R-kioski

R-kioski Oy

Formerly	Rautatiekirjakauppa
Company type	Joint-stock company
Founded	1910 (R-kioski Oy: 2011)
Headquarters	Finland
Number of locations	560 (Finland 2017) 107 (Estonia 2014)
Area served	Finland Estonia
Key people	Johannes Sangnes (CEO) Ann-Charlotte Schalin (Head of marketing)
Products	Retail
Revenue	€318,226,000 (2013) €320,153,000 (2012)
Operating income	€5,116,000 (2013) €-11,446,000 (2012)
Owner	Reitan Convenience
Number of employees	2,671 (2013) 2,781 (2012)
Parent	Reitan Group
Website	www.r-kioski.fi

R-kioski (known as R-kiosk in Estonia) is a chain of convenience stores that is part of the Reitan Convenience division of the Reitan Group. Reitan's Eastern Nordic and Baltic portfolio includes R-kioski in Finland, R-kiosk in Estonia and Lietuvos spauda in Lithuania. There are 560 R-kioski shops across Finland as of 2017. They sell a range of products, such as books, magazines, cigarettes and tobacco, ready meals, snacks, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks such as beer and cider (up to 5.5% ABV, hence excluding harder liquor such as wine and spirits, whose sales are by Finnish law controlled by the Alko alcohol monopoly). R-kioski shops also provide services such as the various "Veikkaus" lottery games (and in some stores, slot machines), prepaid SIM cards and top-up vouchers, postal services, fishing licences, as well as the sale of public transport tickets. Selected shops are also able to sell national rail and bus transport tickets.

R-kioski is known as "Ärrä" (the name of the letter R in Finnish) in common language. The company slogan is "Nopeaa ja mukavaa on asiointi" (It's swift and convenient to shop).

The first R-kiosk in Estonia opened in 1993, and as of 2014 there are 107 shops in Estonia. Reitan Convenience posted a turnover of 1.63 billion Euros in 2017. Reitan Convenience invested 18 million Euros in R-kioski in 2013 and 2014 together. The money was invested to broaden the product selection as well as to lower the price of food to par with other retail chains competing in the same market such as Alepa, Lidl and Siwa.

History

Finnish Kismet (chocolate bar) with Geisha chocolate flavour and a cup of R-kiosk's coffee

The company dates back to 1910. The business was originally conceived by several major Finnish publishing houses as a newsagent for railway stations ("Rautakirja" was itself shortened from "Rautatiekirjakauppa" which translates to "railway bookshop"). It was later extended to other venues and products. The name R-kioski was adopted in 1958.

On 5 March 2012, it was announced that the Reitan Group bought R-kioski from Sanoma for roughly 130 million Euros. The group had been working on the purchase for a decade, but previous negotiations had stranded as R-kioski had demanded a merger where they owned 51 percent. The purchase brought the Reitan Group to 2,500 kiosk outlets, making it the second-largest kiosk group in Europe. The company also previously operated in Romania between 2008 and 2011, but sold its operations to R-kioski Romania CEO Dan Vasile in April 2011. The name R-kioski was to be abandoned in Romania after a grace period following the corporate acquisition.

In October 2021, R-kioski opened its first automated convenience store called R-kioski Go! in front of the Viikki Campus of the University of Helsinki.

Former company slogans include "Kaiken lisäksi lähellä" (To top it off, it's near by), "Äkkiä R-kioskille" (Swiftly to R-kioski), "R-kioskilla kaikki käy" (We accept everything at R-kioski or Everyone visits R-kioski) and "R-Kioski — Sellaisena kuin sinä haluat" (R-Kioski — as you want it).

Gallery

• 
  A R-kioski on Bulevardi in Helsinki with the old logo in 2006
• 
  An interior of a R-kioski in Jyväskylä. The Veikkaus lottery game counter and slot machines are on the far-left of this picture
• 
  R-kiosk in Aleksandri Street, Tartu, Estonia in 2007
• 
  R-kioski in Pasila railway station, Finland, 2014

Notes

• "R-kioski Oy / Yrityshaku / Taloussanomat" (in Finnish). Sanoma Media Finland Oy / Taloussanomat. 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
• Veera Honkanen (2014). "R-kioski ei muutu 7-Eleveniksi, ainakaan nimeltään" (in Finnish). Sanoma Media Finland Oy / Taloussanomat. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
• "Yritys / R-kioski" (in Finnish). R-kioski. 2017. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
• "R-kiosk" (in Estonian). R-kiosk. 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-26.
• ""R-Kiosk" ir "Lietuvos spaudos" kioskai pasiūlys nemokamą internetą" (in Lithuanian). Verslo žinios. 2013. Retrieved 2014-12-26.
• "R-kioskit katoavat Romaniasta" (in Finnish). Talentum Media Oy. 2011. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
• "Reitan Servicehandel acquires R-kioski in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania". Reuters. 2011. Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
• "Blir Europas nest største kioskselskap". Dagens Næringsliv (in Norwegian). 5 March 2012. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2012.

External links

• R-kioski Finland
• R-kioski Estonia