The recession in the Finnish economy is also seen in the field of trade. During the Statistics Finland review period of that ended at the end of August, sales for the entire trade sector were 4.1 per cent lower than in the comparable period last year. The impact is also seen in all sectors of the S Group, although it is least visible in the grocery trade.

The sales of more than EUR 5.1 billion of the S Group grocery trade meant growth of approximately four per cent year-on-year. Other business operations were close to zero in sales trends, or their sales were declining. For example, the sales of consumer goods fell by more than one per cent year-on-year, amounting to approximately EUR 991 million.

The development of the S-Bank continued to be positive in the third quarter as well. The number of the bank's customers continued to grow, and it had already 2.6 million customers at the end of September. By the end of September, S-Bank had issued more than 1.3 million S-Etukortti Visa cards. S-Bank's private customers had EUR 2,239 million in deposits at the end of September, and together with corporate deposits the deposit portfolio totalled EUR 2,377 million.

Growth in the number of members continued

The growth in the number of co-op members of S Group cooperatives continued when 60,834 new members joined during the first half of the year. At the end of September, the total number of co-op members was 2,083,023. Members were paid a total of EUR 278.8 million in bonuses in January–September, which was one per cent more than last year.

At the end of September, there were 1,653 S Group outlets. The number of outlets fell by 40 outlets year-on-year. 

The more detailed sales figures by business area and the sales information for the SOK Corporation are available in the appendices.

Additional information:Antti Sippola, acting CEO, business director, SOK, tel. +358 (0)10 76 82890Jari Annala, Senior Vice President, CFO, SOK Finance and Administration, tel.  +358 (0)10 76 82040