Kärkkäinen (formerly J. Kärkkäinen) is a department store chain in Ylivieska, Finland. It was established in 1988.[1] In 2016, it was the fourth largest discount store chain in Finland after Tokmanni, HalpaHalli and Motonet.[2] In addition to Ylivieska, the company has also stores in Oulu, Ii, Lahti and Jyväskylä, and it also own an online store. The company's founder and CEO is Juha Kärkkäinen [fi].
In 2010, Kärkkäinen applied for corporate restructuring, because the company had a total of more than EUR 37 million in restructuring debt. The district court drew up a ten-year repayment program for the company.[3] The corporate restructuring program ended in August 2020.[4]
In a brand valuation survey conducted by Markkinointi & Mainonta in 2018, Kärkkäinen was the least valued of the seven discount store brands.[5] This is widely thought to be due to the controversy surrounding the company and its CEO, which stemmed from anti-Semitic articles in the company’s free newspaper distribution, including in Magneettimedia.[6] The connections of the free newspaper distribution to the neo-Nazi organization Finnish Resistance Movement have also been detrimental to the company's reputation.[7][8] Largely due to the uproar, many companies do not sell their products in Kärkkäinen's stores; Finlayson, Fiskars and Otava, among others, have terminated the cooperation.[9][10][11]
In 2021, Juha Kärkkäinen urged his employees in an internal email not to take the coronavirus vaccine. The message was accompanied by a link to MV-media's website.[12][13]
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| Minor supermarkets |
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| Discount |
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| Convenience |
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| Liquor |
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| Former |
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