S Group's retail sales result excluding taxes for January–June was 6,419 million euros, showing an increase of one per cent from last year. Supermarket retail sales excluding taxes was 4,639.5 million euros. Even though the spike in demand during the pandemic has evened out, supermarket sales between January–June still clearly surpassed the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

‘Nationally, our retail sales have grown more swiftly than the rest of the Finnish grocery market. Our online grocery sales have also continued to grow. The new S-kaupat.fi service already includes over 250 of S-Group’s grocery shops,’ says Hannu Krook, CEO of SOK.

The quickest recovery after the pandemic was in the travel industry and hospitality business with a 90 per cent increase in sales between January–June when compared to the previous year. S Group’s hotel and restaurant sales began growing in spring immediately after COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted. The sales had almost met the 2019 levels around May and June. With public events, professional conferences and other work events being held once more, plenty of business travellers and leisure travellers stayed at our hotels. Respectively, our restaurants had plenty of conference and order sales.

Service station store and fuel sales grew 37 per cent between January–June compared to the previous year. At the beginning of the year, COVID-19 restrictions still impacted ABC chain’s restaurant sales in particular. Lifting the restrictions, increased group travel and various events have significantly increased the demand for our restaurants and other ABC station services. Car wash sales also reached record levels during the spring. The growth in fuel sales was impacted by increased global market prices, more active travelling and positive volume development.

S Group’s department store and specialty store sales grew by almost 16 per cent during January–June compared to the previous year. The demand in department stores also recovered quickly after restrictions had been lifted and the summer holiday season began.

‘It has been good to see the speedy recovery of our various business areas. Throughout the pandemic, we have invested strongly in our network and the development of our services. This means we have the facilities to respond to increased consumer demand also during the summer holiday season and different events,’ says Hannu Krook.

S Group’s retail sales excluding taxes, Jan–Jun 2022

(percentage changes from the previous year 2019 included for comparability)

Supermarket sales include S-Group’s retail trade, Prisma’s consumer goods trade and hardware trade.

* The figure includes sales in the Baltic countries and Russia. In 4/3/2022, SOK announced it is leaving the Russian market. The sales of Prisma and hotel operations in St. Petersburg was reported in June 2022.

S Group’s and SOK Corporation’s interim reports will be published on Tuesday 23/08/2022. The sales for the entire summer and sales development will be reported at the same time.