The race to modernise Europe’s grocery supply chains has entered a new phase, with Finnish retail group Kesko selecting Manhattan Active Warehouse™ from supply chain and omnichannel commerce solutions provider Manhattan Associates Inc.
The Nordic retailer is replacing its grocery trade legacy warehouse management system with the a cloud-native warehouse management solution, including agentic AI capabilities delivered through Manhattan Active Agents and Manhattan Agent Foundry™.
For Finland’s second largest grocery brand, and one of the biggest in Northern Europe, the investment reflects the growing strategic importance of operational agility, as digital and physical retail become increasingly interconnected and a broader shift taking place across retail logistics more generally.
The scale of Kesko’s grocery trade makes the project noteworthy in Finnish and European retail. In 2025, the division’s net sales amounted to EUR 6.5 billion, and its comparable operating profit was EUR 418 million. Together, K-food stores and Kespro form an extensive grocery trade business.
“Our aim is to create a warehouse and technology foundation that evolves without the disruption traditionally associated with enterprise software upgrades, while also leveraging the transformative power of agentic AI to gain operational efficiencies and unlock previously unseen opportunities,” commented Pekka Tala, Director Strategic Programs, Grocery Trade Logistics at Kesko.
The significance of Kesko’s decision extends beyond infrastructure, however, as retailers face increasingly fragmented consumer demands and rising expectations for rapid, reliable fulfilment.
“If you break an on-time-in-full promise a customer will simply find an alternative, which sets the stakes high. Initially covering five distribution centres, followed by a greenfield site (in 2029-30), plus a range of terminal hub operations, being able to interpret and act on operational signals in real time is key for us.” Pekka Tala
Kesko expects to deploy Manhattan’s Wave Coordinator, Labour, and Warehouse Associate Agents while exploring additional purpose-built agents to support additional inbound operations with Agent Foundry.
Sebastien Lefebure, Senior Vice President, EMEA at Manhattan continued: “Retailers are increasingly viewing warehouse projects as an opportunity for competitive differentiation. This project represents more than the simple replacement of a legacy WMS; it is an opportunity to drive competitive advantage.
“The continuous innovation delivered by Manhattan’s cloud-native platform, coupled with the functional power of AI embedded in the execution layer of supply chains is increasingly becoming the benchmark against which next-generation supply chain platforms will be measured, and Kesko is at the forefront of the application of this technology in the Nordic grocery space”
