![S Group hdqtrs 1 cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/S_Group_hdqtrs_1_cropped.jpg)
The S Group ( fi, S-ryhmä, sv, S-gruppen) is a
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...
ing
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...
organisation with its head office in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
. Founded in 1904, it consists of 20 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in addition to SOK, ''Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta'' (The Central Finnish Cooperative Society). S Group operates in the
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
s for
groceries
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
,
consumer durable
In economics, a durable good or a hard good or consumer durable is a good that does not quickly wear out or, more specifically, one that yields utility over time rather than being completely consumed in one use. Items like bricks could be consi ...
s,
service station,
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
and
restaurant services. It is engaged in close competition with
Kesko, with which it shares an
oligopolistic
An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result fro ...
position in many of the markets it operates in.
The group has businesses in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. The S Group also had businesses in
Latvia and
Lithuania, but announced withdrawal from these markets in May 2017.
The organisation's
member (loyalty) card is called ''S-Etukortti''.
Ownership
A client can invest a small sum on the local co-operative and become a client-owner. (The exact sum is decided by the local co-operative board and varies significantly depending on local conditions.) A client-owner gets a membership card, ''S-Etukortti'', which functions as a debit or credit card and gives access to special client-owner bargains. For the sums spent in S Group stores, ''Bonus'' is paid back to the client into the account at S-Bank. The ''Bonus'' percentage varies from 1% to 5% depending on the sum spent. S-Bank pays an interest that is competitive with interests paid by general banks into savings accounts. ''S-Etukortti'' is not a regular "loyalty card" as it represents actual monetary investment and the return is formally profit, not discount.
Corporate
35 members of parliament in 2012 were representatives in the S Group or Tradeka (Siwa) corporate governance.
Local co-operatives
The S Group consists of 20 regional co-operative enterprises and 7 local co-operative enterprises. In total, these had 2.4 million individual members in 2018, a number that has grown from 1.2 million in 2003. In 2018, 329 million euros of ''Bonus'' was paid.
Supermarkets
![Kauppakeskus Lähde](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Kauppakeskus_L%C3%A4hde.jpg)
The S Group operates five distinct chains of
supermarkets:
* ''
Sale'' – a chain of small grocery stores, mainly located in the countryside, small towns and suburbs with an emphasis on service rather than selection. Sale stores often only provide everyday groceries. There are about 240 Sale stores in Finland.
* ''
Alepa'' – this is the equivalent for ''Sale'' in the
Greater Helsinki region – there are about 110 Alepa stores in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
and the neighbouring cities.
* ''S-market'' – larger supermarkets with a better selection of goods for sale, and often providing additional services. This is the largest of the S Group's supermarket chains, with nearly 400 stores around Finland. According to HOK-Elanto cooperative,
Klaukkala would get another S-market in addition to the existing one, but it will become the largest S-market to match its size and product range with ''Prisma''.
* ''
Prisma'' – a
hypermarket
A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...
chain with about 90 stores around
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
in major cities. Formerly, the chain also operated in Latvia and Lithuania.
*Food Market Herkku - premier food market operating in the Finnish metropolitan area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa), Oulu, Tampere and Turku.
The largest sales revenues are from S-market's (49%) and from Prisma's 39%.
The S Group's supermarkets retail the general
private brands ''Rainbow'' and ''Kotimaista'' for products made in Finland, and the
no-frills ''X-tra'' range in partnership with
Coop Trading — a Nordic purchasing organisation for co-operatives. Non-food products are marketed under the ''House'' name.
The S Group has grown significantly in Finland in recent years, growing both organically and by acquisition.
Modernist architecture
![SOK mill in Toppila Mar2012 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/SOK_mill_in_Toppila_Mar2012_001.jpg)
SOK has a key position in the history of Finnish architecture due to its policy in the late 1920s and 1930s of designing cutting-edge
Modernist architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
, epitomized by a Functionalist aesthetic of white buildings. The key architect designing for SOK in the initial years was Erkki Huttunen (1901–1956), who designed various types of buildings for the company: from grain silos and mills to local village shops. Among his best-known works for SOK are the Toppila mill (1929, ''pictured right''), the SOK Offices and Warehouse (1937-38) in
Oulu, the SOK Offices and Warehouse (1931) in
Rauma, and the Aitta Cooperative Shop (1933) in
Sauvo
Sauvo (; sv, Sagu) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland region. The municipality had a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .
Like many waterside areas near major p ...
. Today, many of these buildings are protected by law.
[Jokinen, Teppo (1992). ''Erkki Huttunen liikelaitosten ja yhteisöjen arkkitehtina 1928–1939''. Jyväskylä Studies in the Arts, 41. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto.]
Other fields
The S Group also operates the ''
Sokos
Sokos is a chain of department stores in Finland that is part of the S Group, which also operates the hotel chain, Sokos Hotels.
Department stores
* Helsinki (centre)
* Helsinki ( Kaari)
* Hämeenlinna
* Joensuu
* Jyväskylä
* Kajaani
* Ko ...
'' chain of
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
s, ''ABC''
service stations, the
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
chain ''
Sokos Hotels
Sokos Hotels is a Finnish hotel chain. It is the largest hotel chain in Finland, with a total of 49 hotels in 30 different cities and municipalities. Forty-five hotels are located in Finland, one in Tallinn, Estonia, and three in Saint Petersburg, ...
'', several brands of
restaurants such as ''Rosso'', ''Sevilla'' and ''Amarillo'', the ''Agrimarket'' chain, which sells
agricultural and
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
supplies, and a number of
car dealerships for
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
.
S-Bank
The S Group operates Finland's first so-called ''supermarket bank'', the
S-Bank (S-Pankki Oy).
References
External links
S-Kanava– The company portal
S-Kanava– The company portal
S-Kanava– The company portal
{{Supermarkets in Lithuania
Cooperatives in Finland
Supermarkets of Finland
Retail companies of Finland