{{Short description, Finnish fast food chain

Snacky was a small Finnish

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

chain operating in the Helsinki capital area. Founded in 1980, the chain was operating until 1995, and then again under a new owner from 2007 to 2015. As the chain went bankrupt, its owner was sentenced to jail for severe financial crimes. In 2021 Snacky returned again, now as a

virtual restaurant A virtual restaurant (also known as a ghost kitchen or dark kitchen) is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick up based on phone and online ordering. It is a separate food vendor entity that operates out o ...

, where Snacky products can be bought through

Foodora foodora is an online food delivery brand owned by Delivery Hero. It was founded in Munich, Germany and currently operates in Austria (recently), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary and Czech Republic . The CEO of foodora is Hans Skruvfors ...

and

Wolt Wolt is a Finnish technology company known for its delivery platform for food and merchandise. On Wolt's apps (iOS and Android) or website, customers can order food and other items from the platform's restaurant and merchant partners, and either p ...

. Snacky does not have its own restaurant premises.

History

The Snacky hamburger restaurant chain was first operational from 1980 to 1995. The first Snacky restaurant was founded in Itäkeskus,

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in 1980. The restaurant was founded by the Hämeenheimo family. The chain had a total of 14 double-laned automobile grill restaurants. They were located in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Greater Helsinki, Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa i ...

Kerava Kerava (; sv, Kervo) is a town and municipality within the Uusimaa region of Finland. The municipalities of Vantaa, Sipoo and Tuusula are adjacent to Kerava, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The town has a population of () an ...

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of F ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

and

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

. One of Snacky's product innovations was the rye hamburger.Historiaa
Snacky. Accessed on 20 March 2016. The chain disappeared from the market in 1995, when Carrols bought it out. In January 2007 the Snacky brand was bought by

Burger Bakers Oy Burger or Burgers may refer to: Food and drink Foods * Hamburger, a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked beef patties, placed inside a sliced bread roll or bun roll. ** Cheeseburger, a hamburger with added cheese(s) * Ground beef, minced b ...

. The chain operated as

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

until 2015. Under the new concept, there were seven Snacky restaurants, of which four were located in Helsinki, two in Vantaa and one in Espoo. The Snacky products included "Poliisi" ("Policeman"), a double-layered hamburger with a fried egg, "Taksi" ("Taxi") with pineapple, "Pressa" ("President) with bacon and a fried egg and "Heavy Monster", a gigantic layered burger. Snacky was known for its vivid marketing, extravagant compared to its business in its final years, including

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

, bikini-clad car washers, drive-in movies, girl pin-up calendars and free

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

s. The advertising reached from the Helsinki capital area to Hua Hin,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

with its open bed taxis. In late 2015 over half of Snacky's revenue of a couple of million euro was spent on marketing, including half a dozen flashy

advertising film Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

s. On 21 December 2015 Snacky's owner Effect Investment Oy went bankrupt. The chain ceased activities on 18 March 2016, when no new owner for it was found. The last Snacky restaurant in

Pihlajisto Pihlajisto (Finnish), Rönninge (Swedish) is a northern-central quarter in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is part of the Malmi neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or ...

, Helsinki closed down in late August 2016. It operated under franchising, so it stayed open until its rental contract ended.

Financial crimes

Snacky's last owner and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Jukka Pekka Edvard Nieminen was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for severe financial crimes by the district court in March 2017. Nieminen had withdrawn 1.1 million euro from the accounts of Effect Investment Oy, Snacky's backup company. He had also acquired almost 600,000 euro of cash funds from Snacky restaurants. Hardly any

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

had been done and the chain's bills had not been paid, leading to its bankruptcy. Nieminen was also convicted of fraud regarding false claims of the expansion of the Snacky chain. The district court sentenced Nieminen to pay almost 3 million euro.Harju, Jukka
Snacky-hampurilaisketjun kassojen tyhjentäminen toi toimitusjohtajalle vuosien tuomion – Suunnitelma Australiaan muuttamisesta ei onnistunut
''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'' 12 January 2018. Accessed on 12 January 2018. The court of appeal lowered the sentence to four and a half years in prison and also lowered the monetary expenses a bit. According to the

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

, Nieminen had planned to move to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

after acquiring the money. There Nieminen had already been working for a couple of years as a restaurant owner during the turn of the millennium.Rossi, Venla
Romukauppiaan suvusta kasvoi Snackyn sinnikäs ruokapomo
''

'' 14 April 2015. Accessed on 1 January 2022.

References

External links

Official site
Fast-food chains of Finland Defunct fast-food chains Defunct food and drink companies of Finland Restaurants established in 1980 Restaurants disestablished in 2015