The decline of Koskenkorva Viina is indeed interesting, but the brand certainly holds significant value, at least in Finland.
This sentence is repeated in this year’s interim reports:
Koskenkorva’s net sales grew from the previous year, representing over 17% of the total Spirits sales. International markets net sales increased. (Taken from Q1; the same sentence appears in Q2 and Q3, but with 18% growth and a positive mention in the CEO’s review regarding both the spirit and ready-to-drink versions.)
Q1 also mentions international market growth for the Spirits segment (or was it for Koskenkorva?), but this sentence is not found in the Q2 and Q3 reports.
I hadn’t given any thought to the 30% “kossu” (Koskenkorva), but I found a YLE news article from 2014 where the drink had climbed into Alko’s TOP 10 list with 0.27M liters in sales. ( Mild Koskenkorva rockets into liquor’s Top Ten | Yle ) I don’t recall if “a clearer head” was trending back then, if it was about lower pricing, or what exactly boosted the drink.
However, the world is changing, that’s clear. A worker arriving home from the sawmill no longer pops the cap on Friday to ease their malaise as quickly as possible; there are other ideas about recovery now. (The bluntness of the communication is partly to emphasize the brilliance of Anu Kolmonen’s Taapelitaivas, no offense intended to anyone.)