Kittilä ski company grows into bars and luxury retail

A municipality-owned company in Kittilä has expanded from ski lifts into restaurants, bars and luxury sportswear retail, raising concerns among local businesses about unfair competition, Yle reports.

Levi Ski Resort Ltd, commonly known as the Levi lift company, has more than doubled its group revenue over 15 years, from about 14.8 million euros to more than 32 million euros. Its revenue is now higher than the municipality’s tax income, and in recent years it has accounted for about half of the municipal group’s annual result.

The company has grown beyond lift tickets into sports retail, equipment rental and visitor experiences. Its group includes a subsidiary with restaurants and cafes at Levi, as well as two large Levi Brand Store shops that mainly sell high-end sportswear, including winter jackets priced at around 2,000 euros.

The growth has brought benefits to the municipality. Kittilä Mayor Timo Kurula said tourism is the municipality’s main livelihood and that its population growth has come through Levi. The municipality recently built a school without needing to borrow money.

But some private business owners worry that the municipality-owned company is expanding into markets where they compete. Ella-Noora Kauppinen, chief executive of the Lapland Entrepreneurs association, said entrepreneurs are concerned that profits from the lift business could support other activities and allow the company to underprice private competitors.

Kauppinen said local entrepreneurs are generally very satisfied with the lift company’s work and its development of Levi. The criticism, she said, is mainly directed at the company’s expansion beyond its core business into sectors that also have private operators. She added that entrepreneurs worry about which market the company might enter next.

A survey published this spring by the Finnish Entrepreneurs association found that municipalities in Lapland compete with businesses more often than municipalities elsewhere in Finland. The survey received responses from 500 Lapland entrepreneurs and found the situation particularly polarised in Kittilä. The expansion of Levi Ski Resort has become an increasing concern for local businesses, the survey said.

Yle examined the issue in an episode of its Local scandal podcast, produced with the MOT investigative journalism programme and Yle’s local news teams.