Artikel

Abstract

Based on the author's Master's thesis at the University of Helsinki in 2005, this article traces the reaction and response by the management of the Finnish alcohol monopoly Oy Alko Ab to the process of European economic integration between 1988 and 1994. The data for the study consist of archive materials, protocols and memoirs, earlier research and literature as well as interviews with key figures involved in the process. A distinction is made between four different periods in the management's reactions between 1988–1994. In the first period 1988–1989, the Alko management began to realise that European integration might have an impact on the company's operation. During the second period 1990–1991, there was a growing recognition that integration would affect the company in a major way and that it would be losing its import and export monopoly. At the same time, the Alko management began taking steps to strengthen the company's competitiveness and organisation. During the third period, from February 1992 to August 1992, the Alko management realised that the company's production and wholesale monopoly might also be under threat. They decided to fight to retain the company's three remaining monopoly rights and did so over the next six months until 25 August 1992, when the battle was limited to the monopoly of off-premise retail sales of alcoholic beverages. In the fourth period from August 1992 to May 1994, the Alko management moved to shore up the company's competitiveness and prepare for the eventuality of the company possibly losing its retail monopoly.