Elovena® enters new markets: the Netherlands and Belgium
Press release 13 February 2024, 8:35 am EET
New markets have opened up for the iconic Elovena® brand with Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, adding Raisio’s Elovena® oat drinks to its assortment in both the Netherlands and Belgium in February 2024. This is an important step for the international expansion of Elovena® products and has been under preparation for a long time.
Three Elovena® products will be made available in Albert Heijn supermarkets in February: Elovena® Oat Drink, Elovena® Oat Drink Barista and Elovena® Cocoa Snack Oat Drink.
“Bringing these products to the leading retailer in the Netherlands is a major achievement, as we have been working on the international expansion of the brand for a long time. Launching new food brands into new markets is not simple even under normal circumstances, and the global economic situation in recent years has added to the challenge. This new market entry is a great success, achieved through the efforts of a wide team at Raisio,” says Pekka Kuusniemi, CEO of Raisio.
Albert Heijn is the best-known retailer and a market leader in the Netherlands, with a long tradition going back more than 130 years. Albert Heijn is also active in Belgium, where its presence is growing. Elovena® products will be available in 715 stores in the Netherlands and about 30 stores in Belgium.
The Netherlands and Belgium are natural export destinations for Elovena® products, as the consumption of plant-based foods, and particularly oat products, is increasing in these countries. In the Netherlands, the consumption of plant-based foods is already significantly higher than in Elovena’s home market Finland, and oat-based products are driving category growth.
Currently, the main market for Elovena® products is Finland, but Raisio aims to increase the brand’s international footprint. The oat drink products exported to the Netherlands and Belgium are made from Finnish oats in the plant-based products factory completed in 2021 in the Raisionkaari industrial area. The factory plays an important role in Raisio's strategy: it has enabled the introduction of non-dairy product categories to Raisio's product range.
“We aim to establish a permanent position for our oat products in markets much larger than Finland, and achieving this position will require a great deal of work and investments. Achieving market positions in competitive consumer markets is expensive and comes with a certain risk, but we believe that the strong Elovena® brand, which will soon be a century old, has a lot to offer also on a global scale,” Kuusniemi says.
The Dutch have a positive image of Finland and the Nordic countries, with links to nature, clean ingredients, health and well-being. Therefore, Elovena® advertising taps into the unique Finnish happiness and the positive, exotic image that the local consumers have of Finns.
A century of delicious oat products
The Elovena® brand will be one hundred years old in 2025. The essence of the best-known oat brand in Finland has remained unchanged throughout the decades: delicious products made from Finnish oats and pure Finnish nature. The brand’s roots stretch back to 1925, and the Raisio Group acquired it in the 1990s. The brand and its product range have evolved, and with the growing popularity of healthy plant-based food, the brand has become more relevant than ever by expanding its range with oat-based alternatives to dairy products. The Elovena® drinks launched in the Dutch and Belgian markets have already established a strong foothold in Finland. Times change, but the great taste of Elovena® endures!
Enquiries:
Pekka Kuusniemi, CEO, tel. +358 50 537 3883
Mika Saarinen, CFO, tel. +358 40 072 6808
Raisio plc
At Raisio, we make food from the heart, with the aim of bringing health to ourselves and the Earth. We keep creating better plant-based and heart-healthy products so that eating healthily and within the Earth’s ecological capacity can be a pleasure. Our strong brands, such as Elovena®, Benecol® and Härkis®, turn our ambitions into reality. Through our responsibility work, we make the hard choices for consumers, so that they can choose Raisio products with confidence. We have around 350 healthy food colleagues in seven countries and export to more than 40 markets around the world. Raisio's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. In 2023, the Group’s comparable net sales for continuing operations were EUR 219.5 million and the comparable EBIT was EUR 22.7 million. www.raisio.com
