Translation: Original published in Finnish on 5/8/2026 at 11:00 am EEST.

Viva Wine, the main competitor of Anora's Wine segment, announced its Q1 result yesterday. Viva's revenue grew organically in the Nordics to some extent, despite a slight decline in market volumes. Due to an acquisition and change in reporting, the profitability of the Nordic countries can no longer be seen directly from Viva's reported figures, but based on the comments, it improved year-on-year in Q1. Compared to Anora's Wine segment, Viva's sales development was significantly better and profitability remained at a higher level.

Viva's sales outperformed Anora's, but Anora gained market share in Sweden

Viva reports that its comparable sales in the B2B segment (i.e. Nordic sales) grew by 2%. Acquisitions of Delta Wines and Alpha Brands, the latter of which was purchased in Norway, drove growth in the entire B2B segment to over 60%. Viva's organic development was clearly better than the 11% revenue decline reported by Anora's Wine segment. However, most of Anora's decline came from the Danish market, where Viva does not operate. We believe that Viva's growth came mainly from price increases, and the company stated that it lagged slightly behind market development in terms of volumes, at least in Sweden, where Anora gained market share. Overall, however, Viva's market share remained almost unchanged at 22.7% (vs. 23.0%), as Viva saw good progress in Norway and Finland.

Anora's profitability still clearly lags behind Viva

Viva's B2B segment's relative profitability decreased slightly at the EBITA margin level in Q1 to 6.3% from 7.1% in the comparison period due to the consolidation of acquisitions, as the acquired companies have lower margins. However, the company noted that the margin of continuing operations, i.e., the Nordic business, improved from the comparison period, as did Anora's. The EBITDA margin development of Anora's Wine segment is much more volatile than that of Viva. In Q1, Anora's level is seasonally weak and remained below Viva's.

Market outlook slightly weaker than before

Viva did not directly provide a market development forecast, but it commented that weak consumer demand weighed on Easter sales and also indicated that its full-year revenue outlook is slightly weaker than before.  

Regarding profitability, Viva's outlook is positive, as it expects the margin of continuing operations (Nordics) to increase and compensate for the decrease brought about by the consolidation of Delta Wines. Currently, the company anticipates only a minimal negative impact on margins due to freight costs resulting from the situation in the Middle East. For Anora, we expected higher energy prices to be reflected more broadly in logistics and packaging costs. However, in light of Viva's comments, these impacts appear manageable for this year. We expect Anora's Wine segment to improve by just under 1 percentage point this year.