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FINLAND’S FINEST<br />
Veronica Lindholm Oversees<br />
Innovation at Odeon Division<br />
by Patrick von Sychowski<br />
As head of the northernmost corner<br />
of the global Wanda/AMC empire,<br />
Veronica Lindholm helped transition the<br />
Finnkino and Forum family of cinemas into<br />
the Odeon Group this past year. Finland<br />
had a stellar 2017, with The Unknown<br />
Soldier breaking every record. This helped<br />
smooth over a ticket price increase to<br />
help pay for Finnkino’s investments in new<br />
services and theatre concepts, including<br />
the refurbishment and reopening of Finland’s<br />
oldest cinema, Maxim, in February.<br />
Lindholm is also on the board of Palta,<br />
the representative association for service-sector<br />
businesses and organizations<br />
in Finland. In the following Q&A, Odeon’s<br />
managing director for Finland & Baltics<br />
shares her insights on the Finnish market.<br />
Finland had one of its best cinema<br />
years ever in 2017 with the release of The<br />
Unknown Soldier. How can you keep that<br />
momentum going in <strong>2018</strong>?<br />
We did indeed have a great year, not<br />
only due to the amazing Unknown Soldier,<br />
which alone did one million attendance<br />
in a country with a population of just<br />
5.5 million. The movies are of course<br />
the fuel that powers our business, but<br />
we also made a lot of investments in<br />
our business and in the development of<br />
our operations in 2017 to improve the<br />
experience for our guests, and we will<br />
see the results from this over the coming<br />
years. Last year we refurbished many<br />
of our self-service stores and launched<br />
our loyalty program, Finnkino Lab. This<br />
CELLULOID JUNKIE<br />
TOP<br />
50<br />
WOMEN<br />
IN GLOBAL<br />
CINEMA<br />
year we reopened the art-house cinema<br />
Maxim and at the end of the year we are<br />
opening a fantastic nine-auditoria multiplex<br />
with Finland’s first IMAX. We’ve<br />
also opened two new Scape auditoria<br />
this spring, and our guests love them.<br />
Finnkino was accused of “extortion” by<br />
distributor Nordisk <strong>Film</strong> last year over filmrental<br />
terms, with Nordisk pulling its films.<br />
How are you going about smoothing things<br />
over with distributors?<br />
Finnkino is a big contributor to the<br />
Finnish movie industry and we have<br />
invested significantly over the years in<br />
driving the whole industry forward. We<br />
get a lot of positive feedback from distributors,<br />
producers and even competitors.<br />
Being the biggest exhibitor puts<br />
more focus on us and it’s important that<br />
we act in a sustainable manner. We take<br />
our responsibility seriously and try to be<br />
a good and fair partner.<br />
How far has the integration of Finnkino<br />
with the rest of the Odeon Cinemas Group<br />
gone and what synergies and benefits are<br />
you seeing?<br />
It’s been a year now since the merger<br />
with Odeon and we’re now fully up and<br />
running. We’ve figured out what to focus<br />
on at a Group level and what to do locally.<br />
Our central real estate and development<br />
team are delivering fantastic results,<br />
including the rollout of Luxe recliner<br />
cinemas into Europe, and our new central<br />
procurement team is successfully selecting<br />
new Group-wide partners. Best practice is<br />
shared between the countries in a formal<br />
process and, even better, it’s starting to<br />
happen informally throughout the organization<br />
as people get to know each other.<br />
At the same time, the customer is local<br />
and the level of local content varies quite<br />
a lot. Every Monday we have a trading call<br />
and compare our weekend results and it’s<br />
really fascinating to hear the similarities<br />
and differences across Europe.<br />
Finland is already known for its high degree<br />
of equality, so what is Finnkino doing to<br />
promote further diversity and gender balance?<br />
We have a focus on diversity in Odeon<br />
Cinemas Group called “Our Incredible<br />
Differences,” and we’re very excited about<br />
our strategy and programs. At Finnkino<br />
we have some good examples of gender<br />
diversity—for example, 60 percent of our<br />
general managers are female. We still see<br />
a lot of opportunities here and also when<br />
it comes to, for example, ethnic diversity.<br />
We’ve previously required all employees<br />
to speak Finnish, but now we’re starting to<br />
question if that’s really necessary.<br />
Is this something you feel other countries<br />
and companies could learn from?<br />
The Nordic countries are really advanced<br />
and leading the way in the area of<br />
gender diversity. There is clearly some<br />
best practice here that many could benefit<br />
from.<br />
What are your plans for new cinema<br />
openings and what technologies and trends<br />
do you believe in?<br />
I already mentioned the two new<br />
cinemas opening this year and the two<br />
new Scape auditoria we’ve built. On top<br />
of that, we see continued need to invest<br />
in further digitization towards the customer.<br />
For example, Finnkino launched<br />
mobile tickets already seven years ago.<br />
86 FILMJOURNAL.COM / JULY <strong>2018</strong><br />
078-095.indd 86<br />
5/23/18 3:54 PM
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