Tokmanni Group Oyj is a Finnish retail chain, which is also the largest

discount store A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...

chain in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in terms of net sales in 2019. Tokmanni is Finland's only nationwide discount store chain, and at the end of 2019 it had almost 200 stores around the country. Tokmanni Nurmijärvi

History

The oldest Finnish low price chain of those who later went into Tokman, was ''Vapaa Valinta'', founded in 1974 in

Pirkkala Pirkkala (; sv, Birkala) is a municipality of Finland. It is located some south-west from Tampere in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is , which makes ...

of Juha and Paula Manninen. The Kyösti brothers and Kari Kokkonen founded in 1989 a discount store in Joensuu under the name Okman, which was renamed to Tokmanni in 1991. Later, other low-price chains were founded in the 1970s, for example, by Pirkko and Hannu Vuokila in 1978 founded ''Säästökuoppa'' in Oulu and by Seppo and Paavo Saastamoinen in 1979 founded Maxi-Makasini in

Kajaani Kajaani (; sv, Kajana) is the most populous town and the capital of the Kainuu Region of Finland. It is located southeast of Lake Oulu (Oulujärvi), which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulu River (Oulujoki). As of , it had a pop ...

. During the 1980s, low-cost companies were founded throughout Finland, such as ''Tarjoustalo'' in

Hyvinkää Hyvinkää (; sv, Hyvinge, ) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The city was chartered in 1960. The population of Hyvinkää is (). Its neighboring municipal ...

in 1980 by Arja and Kari Hautanen, ''Säästöpörssi'' in

Karis Karis (; fi, Karjaa ) is a town and former municipality in Finland. On January 1, 2009, it was consolidated with Ekenäs and Pohja to form the new municipality of Raseborg; fi, Raasepori. It is located in the Finnish province of Southern ...

in 1985 by Timo and Tapio Halme and ''Robinhood'' in 1988 by Seppo and Jukka Saastamoinen in

Kouvola Kouvola () is a city and municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located along the Kymijoki River in the region of Kymenlaakso, kilometers east of Lahti, west of Lappeenranta and northeast of the capital, Helsinki. With Kotka, Kouvola is ...

. The economic crisis in Finland in the early 1990s then led to many bankruptcies in the retail industry. In 2004, the Finnish private equity fund CapMan entered as the principal owner of Tokmanni. Thereafter, started a process with many acquisitions and mergers of companies began to a nationally active retail chain, with the beginning of the acquisition of 35 stores in Vapaa Valinta chain. During 2013 – 2015, Tokmanni implemented the brand harmonization, in which all the Group's stores were grouped under the Tokmanni brand. According to the 2018 annual report, Tokmanni is still striving to expand its store network. Tokmanni has divided its product group into six different divisions, which are food, home cleaning and

personal hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

s and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, home interior and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

, and leisure and home technology. In addition to consumer goods, Tokmanni stores usually also sell dry food, but the 15 stores also include

fresh food Fresh food is food which has not been preserved and has not spoiled yet. For vegetables and fruits, this means that they have been recently harvested and treated properly postharvest; for meat, it has recently been slaughtered and butchered; fo ...

. The chain's own brands include Iisi groceries and Priima foods. The company's product range consists of international and domestic brands, its own so-called

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

brands (Iisi and Priima) and non-branded products. Tokmanni has a joint sourcing company in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

with the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

discount store Europris. Tokmanni's five largest shareholders on 30 September 2019 were Takoa Invest, Elo, Varma, Ilmarinen and

OP Financial Group OP Financial Group is one of the largest financial companies in Finland. It consists of 180 cooperative banks and their central organization. “OP” stands for “osuuspankki” in Finnish, literally meaning “cooperative bank”. The financi ...

. About 30 percent of the shares are nominee-registered.

References

External links

*
Tokmanni's investor site
Companies of Finland Department stores of Finland Discount stores Companies listed on Nasdaq Helsinki {{Company-stub