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Kesko Oyj (HEL:KESAV) INDOOR GROUP LTD PRESS RELEASE 04.09.2008 AT 10.00 1(2)
Asko has been a trendsetter in Finnish home furnishing for decades and will celebrate its 90th anniversary on 6 September 2008. In the summer, Asko arranged a design competition in celebration of its jubilee year for young interior furnishing designers, expected to introduce new, modern product ideas for the Asko collection. Asko also cherishes traditions by reintroducing, not only the 'Asko 90 Years' jubilee collection by Eero Aarnio, but also Asko classics by renowned designers from past decades. An exhibition illustrating Asko in the 1950s and 1960s will open on Asko's name day, 6th of September, in the Lahti Historical Museum.
€20,000 prize to the design competition winner
Throughout its history, Asko has cooperated with several Finnish and foreign designers and also employed many of them. The company has developed the Finnish home furnishing culture and in many ways supported furniture and interior decoration students and design. Asko's competition, running between 1 May and 15 August 2008, was intended especially for young designers. The competition task was to design the living room furniture for a Finnish home using completely new product ideas, suitable for manufacturing and commercial exploitation.
"It was important for us to target the competition expressly to young Finnish designers. We want to offer them an opportunity to gain visibility and to progress on their career paths. We also hope that Asko finds fresh product ideas that capture the spirit of today among the competition entries so that in the future, we can offer them to our customers, says CEO Pasi Mäkinen.
The competition received a total of 65 design entries. They will be judged by a panel of furnishing professionals, who will select a shortlist of five finalists. The winner will be decided by votes from the public. The winner's prize is 20,000 euros, and the second and the third runner-up will receive 5,000 euros. In addition, two designs will be granted 1,000 euro awards. The results will be announced on 15 October 2008.
The 'Asko 90 Years' jubilee collection
Asko's jubilee collection has been designed by Eero Aarnio, who is renowned in Finland and abroad for an unprejudiced, modern touch, visible in Asko's collection since the 1960s. His biggest and widest reputation relies on the Ball Chair, introduced by Asko in the Cologne Fair in 1966. The same unprejudiced, rich ideas are manifest in the Asko jubilee collection designed by Aarnio. The Loft product family comprises a three-element two-seater sofa, that converts into a divan, a dining table, a dining table chair, a shelf unit, an easy chair, a coffee table and an auxiliary table.
To celebrate its jubilee year, Asko also reintroduces classics by its other famous designers. The 'Laila' easy chair and sofas were designed by Ilmari Lappalainen in 1948, while the 'Jugend' dining group and 'Harlekiini' easy chair by Markku Pakkanen are representatives of the 1990s.
Asko's 90-year history in short
The success story of Asko and the whole Finnish furniture history started on 6 September 1918, when carpenter Aukusti Avonius established the 'Lahden Puuseppätehdas' carpentry shop in Lahti. It was different from all other carpenter shops of those days, because from the very start, Avonius concentrated on serial production and a store chain of its own. In the early days, Asko mainly produced furniture for sale in its wide store network in Finland and abroad. Export countries included Germany and the Nordic countries, among others. Today, Asko is fully engaged in retailing and is the best known brand in Finnish home furnishing. In addition to Finland, Asko's store network is expanding in the Baltic countries.
The Asko brand continues to communicate the uncompromising principles of Aukusti Asko Avonius, which can be read in Asko's customer promise: Asko offers quality and brand conscious home furnishing customers a modern and competitive collection, coupled with the best service in the business, ease of shopping and accuracy of delivery.
"We have a fine brand we can be proud of. We work on a long-term basis in order to develop our operations. This jubilee year that now begins, we will place a special emphasis on the renovation of the Asko brand," says Mika Kakko, Director, Asko Chain.
In accordance with its customer promise, Asko will continue focusing on quality and the development of its products that are in line with the spirit of today. For improved customer service, Asko is preparing a customer loyalty programme of its own, to complement the Plussa system. The proportion of electronic customer communications will grow in the coming years and the development is underway. Asko is timelessly in touch with the time, and its products and services will continue to provide a source of joy for home furnishers.
'Cosy and international' exhibition
In celebration of Asko's jubilee year, the Lahti Historical Museum opens an exhibition titled 'Cosy and international' on its 1st and 3rd floors on 6 September 2008. The exhibition is the second in a series of three and showcases Asko's operations and products in the 1950s and the 1960s in a collection compiled from the museum. The exhibition is introduced to the press on Friday, 5 September 2008.
Further information: Pasi Mäkinen, CEO, Indoor Group Ltd, tel. +358 50 502 3097 Mika Kakko, Director, Asko Chain, tel. +358 50 306 4256
With its chain concepts, Indoor Group is the leading retailer of home furniture and interior decoration products in Finland. The company consists of the Asko and Sotka retail store chains, Insofa Ltd for the assembly of upholstered furniture, and the subsidiaries in Estonia and Latvia. In 2007, Indoor Group's net sales totalled €196.5 million and it had 955 employees. The Asko chain consists of 32 department and other stores for interior decoration in Finland and department stores in Tallinn, Tartu and Riga. The Sotka chain consists of 52 furniture stores in Finland and stores in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu and Riga.
Kesko (www.kesko.fi) is a retail specialist whose stores offer quality to the daily lives of consumers. Kesko has about 2,000 stores engaged in chain operations in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, and Belarus.
