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The race to modernize European food retail supply chains has entered a new phase. The Finnish retail group Kesko has selected Manhattan ActiveWarehouse™ from Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH), a leading provider of supply chain and omnichannel commerce solutions.
The Scandinavian retail giant is replacing the existing warehouse management system for its food operations with Manhattan’s cloud-native warehouse management solution. This solution also includes agent-based AI capabilities available through Manhattan Active Agents and Manhattan Agent Foundry™.
For Finland’s second-largest food brand—which is also among the largest in Northern Europe—this investment underscores the growing strategic importance of operational flexibility. Digital and physical retail are becoming increasingly intertwined, while a broader shift is also taking place within retail logistics as a whole.
The scale of Kesko’s food business makes the project particularly relevant to the Finnish and European retail sectors. In 2025, this division generated net sales of 6.5 billion euros and a comparable operating profit of 418 million euros. Together, the K-food stores and Kespro constitute a major player in the food market.
“Our goal is to create a future-proof foundation for our warehouses and technology that can continue to evolve without the disruptions traditionally associated with enterprise software upgrades. At the same time, we want to harness the transformative power of agentic AI to increase our operational efficiency and unlock new opportunities that were previously out of reach,” said Pekka Tala, Director of Strategic Programs, Grocery Trade Logistics at Kesko.
The significance of Kesko’s decision extends beyond just the technological infrastructure. Retailers are facing increasingly diverse consumer needs and higher expectations regarding fast and reliable fulfillment. “If you fail to deliver on a promise to fulfill an order on time and in full, a customer will simply choose an alternative. So there’s a lot at stake,” Tala adds.
“The project will initially include five distribution centers, followed by a greenfield site (in 2029–2030) and various terminal hub operations. For us, it is essential that we be able to interpret operational signals in real time and act on them immediately,” Tala concludes.
Kesko plans to deploy Manhattan’s Wave Coordinator, Labor, and Warehouse Associate agents. In addition, the company is working with Agent Foundry to explore the possibilities of additional, custom-developed agents to support inbound logistics processes.
Sebastien Lefebure, Senior Vice President EMEA at Manhattan, continues: “Retailers are increasingly viewing warehouse projects as an opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors. This project is therefore about more than just replacing an outdated WMS; it offers Kesko the opportunity to strengthen its competitive position.”.
“The continuous innovation of Manhattan’s cloud-native platform, combined with the power of AI integrated directly into the execution layer of supply chains, is increasingly becoming the benchmark against which the next generation of supply chain platforms is measured. Kesko is leading the way in the application of this technology within the Scandinavian food industry,” concludes Lefebure.
