S-Group and the local co-operatives

S-Group is the dominant force in the Finnish grocery market with a 46% market share. Despite its big size, S-Group is divided into 19 regional co-operatives.

The size of the co-operatives varies greatly between the giant HOK Elanto in Helsinki region to small co-operatives in the North Eastern Finland. HOK Elanto alone is almost 20% of S-Group revenue.

With its 2,25 billion € revenue, HOK is almost as big the entire K-Citymarket chain.

Bonus - the big competitive advantage

As a customer owned co-operative S-Group does not have external shareholders as owners, instead it gives out its profits back to its owners, the customers.

This is a structural advantage compared to many other types of ownerships. Many S-Group co-operatives do give out a lot of money back to its customers in the form of Bonus payments based on customer loyalty.

Almost all co-operatives pay back more than 3% of annual revenue and some go all the way up to 6% of payback to customers.

Strong growth during the pandemic

S-Group and especially its smaller co-operatives grew rapidly during the pandemic.