Kesko's year 2007

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Kesko's year 2007
been carried out with 22 of them. Kesko also
has 28 suppliers with SA 8000 certification.
The BSCI arranged supplier training in
China and Turkey, and supplier and stakeholder
meetings related to agricultural supplier
audits in Morocco, South Africa and
Almería, Spain.
Some of Kesko’s Vietnamese suppliers
participate in the joint three-year development
project by the Social Responsibility in
Importing network, the Trade Union Solidarity
Centre of Finland (SASK) and the Central
Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions -SAK.
A BSCI audit was carried out in the supplier
companies participating in this project during
2007. The companies also received training
in issues related to employees’
unionisation.
Responsibility in product trade
At the end of 2007, Kesko Food offered a selection
of about 500 organic products and 550
products with environmental labelling. In
addition, individual K-retailers continue to
purchase local organic and other foods to
meet their customers’ wishes. The selections
included 65 Fairtrade products, eight of which
were in the Pirkka range. The extent of the
selection varies by store chain. The selection
and marketing policies concerning organic
and Fairtrade products and products with
environmental labelling are included in the
K-food stores’ chain concepts.
In early 2007 Kesko Food signed an extensive
cooperation agreement with the Association
for Promoting Fairtrade in Finland.
Kesko Food aims to be the market leader in
the sales of Fairtrade products in Finland and
actively seeks new Fairtrade products for the
selection. Fairtrade carnations and mixed
bunches were launched in autumn 2007 to
complement the Fairtrade roses that had been
a huge success.
In April 2007 the K-food stores’ own coffee
brand, Costa Rica, was replaced by the UTZcertified
Pirkka Costa Rica. The new coffee
soon became the most bought responsibly
produced coffee in Finland. The UTZ certification
is based on complying with the demanding
Code of Conduct, which includes both
environmental and social aspects. Consumers
can trace the UTZ-certified coffee all the way
back to the coffee plantation with the help of
the coffee pack’s ’best before’ labelling.
Since the end of 2007, K-food stores have
offered the Pirkka 100% biodegradable shop-
ping bag as an alternative for a plastic bag.
A new Pirkka non-disposable shopping bag
was introduced to the stores at the same time.
The promotion of a healthy way of life is a
central part of Kesko Food’s responsibility
work. The GDA (guideline daily amounts)
label was introduced to the Pirkka range, and
the amount of salt was reduced in six and the
amount of fat in four Pirkka products. The
reformulation of Pirkka products with respect
to their salt, fat and sugar content will continue
during 2008. In cooperation with Dietician
Hanna Partanen, Kesko Food has started
a series of lectures called ’The best choices of
the day’, organised by K-food retailers for
their customers throughout Finland. The
total number of events will reach about 100.
Anttila became the first Nordic retailer to
introduce the Swiss Switcher clothing collection
in its department stores. Switcher pays
special attention to ethical aspects and the
environmental impact of the whole production
chain. Switcher products have a unique
DNA code, which enable the consumer to trace
the production phases of the garment all the
way back to the cotton field.
Rautakesko offers a wide selection of
products with environmental, energy or emission
category labelling. The proportion of certified
timber out of total timber sales was
around 90%. A total of 753 tons of impregnated
timber were recycled through the
K-rauta and Rautia stores. Tropical wood and
timber accounted for under two percent of
Rautakesko’s total sales. In line with Kesko’s
sourcing policy, the garden furniture sold by
all K-Group stores is either FSC-certified or
made of cultivated tropical wood species.
Rautakesko develops cost and eco-efficient
service solutions for construction and
living. The heat renovation service of the
K-rauta and Rautia chains finds the most
suitable heating technique for the customer,
surveys opportunities for energy savings and
pays special attention to the building’s energy
efficiency. Rautakesko will publish a guide
with advice and hints on sustainable living in
March 2008. The themes of the guide are
energy, water, internal air, waste management,
maintenance and repairs, as well as
safety and security. Texts for the guide to be
distributed at the K-rauta and Rautia stores
have been produced by Motiva, the Ministry
of the Environment, the Pulmonary Association
Heli, and the Confederation of Finnish
Construction Industries.
Product safety
The Product Research Unit of Kesko Food is
responsible for ensuring the quality of purchases,
keeping abreast of food legislation,
maintaining and providing support for the
self-control plans required by law and for
developing private label products together
with purchasing and marketing units. The
recipe service of the unit generates hundreds
of recipes for both the K-Group units and
directly for consumers. Kesko Food’s Consumer
Service answers consumer inquiries
and receives feedback. In 2007, there were
20,300 such contacts.
Quality control in purchasing is implemented
by auditing the operations of product
manufacturers and analysing product composition
and quality. In 2007, the Product
Research Unit audited 28 suppliers, 14 of
which were Finnish. These companies mainly
included suppliers of Kesko’s private labels.
A total of 5,022 food novelties and product
development samples, and 1,262 product lot
and other self-control samples were analysed.
Kesko’s Product Research Unit also plays a
key role in exceptional situations, when a
product launched on the market fails to meet
safety or quality requirements. A total of 35
product recalls took place, most of which
related to defective quality or taste, or a manufacturing
or packaging error. Nine of the
recall cases were Kesko Food’s private label
products; in other cases the Product Research
Unit assisted the manufacturing industry.
Two of the recall cases were public recalls,
involving potential health hazards.
Indian guar gum containing dioxin caused
extensive recalls in the EU area in early
autumn. Guar gum (E412) is used as a thickening
additive in very many types of groceries.
The Product Research Unit followed the
situation carefully and ensured that no polluted
lots of guar gum ended up to the manufacturers
of Pirkka products. The laboratory
also made spot-check type determinations of
dioxin, which revealed no deviations. Safety
questions of textiles, such as formaldehyde
and nonylphenol contents, aroused a lot of
discussion throughout the autumn. No contents
exceeding the permitted values were
found in the analyses made by the Product
Research Unit. The new Decree on Food
Premises (STMa 905/2007) entered into force
on 1 November 2007. The requirements of the
revised decree concerning temperatures, for
example, will be updated in the K-Group’s selfcontrol
plans during the transition periods.