Let’s bring up today’s KL article about the new IPO candidate Fodelia as a new thread. Profitability is surprisingly high for a Finnish food industry company (cf. Atria, HKScan, Apetit, and Raisio), and growth has been really rapid in recent years. Do forum members have experience with products from Fodelia’s portfolio companies (Real Snacks and Feelia)?
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Real Snacks’ potato chips with all the spices have been my favorite for years. In addition to the taste, I’ve liked that each bag states the name of the farm that produced the potatoes.
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Regarding Feelia, I can say this much, I wonder about it daily due to my work, that goods move through much more than years ago. Significantly, it circulates to kitchens through large wholesalers (Kesko and co.). It seems to be doing well, and I wonder at what point the retail “hairy hand” will strike the margins. You hear about these occasionally when the owner renegotiates prices, but what can you do with the S-mafia and Kesko controlling the entire value chain?
I’m not particularly enthusiastic about food producers for the reasons mentioned above. Sometimes these new entities succeed by inventing something new and trendy.
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This is probably the biggest challenge for every food company operating in Finland to remain profitable for a long time, when these two giants get to meddle and bully other parties in the value chain back and forth.
Regarding Real Snacks’ chips and oat snacks, the S- and K-problem is probably a very legitimate concern, because the products are most likely sold mainly through these stores. However, a large part of Feelia’s business seems to go somewhere other than through the channels of these retail giants, so it would seem to be better protected from the tightening screw of K- and S-groups.
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Restaurants, gas stations, staff restaurants, and all other locations listed on Feelia’s homepage probably wouldn’t go through anyone other than operators like Kespro. It’s not realistic for them to deliver goods to their customers nationwide through any other channel.
Kespro is in the process of acquiring Heino, and this deal also seems to have been caught by the competition authorities. Perhaps a decision will come at some point.
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Both products are for sale at the Summer Festival, and it’s likely to be a direct sale. Probably a significant single transaction when ~75,000 people are eating for 3-5 days.
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Last summer, I was helping out at the Finntriathlon competition in Joroinen, and the participants were offered Feelia’s food after the race. I think one option was something like ham casserole, and the other was a soup, if I remember correctly. If Feelia’s food was offered in Joroinen, one could imagine they’ve also made a deal to handle the food for the entire Finntriathlon organization’s races, which includes many events a year in different locations (Vanajanlinna, Tahko, Joroinen, and Vierumäki). The total number of participants might be around 10,000 people. I’d imagine they sell directly to these events, not through Kespro or similar. Though, that’s probably not a huge piece of Feelia’s overall revenue.
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This company piqued my interest a little. They’ve achieved surprisingly high profitability. Does anyone know more about Feelia’s manufacturing process patent? To a layperson, it sounds impressive if they can extend shelf life without preservatives. Could this be that famous sustainable competitive advantage…?
Edit. I also wanted to ask if the company will be covered by Inderes.
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I could very well guess that it will be followed. When an analyst opens a thread and a possible IPO is reported at the same time, it often means that Inderes will start following the IPO. Waiting for Petri’s IPO report in the coming weeks 
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Registration for the company presentation event is now open! 11.11. at 5:00 PM in Helsinki and 12.11. at 5:30 PM in Oulu. 
https://www.inderes.fi/fi/fodelia-tapahtumat
Great. Can we get a video stream? I’m very interested in this.
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Yep. I’ll arrange a webcast for the event. A recording will also be available immediately after the event. 
Clarification: The webcast will be from the White Hall event in Helsinki on November 11th, starting at 6:00 p.m. I’ll post the link later.
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So far, the share price developments of Atria/HKscan(dal)/Apetit/Raisio have not been very tasty, the industry seems to be a bit more defensive/consumer-dependent. The brand is certainly not in the ‘Coca-Cola’ class.
A positive vibe could be brought by the current owners putting their shares under a sales ban for at least a couple of years.
Real Snacks Oy
Feelia
There was a bit more to it than KL
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How did they manage to trick their operating profit to 14%… Of course, a strong growth spurt and good utilization rates help, but S-Group and Kesko probably won’t watch that for long 
E. As I wrote earlier, I wouldn’t touch these with a ten-foot pole.
The webcast pages are now waiting for the live broadcast to begin Maybe we’ll see you on Monday too if you come to the venue. Fodelia yhtiöesittelyn webcast ma 11.11.2019 klo 18.00–20.00 - Inderes
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Who is there from Fodelia?
At least CEO Mikko Tahkola 
Event program
5:00 PM–6:00 PM Doors open, buffet, refreshments
6:00 PM–8:00 PM Presentation of Fodelia, CEO Mikko Tahkola
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Product Development would have been useful
I’m trying to ask
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4.3€ per share. While waiting for Petri’s research, there seems to be some interest in investment Twitter.
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