Mister chairman. Distinguished shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. If we look at If we look at mankind, we have finally awoken to the fact that the planet is weakening and getting polluted. And we have justified reason to say that throughout all time, our major challenge will be stopping climate change. And when we talk about climate change, and talk about the challenges that we, as people, as Finn's face in the upcoming years and decades, in improving the state of this planet, it's interesting to note the fact that the majority of the environmental burden that we see is generated in areas where the K group focuses on.
If we look at the average carbon footprint of a a thin, it's over 10 1000 kilos of CO2 per year. And the major sources of this our food, housing, transport, and travel. So the areas where K Group operates, not just in Finland, but also in Northern Europe. So in this sense as well, we have a lot to give, a lot to do, and obviously see also a big responsibility to offer these trade services and solutions to consumers to professional customers that help everyone participate in saving the environment In this context, it is nice to state that K Group is strongly committed to working with others to stop climate change. We have a long history behind us long standing traditions, which are the major reason, behind the fact that once again, we've been ranked among the most sustainable companies in the world, and we'll continue this work, but this obligates us as well.
Not just in Finland, but more extensively in Europe to work together with others for a better world for a better stainability at GESco is that we don't just talk, we take concrete action. One great example of sustainability, combating, climate change, environmental issues. A great example of concrete actions is our concern for finished food production. For finished products, their status and their future. And in this context, it's also nice to state that on this front, K group our retailers have taken significant action 2 years ago.
We launched a thank the producer program, and it's been extremely well received among consumers. So our sales in this program were already 1,000,000 in 2018. And this year, we believe that we will get to approximately 1,000,000. And we've paid an additional support of 1,000,000. To food producers so far.
And this support will continue to increase due to increasing sales And we're also extremely happy that now we're seeing well known finished brands joining the thank the producer model. So well known familiar Finnish brands will be seen. More so than ever before in this program. Another great example of these concrete actions is the KA Ostokset service. So everybody can download this service on their mobile device This was launched a couple weeks ago, and this gives customers data on their shopping habits on how much finish products they buy so you can monitor how much finished products you use in your compared to other consumers.
And this has also been very well received indeed. And we strongly believe that this factor and many other factors that we're promoting will further strengthen the position of finished food production. As the chairman of the board of directors stated, it's nice to highlight once again that Kaye is the most sustainable trading sector company in the world. This is the result of long term development efforts. Giving us a great foundation for the future to be an all the more sustainable operator in the future.
And in this context, we have justifiable reason to say that for consumers, for customers, It's a very simple, responsible act to shop at K Group Stores. It's something that we can all be proud of in a healthy sense. And each day, more than 1,500,000 customers choose K Group Stores. And that's a great thing. K is transforming, above all, because the world around us is changing and transforming at a rapid pace.
If we look at, saving the Earth and our climate, that's something that will further guide us as people and companies in our activities in the upcoming years and decades. Technological developments are accelerating. This is opening up new opportunities at a great tempo, and this will help us on its part to resolve environmental issues. But on the other hand, as a trading sector operator, this will open up interesting opportunities for us to offer even better, more sustainably produced services to our consumer customers and business customers. Globalization is a huge force that's changed the world in a great way.
And thanks to globalization, hundreds of millions of people, especially in the 3rd world have risen from poverty. And thanks to this hundreds of millions of children, gain access to better healthcare and education. Globalization has decreased inequalities in the world and I believe that this trend will continue in upcoming years. Not to mention urbanization and population growth, Unlike we imagine population growth will continue. It's been rapid, and there's no reason to say at this point that population growth would decrease.
And this is linked to urbanization, which will also continue. And as a major trading sector player, these are major changes that we have to consider in view of the future. Of K Group. K Group has a big impact on Finland, and Northern Europe. As the chairman stated, we're the biggest retailer in Finland by far and away.
And with our 1,000,000,000 retail sales, we're one of the biggest retailers in Northern Europe Looking, our tax is paid and remitted. They stood at €1,300,000,000 last year, GESCO and K retailers. Here are taking a big responsibility in society for Finland and Finland's future. I'm very proud of K Group. Also due to the fact that our purchases from Finland stood at approximately 1000000000 last year.
So we have a huge impact on the Finnish economy. And we have 41,000 people working for us. And when we include these massive purchases, from Finland, we can all understand how important our role is in society. And I dare say that we acknowledge this responsibility and we carry it. We have a growth strategy in place.
We are transforming We already have transformed, and we will continue to transform. And in everything we do in all our development, a guiding force is our strategy, which is summarized here. We're striving for growth in all three divisions, we're focusing on things where Kaye is already a strong player through our traditions. So where we already have a lot of expertise and competence, so grocery trade building and technical trade and car trade. And at the same time, we're seamlessly cooperating as 1 UNIFY K kesco and K retailers challenging and supporting one another.
And this seamless cooperation goes across, borders in our organization in Kisco. In 2015, we defined a growth strategy which is working and its execution is going well. So far, we've invested in growth of our core businesses, with 1,000,000,000. And we can see that. We can see that in our store services, in our efficiency in increasing productivity and profitability.
We've been focusing and divesting by 1,000,000,000 So we've been releasing, more poorly performing capital and focusing further. So This strategy has led to acquisitions and divestments on a broad front, 28 acquisitions and divestments so far. In the execution of this strategy. About a week and a half ago, most recently, we announced the acquisition of XL Frisks, in Sweden. We carried out the divestment of Owning And Contractor Business.
Recently. And we've gone about several other significant steps throughout this past year. We also divested the Kaye Raultha business in Russia in the first half of the year. And it's very nice to stand in front of you and state that our strategy is working and yielding results. Looking at K Group's retail sales for continuing operations, almost 30% growth there in 4 years.
Then looking at GIST, which is like the chairman stated, reported as all time best operating profit of 1,000,000. Again, significant growth there plus 30 +43 percent in 4 years. But I'm most delighted about the 3rd point here. KA Group's reputation and trust. Consumers trust us significantly more according to the T Media research.
This score has gotten higher in the past 4 years and this provides us with a great foundation for further development. And if we look at how we work in the K group and how competitive we are, it's very important profitability is developed well in all chains, city markets, supermarkets, K markets, the Neste K chain, not to mention are building in home improvement and specialty goods chains. And at GESCO, We're very happy about the fact that according to research, there's strong trust towards guests who are among the K retailers. Increasing trust. Then looking at our situation through figures.
It's nice to state getting started here that K food stores market share is rising strongly. This is the way it's been for several years already. There's a new calculation method adopted by Nielsen recently. And according to this method, market share was 36.1 percent in 2018, and we were at just below 32% in 2014 according to the same method. And our outlook is promising.
Because our sales growth was much, bigger than among our competitors, and we believe that this will be seen in our future increasing market share. And similarly, we can stay the same for Keiraud. Its market share has also been growing well. This has been the case for several years. We've risen from 39 to 42%.
And we are the biggest building and home improvement chain in Finland by far and away. And for Kaye Rota, our sales growth was much bigger than among our competitors in the industry. These are strong messages from Finnish consumers, from customers, as to the fact that they like how we're transforming at Kaye and that they're shopping at our stores all the more actively. It's very important for us to be a good investment target for our shareholders. If we look at our transformation in this sense as well, it's been a success.
Looking at our dividend yield, on average in the past 4 years. It's been over 5% increase in value has been over a 100% And then looking at total return, almost 160% as the chairman of the board stated, the board will propose today to the annual general meeting that, dividend of and 34¢ per share to be paid. Our net sales developed very favorably in 2018. Just under 10,400,000,000 in net sales that represents growth in comparable terms of 3.5%. And our sales growth has been clearly bigger than among our competitors in grocery trade and the building and technical trade.
Gescco reported a record operating profit of 1,000,000 in 2018. This is a significant improvement compared to 2017, and we're very happy about the fact that all three divisions were able to prove their profitability. Once again, this is a great achievement for the grocery trade, building in technical trade, car trade, and our specialty goods trade did well in tough competition as well. Then looking at our comparable return on capital employed in 2018, stood at 14% as the chairman stated, we achieved our long term goal, and we can be happy about that. Then looking at comparable return on equity, a clear improvement there, year over year, we achieved 11.7% there.
If we look at our success and our successful strategic choices and strategic execution. All this is linked to our strong financial position. Our equity ratio improved once again and we got our liquid assets stood at €250,000,000, and we're almost net debt free. Interest bearing net debt to EBITDA stood at 0.4, which means that through normal cash flow of operating activities, we can pay back our debts in about 5 months. And this gives us a great foundation for executing our strategy in the future.
And focusing on growth in our 3 core businesses. 2018 was a great year. As stated, and you can see that in cash flowed from operating activities, which stood at almost 1,000,000. So that's, again, a significant improvement compared to the previous year. As Chairman of the Board of Directors stated, we have moved on to adhering to the IFRS Six team standards.
And for us and for other groups in trades, This makes a big difference in our key figures. The biggest change here is that if we look at store sites, how they'll be dealt with in accounting in terms of their leases. That has drastically changed. And in the future, we will look at rental leases as, capital spending And our EBITDA will increase significantly as a result. And if we look at 2018 figures, we used to stand at 472,000,000.
Now it's rising to 876,000,000 operating profit improving as well as a result of this profit before tax, however, almost remains at the same level. So nothing will change as such. We will be just as good and financially sound as we were before this change in accounting. And if we look at non current assets, about 2,000,000,000 there, they will move on to be at 4,000,000,000 And, we will remain on the same level in terms of capacity to keep developing this company. And finally, I'd like to further underline the fact that the execution of our growth strategy will continue in a determined fashion.
Looking at our grocery trade, strong growth will continue there led by Ariaxeli. We will continue to focus on improving the customer experience and K Retailer Entrepreneurship is essential for us. It's a competitive advantage it's a way for us to stand out and we will cherish this in the future. And then the food service business, we will continue growing the food service under the Kesspro flag that has a very important role in the growth strategy in our grocery trade. As for the building and technical trade, we will continue keeping up the good work led by Yorma Rajala in all our eight countries, improving profitability.
We've taken a more country specific focus And in just over a year now, we've seen a great deal of success through this sharpened focus, then we're still interested in strategic acquisitions and divestments under the Building And Technical Trade Again, in this trade division, there will be further consolidation in Northern Europe. And why not on an even broader front in Europe. We are already a leading player in Northern Europe, and this position provides us with very interesting opportunities to further strengthen ourselves, our position through acquisitions in Northern Europe and in Europe in general as a major player. But I do have to underline the fact that the core of our development lies in Northern Europe, in profitable growth in the solid markets in Northern Europe. As for the car trade, the cornerstone of our strategy there is our partnership with the VW Group, the biggest car manufacturer in the world.
And we're continuing to work through this partnership led by Johan Freeman. We're making use of new technologies and services, creating new mobility services. A great example of this is the Gaye, LATaus charging system, and we're going to continue growing our dealer network. That's also an important strategic objective in car trade. One unified K, once again, I want to underline, has already provided us with significant synergies it's helped us improve our internal efficiencies.
It has increased and improved cooperation between guests going k retailers, and we still see vast amount of potential in 1 unified k in terms of the customer interface and internally, the K group. And finally, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted to thank you shareholders and thank the board for this great cooperation we've engaged in. I'd like to thank all Kay retailers everyone in K Group, not to mention our great vendors. Thank you all for your great cooperation.
And all your efforts in transforming the K group. Finally, some images from the K Campus in Kalasatama, which will be completed in May to June. Thank you very much.