Citycon Oyj
Citycontest business idea competition winner announced

DGAP-News: Citycon Oyj

2015-05-04 / 12:00

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The winning idea brings together an online and bricks-and-mortar store, while
second place goes to a brand new ice cream concept. 

CITYCON OYJ                  Press release                                     
 4 May 2015 

The winner of Citycon's business idea competition aimed at entrepreneurially
minded students and launched last autumn has now been announced. The
competition ran in Finland and was open to students and recent graduates aged
18-30. 

The top prize presented to the winners is a free three-month lease at a Citycon
shopping centre and a EUR 10,000 seed fund to help get their business off the
ground. The runner-up was rewarded with a free three-month lease and a seed
fund worth EUR 5,000. 

The winner of the competition is a venture titled Remarket. The young
entrepreneurs behind the concept launched their online store selling
high-quality second-hand clothing and accessories at www.wst.fi around two
years ago. According to their competition submission, the young team now wants
to combine the online store and a bricks-and-mortar service in a shopping
centre setting. 

'The winning pitch brilliantly brings together online sales and a more
traditional retail environment, combining them with recycling, which is a
strong trend in Finland and internationally right now. I believe this team will
add something new and exciting to our shopping centres,' Citycon Leasing
Director Jussi Vyyryläinen commented. 

'Remarket renews the images attached to second hand clothes and brings the
possibilities to reuse the clothes to the next level. Remarket is a quality
market place for second hand clothes and it combines the online and offline
shopping experience. Customers can easily bring products for sale and make
discoveries from our wide designer selection', says Laura Nyyssölä, a member of
the winning team. 

 The second prize went to Spiro, who are the first to bring the popular
Southeast Asian fried ice cream concept to Finland. The healthy and
additive-free ice cream is made to order using a specialist cold pan. 

'Spiro caught the jury's attention not just with the strength of their
genuinely interesting product but also with their excellent competition
submission and their determined, business-minded attitude,' Citycon's
Commercial Director Sanna Yliniemi said. 

'Spiro is not a regular ice-cream, but rather a new cold delicacy. The fresh
ingredients will be frozen in front of the customer's eyes', says Emmi Kuortti,
the member of the runner-up team. 

 The idea behind Citycon's Citycontest competition was to encourage young
people to venture into business. 

'The smaller markets in the Baltics often offer brands that we in Finland
simply don't have. This is not due to international companies' lack of interest
in Finland but actually attributable to a shortage of entrepreneurs and
people's unwillingness to take the risk of venturing into business. With this
competition, we set out to foster debate on this important issue and offer
young business-minded people the chance to set up their own ventures and
succeed,' Citycon CEO Marcel Kokkeel said. 

The competition attracted more than 40 business plans, with seven shortlisted
for the final round. The standard of the submissions was very high and they
clearly demonstrated that students in Finland are highly aware of international
trends and able to turn them into workable business plans. The competition jury
comprised representatives from Citycon as well as Jungle Juice Bar founder and
managing director Noora Fagerström and Kauppalehti newspaper's editor Pirkko
Tammilehto. 

'The Finnish Citycontest competition has been a huge success. We are currently
looking into launching it in other countries that we operate in,' Marcel
Kokkeel concludes. 



Helsinki, 4 May 2015

CITYCON OYJ


For further information, please contact:


Commercial Director Sanna Yliniemi
Telephone: +358 41 456 3421
sanna.yliniemi@citycon.com

Leasing Director Jussi Vyyryläinen
Telephone: +358 40 589 4448
jussi.vyyrylainen@citycon.com



Citycon Oyj (Nasdaq Helsinki: CTY1S) is a leading owner, developer and manager
of urban grocery-anchored shopping centres in the Nordic and Baltic regions,
managing assets that total EUR 3.4 billion and with a market capitalisation of
approximately EUR 1.8 billion. For more information about Citycon, please visit
www.citycon.com
News Source: NASDAQ OMX



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2015-05-04 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
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Language:    English       
Company:     Citycon Oyj   
 
 
             Finland       
ISIN:        FI0009002471  
 
 
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