Companies | The Finns’ way of celebrating has changed, and it can be seen in the huge growth in the industry’s movements

Party supply store It’s the hottest season of the year in Marakat, and the trade is going like wildfire. Standard Halloween items such as artificial blood, axes and masks slip into the shopping bags. And then this year’s favourites, balaclava and guns.

“A lot of them have been sold this year,” says the Marakat seller Emma-Tuulia Haavisto.

The reason may lie in the roadman culture. Roadman refers to a style of clothing and a culture that idealizes “life on the streets”.

Those who came to Jumbo from Espoo to Vantaa for shopping Kristiina Nordqvist’s and Erika Sundström not a roadman set, but a bunch of pumpkin-shaped gas balls.

“For decoration,” says Nordqvist.

Nordqvist goes to stores selling party supplies about four times a year, in the past he used to go to specialty stores even more often than this.

“When the children were small, I went to buy party and birthday decorations, such as plates, mugs, balloons.”

Nordqvist’s favorite store was Tiimari, and after its bankruptcy, he became a customer of other party supply stores.

“Tiimari’s bankruptcy certainly increased the sales of other party supplies stores tremendously,” guesses Nordqvist.

Tiimari filed for bankruptcy in autumn 2013.

At party supply stores doing well right now. The turnover of almost all the largest party supplies stores has increased in the last two years, and the operation is profitable. Marakat’s turnover was 1.4 million euros in 2022, and it increased by 25.2 percent from the previous year. It is a good performance for a small specialist shop.

An even better result is achieved by Ilmapallokeskus Balloon Center oy, founded in 1991, which includes seven Juhlamaailma stores and an online store. The company also does event sales for corporate events. Ilmapallokeskus Balloon Center’s turnover was 12.1 million euros last year. The company had an operating profit of 941,000 euros, an increase of a whopping 150 percent compared to the previous year.

It would seem that Finns no longer know how to celebrate without paper plates and balloons that match the theme. A lot has changed since the theme of birthdays was a strawberry cake slapped on the table.

When Jonna Nieminen founded her husband Petri Nieminen with Ilmapallokeskus Balloon Center in 1991, the operation was mainly based on the sale of balloons, and hardly anyone had heard of such parties as Oktoberfest or baby showers.

“At some point we realized that we have doors and windows open, we can productize the party. We can bring people goods that can be used to make important anniversaries or calendar parties special,” says Nieminen.

The first items that went on sale were items related to children’s birthdays. Then along came the wedding props. Now, thirty years later, there are hundreds of different themes and their subthemes. For children’s birthdays alone, you can choose a theme from nearly 50 different ones on Juhlamaailma’s website.

“With internationalization, new celebration themes have also come from around the world, such as Halloween,” says Nieminen.

The popularization of Halloween has been a goldmine for party supply stores. When Halloween started to be celebrated in schools and kindergartens, sales started to rise. Because few people’s faces look like Freddy Krueger under normal conditions, that is A Nightmare on Elm Street -from the character of the movies, is a must-have mask for the party. A party space requires decorations, and who wants to drink from a plain porcelain cup when there’s a skull mug on offer. Halloween is now the biggest season for party supply stores.

Although many companies put the straws in the bag during the corona period, party supplies stores survived. Sales dipped, but did not collapse. Parties were still organized at home. And even though the stores closed their doors, products were ordered online.

“After the corona, there was a big jump in sales when the movement restrictions were lifted and parties could be organized,” says Jonna Nieminen.

It was also reflected in the sales figures. While in the corona year 2020 Ilmapallokeskus Balloon Center’s turnover was 8.1 million, in 2022 it had increased by 4 million. Marakat’s turnover has also increased since 2020 by more than 600,000 euros.

In the future, however, more and more companies will be sharing profits, as new entrepreneurs have joined the apaja. In 2020, among others, the franchise company Partyland Finland was registered in Finland, which is backed by a large American company. In three years, the chain has already established five stores all over Finland, and new entrepreneurs are being sought all the time.

The new ones in addition to companies, new party topics continue to emerge – and of course props are needed for them. Among the newest ones are, for example, products made for the Muslim Eid celebration and the products of the Oktoberfest event, which originated in Germany.

Fashion trends are also quickly reflected in the products of this industry. Emma-Tuulia Haavisto, Marakat’s saleswoman, says that, for example, after the Barbie movie, the store immediately bought goods that fit the theme. Now on the surface are the accessories of the movie Scream.

“Today, probably a hundred people have asked if we have Scream masks. Fortunately, we got a box of them.”

One somewhat surprising sales hit are stress toys. According to Haavisto, their demand has grown a lot in recent years.

“Parents of special children come to ask about stress toys that could be squeezed during a school lesson, for example, but they don’t make a sound.”