Sweden Head On Forward Strategy – Grows By 220 Percent

Kristian Kull, Head of Sweden

With hidden workforce.

Ehandel.se has sat down with Sweden Head Kristian Kull, who leads Vino.com's expansion into the Swedish market, to clarify how the last few years have actually looked behind the scenes. After establishing a local team during the past year, the Italian wine giant has seen growth of 220 percent. At the same time, the journey into the Swedish market has been marked by unanswered questions about a branch lacking employees, as well as unpaid tax debts that went all the way to an enforcement attempt with Kronofogden.

Now the company chooses to tell the background to the administrative mistakes, how they handle the growing competition from international low-price actors, and why they see Sweden as one of their most important markets going forward.

The company has been present in Sweden since 2021, but it was not until a reorganization of local work that growth really took off.

Between 2024 and 2025, sales surged by 220 percent. However, as there is currently no publicly available annual report for the Swedish branch, the company chooses to keep the exact figures for turnover and operating profit to itself.

In response to a question from Ehandel.se about what the percentage increase means in pure monetary terms, the company remains tight-lipped but emphasizes how quickly the market is moving.

Vino.com has gradually built up its Swedish customer base over these years. We do not comment on exact turnover figures for individual markets, but Sweden is today one of our fastest growing markets in Europe, says Sweden Head Kristian Kull to Ehandel.se.

For Kristian Kull, the challenge now lies in maintaining rapid growth without losing focus on the bottom line.

The focus remains on long-term growth while developing the business with sustainable and balanced profitability, he says.

Sweden has quickly risen as a key market in European expansion, and Swedish consumers’ purchasing power is noticeable in the company's overall figures. But despite successes in the Nordics reshaping the growth map, it is still at home that the real backbone of the billion-dollar business lies.

Sweden is an important focus area for Vino.com and today accounts for a significant part of the company's international growth. At the same time, Italy remains our clearly largest market, where Vino.com has been established for over ten years and is now a leading player in online wine sales, says Kristian Kull.

Consultants Build The Local Business

Previously, Ehandel.se reported that the branch Vino.Com 3nd S.R.L. lacks formally employed staff, despite the company's stated focus on its local team. The explanation lies in how they have chosen to structure the organization contractually. Work to reach Swedish consumers is done entirely through external agreements.

The Swedish workforce works as consultants employed by Swedish companies. The team works dedicatedly with the Swedish market within areas such as marketing, customer communication and business development, explains Kristian Kull.

With the new consultant team in place, the Italian player is now stepping up the pace to change Swedes’ digital purchasing habits. Work behind the scenes largely revolves around fine-tuning technical details and adapting the purchase flow for the local market.

We continue to invest broadly in the Swedish market. This includes further localization of the website, development of CRM and customer experience as well as ongoing testing of new marketing channels.

But the e-commerce platform is not the only arena where the wine player wants to be visible in the future. The strategy now also includes plans to step outside the digital sphere to forge closer ties with the surrounding world.

The majority of our investments are made digitally, but we also see a growing value in events, trade fairs and other activities where we can meet customers and producers directly.

The Mistake Behind The Debt

However, the launch in Sweden has not been without challenges. During the summer of 2025, in the middle of the build-up phase, the company ended up at Kronofogden (Swedish Enforcement Authority).

What started as a minor debt of SEK 600 quickly grew to over SEK 100,000. This culminated in an enforcement attempt where Kronofogden found that the company lacked enforceable assets in Sweden.

The cases have now been closed, and Kristian Kull now explains what actually happened:

It was an administrative error where payments to the Swedish Tax Agency had been incorrectly specified. The information unfortunately did not reach Vino.com immediately, which meant that the cases were registered with Kronofogden for a period, he says.

The seemingly dramatic situation with an enforcement attempt required swift action from the company's side. Kristian emphasizes that the event highlights the importance of functioning routines, rather than reflecting the actual financial health.

As soon as the error was noticed, it was corrected immediately and all cases at Kronofogden were closed thereafter. It was not about any unwillingness to pay or genuine economic dispute, but an administrative mistake that was later corrected.

Competition Will Drive Customers Online

With the administrative misunderstandings resolved, the battle for Swedish consumers is now in focus.

Establishing oneself digitally in Sweden today means meeting a completely different playing field than just a few years ago. It is about an industry where the legal rules of the game have become clearer, which has redrawn the map for all players. However, the increasing competition is seen more as a helping hand than a threat.

Since the legal situation regarding distance selling became clearer after the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, we have seen more actors establish themselves on the Swedish market, not least international low-price actors, says Kristian Kull.

Sweden is in many respects a mature e-commerce market, but when it comes to this particular category, the situation is different. Traditional purchasing patterns are still firmly entrenched, which means there is plenty of room for digital business models to grow on.

The online share of Swedish wine consumption is still relatively small compared to many other European markets. Therefore, we see that the market has potential to continue growing in the coming years. A growing number of competitors who can help move wine purchases online are welcomed, he says.

"Long-Term Market Growth"

With a focus on the future, the strategy for the current year is about moving from an intensive establishment phase to a more structured management. It is about setting fixed frameworks for the business and defining what will drive the business forward in the coming months.

The most important priority for Vino.com in Sweden is continued customer acquisition and long-term market growth. The focus is on building a stable and sustainable customer base while a larger part of Swedish wine consumption gradually moves online.

However, it is not enough to just get new names into the customer register. To create a solid foundation in the business, you must also take care of the relationships that have already been established on the platform.

In parallel, we are also working with customer loyalty, repurchase rate and developing the customer experience over time, concludes Kristian Kull.

Editorial Staff