Technical failure at Fresh Servant factory leads to salad shortages and discounts in Finland

A technical failure at Fresh Servant’s factory in Finland, known for producing pre-packaged salads, has led to an unusual situation. Due to supply chain difficulties, many grocery stores, especially those affiliated with the S Group, experienced empty salad shelves. Simultaneously, salads were sold at significantly discounted prices in nearby areas, some for as little as one cent.

The issue arose after a system update at the largely automated facility, leading to a shutdown of production lines over the weekend. “The problem was so significant that we had to reboot the entire system,” said Sami Haapasalmi, CEO of Fresh Servant. The warehouse, standing 17 meters tall, can hold about 15,000 boxes, but the usual automated depletion had to be managed manually due to the outage, which lasted more than two days. In an effort to minimize waste, the company sold large quantities of products at exceptionally low prices, with some items donated to charity. “We certainly don’t want to throw away good products as waste,” added Haapasalmi.

By Tuesday, efforts were underway to restore operations, with expectations that the situation would normalize by the end of the week. Financial losses from the incident have not yet been calculated.

In a related incident, Olli Pehkonen, a grocer at K-Citymarket in Seinäjoki, took advantage of the surplus by selling 5,500 salad packages at one cent each, after receiving a call from the supplier offering excess stock cheaply. While the system required pricing to be above zero, the response was overwhelming, with customers expressing gratitude for the deal. By Tuesday, the store’s salad shelf had been largely emptied as well.