S-Group
Encyclopedia
The S Group is a Finnish
retail
ing cooperative
organisation, founded in 1904. It consists of 22 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in the market
s for groceries, consumer durables, service station
, hotel
and restaurant
services, agricultural
supplies, and car
sales. The full formal name of the nationwide cooperative organisation is Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (SOK).
The group has businesses in Finland
, Estonia
, Latvia
, Lithuania
and Russia
.
The organisation's loyalty card is called S-Etukortti. It is engaged in close competition with Kesko
, with which it shares an oligopolistic
position in many of the markets it operates in.
s:
The largest sales revenues are from S-markets (49%) and from Prismas 39%.
The S Group's supermarkets retail the general private brand
Rainbow, the no-frills Hyvä Ostos ('good purchase') and the international Coop label.
The S Group has grown significantly in Finland in recent years, growing both organically and by acquisition.
chain of department store
s, ABC service station
s, the hotel
chain Sokos Hotels, several brands of restaurant
s such as Rosso, Sevilla and Amarillo, the Agrimarket chain, which sells agricultural
and DIY supplies, and a number of car
dealerships for Peugeot
.
(S-Pankki Oy)
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
retail
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
ing cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
organisation, founded in 1904. It consists of 22 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in the market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
s for groceries, consumer durables, service station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
, hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
and restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
services, agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
supplies, and car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
sales. The full formal name of the nationwide cooperative organisation is Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (SOK).
The group has businesses in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The organisation's loyalty card is called S-Etukortti. It is engaged in close competition with Kesko
Kesko
Kesko is a Finnish retailing conglomerate. It is engaged in the food trade, the home and specialty goods trade, the building and home improvement trade, and the car and machinery trade...
, with which it shares an oligopolistic
Oligopoly
An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers . The word is derived, by analogy with "monopoly", from the Greek ὀλίγοι "few" + πόλειν "to sell". Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others...
position in many of the markets it operates in.
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.Local co-operatives
The S Group consists of 22 regional co-operative enterprises and 13 local co-operative enterprises. In total, these had 1.7 million individual members in 2007, a number that has grown from 1.2 million in 2003. The revenue from members was 6.8 billion and 263 million of Bonus was paid.Supermarkets
The S Group operates four distinct chains of supermarketSupermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s:
- Sale – a chain of small grocery stores, mainly located in the countryside and small towns, with an emphasis on service rather than selection. Sale shops often only provide everyday groceries. There are about 170 Sale shops in Finland.
- AlepaAlepaAlepa is a grocery shop chain in Finland that today is part of the S-Group. Alepa was officially founded in 1918, when Edvard Pajunen and his wife founded a shop in Sörnäinen, HelsinkiOutside of Greater Helsinki, Alepa works with a brand known as Sale....
– this is the equivalent for Sale in the Greater HelsinkiGreater HelsinkiGreater Helsinki and the smaller Helsinki Metropolitan Area or Capital Region refer to two regions of different size surrounding Helsinki, the capital of Finland...
region – there are about 70 Alepa shops in the suburbSuburbThe word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s of HelsinkiHelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
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 shops around Finland.
- Prisma – a hypermarketHypermarketIn commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full groceries lines and general merchandise...
chain with about 50 shops around FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and the Baltic statesBaltic statesThe term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, in major cities.
The largest sales revenues are from S-markets (49%) and from Prismas 39%.
The S Group's supermarkets retail the general private brand
Private brand
Private branding is when a large distribution channel member , buys from a manufacturer in bulk and puts its own name on the product. This strategy is, with some exceptions, generally only practical when the retailer does very high levels of volume...
Rainbow, the no-frills Hyvä Ostos ('good purchase') and the international Coop label.
The S Group has grown significantly in Finland in recent years, growing both organically and by acquisition.
Other fields
The S Group also operates the SokosSokos
Sokos is a chain of department stores in Finland that is part of the S-Group. It should not be confused with the hotel chain, Sokos Hotels.- Department stores :* Espoo * Helsinki* Helsinki * Hämeenlinna* Joensuu* Jyväskylä...
chain of department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s, ABC service station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
s, the hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
chain Sokos Hotels, several brands of restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s such as Rosso, Sevilla and Amarillo, the Agrimarket chain, which sells agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and DIY supplies, and a number of car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...
dealerships for Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
.
S-Bank
The S Group operates Finland's first so called supermarket bank, the S-BankS-Bank
S-Bank Ltd is the bank of the S-Group , a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation.S-Bank is the first so called supermarket bank in Finland. Changes in legislation about personal accounts at co-operatives made them uncompetitive, such that founding an entirely new bank was actually easier than...
(S-Pankki Oy)
External links
- S-Kanava – The company portal