This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Nordic 150 2025 report
Valio has once again been recognised as Finland’s strongest brand in 2025, achieving a AAA+ brand strength rating and a brand value of €1.8 billion. With over 120 years of heritage, Valio has become a household name, trusted for its quality, sustainability, and innovation.
In this spotlight interview, Executive Vice President Ismo Nikkola shares how Valio continues to build on its legacy balancing tradition and modernisation to shape the future of dairy and strengthen its role as a long-term growth driver.
Interview with Ismo Nikkola
Executive Vice President
Brand, Sustainability and Communications, Valio
Valio is Finland’s strongest brand ranked in 2025, with a AAA+ brand strength rating. What do you think underpins this brand strength and how does it reflect the trust consumers place in your commitment to quality, sustainability, and innovation?
For 120 years, Valio has grown the brand with consistency and care. Deeply rooted in Finnish heritage, it has become a familiar presence in the daily lives of almost every household. At the heart of the brand is the freshest Finnish milk, pure and clean from the dairy farms of its owners, and a commitment to strong R&D driven by an innovative mindset. Our product development builds on the legacy of our former R&D Director and 1945 Nobel Prize winner A. I. Virtanen, with Valio now holding over 300 patents across 50 countries.
A key part of building our brand has been our test kitchen, delighting Finns with our favourite recipes since the 1950s . We were also among the first pioneers of content marketing in the 1990’s, laying the foundation for our digital recipe site. Today, almost 120,000 people from Finland visit our site or app every day.
Now valued at €1.8 billion, Valio has consistently been featured in the Brand Finance Nordic 150 and has ranked among the top five brands in the Brand Finance Finland 25 ranking since 2019, reflecting growing recognition of Valio’s leadership. How intentional has your brand-building strategy been, and how does this recognition shape your goals moving forward?
It has been a highly intentional journey. Rapid growth began in 2022 when we updated our brand portfolio strategy, followed by a refined Valio brand strategy that builds on our long history and deep understanding of todays and tomorrow’s consumers and customers.
We have strengthened the role of Valio brand within our brand portfolio, making it the focal point of everything we do and bringing our product brands closer under its umbrella. Our priority is to build an exceptionally strong Valio brand that both consumers and customers can relate to.
In practice, we’ve placed greater emphasis on strengthening the connection between the Valio master brand and our product brands, while renewing our design strategy with a focus on packaging design. A small but meaningful change was the creation of a consistent system for presenting the Valio and product brand together - ensuring every product is clearly recognised as a Valio product brand rather than a standalone brand. This strong endorsement approach has become a key driver of our brand presence.
Pursuing climate goals in the dairy sector is no small feat. How are you balancing the push for decarbonisation with the need to innovate, stay co mpetitive, and grow responsibly?
For us, these all go hand in hand. Food consumption and production have a significant impact on the environment, society, animals and people’s lives globally and we are committed to playing our part in addressing these global challenges.
Responsibility for the environment, the economy, people and society are embedded in everything we do and in the Valio brand itself, aligning naturally with our innovative mindset. We aim to be a forerunner in promoting wellbeing and sustainable lifestyles, advancing the goal of a carbon-neutral milk chain, and in safeguarding the vitality of nature.
Valio is owned by Finnish dairy farms, and all our profits go back to them. For us, sustainability means taking concrete actions from the farm to the dinner table. Valio pays an additional four cents per litre of milk to dairy farmers who have proven themselves committed to responsible dairy production, climate work and animal wellbeing.
Valio’s inclusion in the 2025 brand value ranking highlights the impact of its strategic brand-building. How are you managing the brand as a long-term growth driver, and what frameworks or principles guide that work?
We believe that a strong house brand is our greatest asset against the competition, whether from other brands or fast growing private labels. This is why we have renewed our brand strategy tools, brand building processes, marketing organisation, and strategies for Valio and all our main product brands. Our aim is to create more of an interconnected brand ecosystem rather than a collection of separate brands.
We believe in going beyond traditional media advertising to connect more closely with consumers. While we maintain a strong media presence, we have also enhanced our content marketing, aimed to lead influencer marketing, and invested in social and digital channels. Our website and app have evolved from being just a recipe bank into a full-fledged food media platform, and we are increasingly focusing our efforts there.
In recent years we have adapted Growth Platforms, a framework that connects consumer needs and key occasions more directly with our R&D, marketing and sales teams.
In a world where brands are expected to deliver across quality, sustainability, and purpose, what does effective brand management look like to you?
We have made significant progress in managing the Valio brand across the company, covering quality, sustainability and purpose. A key part of our success has come from reorganising to bring together all brand and marketing professionals, digital customer experience experts, sustainability specialists, as well as communications and public affairs teams.
By working as one integrated team, we ensure every Valio message is aligned and create a consistent and coherent brand experience across all touchpoints.
