined by the success of sales through other channels. Among the leading players in this channel, Hartwall and Sinebrychoff are primarily producers of alcoholic and soft drinks, which meant that vending only represents a marginal segment of their business, and their performance will be more dependent on the sale of drinks through grocery retailers and on-trade outlets.

Finnish consumers to move away from cash payment methods

Finland continues to lag behind other Nordic markets in terms of payment methods, leading to more cash usage and low popularity of mobile apps. However, these trends are changing.

Little innovation expected in the forecast period

There are no significant changes in the channel expected to take place over the forecast period and the category will remain heavily focussed on soft drinks, hot drinks, and packaged food products throughout the forecast period. There will be some changes within these categories internally, for example, there will inevitably be variations in flavour and the healthy food offering is expected to grow in this channel in the coming years.