Strikes are hitting the meat industry at a challenging time

Translation: Original published in Finnish on 04/07/2025 at 08:41 am EEST

Of the companies in our coverage, the strike in the meat and convenience food industry starting on Tuesday will affect the operations of Atria, HKFoods and Apetit. We believe the three-day strike will cause challenges, especially for the meat industry, where production disruptions are more difficult to prepare for than in Apetit's frozen vegetable production.

The approaching Easter is an important sales season, especially for the meat industry, and delivery problems may slightly weaken the development of sales and earnings in Q2. In addition, the industry is typically preparing to switch to summer assortments at this point, which strikes and production shutdowns may affect. However, the strikes have no impact on the long-term performance of the companies.

The meat and convenience food industry strike concerns a bakery industry dispute over working hours and a fear that a similar chance for longer working hours would be introduced in other food production industries in the future. As we understand it, an agreement has already been reached on pay increases, and they will remain at 2-3% (per year), which means that wage inflation remains roughly at the same level as a year ago.