Rabbe Anders Grönblom (May 3, 1950 in

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 ...

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 Bo ...

– June 29, 2015) was a Finnish-Swedish businessman who started a successful

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, ...

business in

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

, Finland. His first company—a

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. As well as pizza, dishes at pizzerias can include kebab, salads and pasta. Many pizzerias offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then tak ...

—was called ''O sole mio'' and it was founded in 1976 in the center of Vaasa. From there he expanded to a pizza franchise chain first called ''Pizzeria N:o 1''. He was known as the "Pizza-emperor" (Pizzakeisari in Finnish), because he was the founder of a well known pizza franchise chain called

Kotipizza Kotipizza Oyj is the largest pizza restaurant chain in the Nordic countries. ' is Finnish language, Finnish and translates as "home". Kotipizza is part of Kotipizza Group, and it operates a chain of pizza franchises in Finland. In 2021, there were ...

which was the new name of ''Pizzeria N:o 1'' which expanded fast outside of Vaasa. The chain is said to be the biggest one in the Nordic countries. He was also the founder of a shipping company called

RG Line RG Line Oy Ab was a Finnish shipping company founded in 2001 that operated a ferry line between Vaasa, Finland and Umeå, Sweden until the end of 2012. Nowadays the Vaasa-Umeå line is operated by Wasa Line. The company was founded in 2001 ...

, a hotel chain called Omenahotelli and another pizza chain called

Golden Rax Pizzabuffet Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset * Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestersh ...

. Most of his companies are subsidiaries of Grönblom International LTD, where Rabbe Grönblom acted as director. Golden Rax Pizzabuffet however is nowadays a part of Finland's largest hotel & restaurant company Restel Oy Ltd, where Rabbe Grönblom sat on the board. He was also on the board of the Finnish tyre company Nokian Renkaat (since 2003).

References

1950 births Finnish businesspeople Swedish-speaking Finns 2015 deaths {{Finland-bio-stub