S Group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| S Group | |
|---|---|
| Type | Cooperative |
| Founded | 1904 |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
| Key people | Arto Hiltunen (Chairman of the board |
| Industry | Retail, Horeca |
| Products | Groceries, hardware, consumer durables, services. |
| Revenue | €10.544 billion (2007, including subsidiaries) €7.813 billion (2007, excluding subsidiaries)[1] |
| Profit | €58 million (2007, excluding subsidiaries)[2] |
| Employees | 35,899 (2007)[3] |
| Website | www.s-kanava.fi |
The S Group (Finnish: S-ryhmä) is a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation, founded in 1904. It consists of 22 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in the markets 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.
Contents |
[edit] Supermarkets
The S Group operates four distinct chains of supermarkets:
- 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.
- Alepa - this is the equivalent for Sale in the Greater Helsinki region - there are about 70 Alepa shops in the suburbs of Helsinki 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 hypermarket chain with about 50 shops around Finland and the Baltic state, in major cities.
The S Group's supermarkets retail the general private brand Rainbow, the no-frills Hyvä Ostos ('good purchase') and the international Coop label.
[edit] Other fields
The S Group also operates the Sokos chain of department stores, ABC service stations, the hotel chain Sokos Hotels, several brands of restaurants such as Rosso, Sevilla and Amarillo, the Agrimarket chain, which sells agricultural and DIY supplies, and a number of car dealerships for Peugeot.
[edit] S-Bank
The S Group operates Finlands first so called supermarket bank, the S-Bank (S-Pankki Oy)
[edit] External links
- S-Kanava - The company portal.
