- S Group’s retail sales increased by 2.2% in January–March 2017
Helsinki, Finland, 2017-Apr-14 — /EPR Retail News/ — S Group’s retail sales excluding taxes increased by 2.2% in January–March and stood at EUR 2,567 million. Customer numbers and sales continued to increase for Sokos and Emotion, which was particularly delightful.
“I am very pleased with our performance in the first quarter. Department stores have attracted a large number of new customers, and supermarket sales continue to be at a good level,” says Taavi Heikkilä, CEO of SOK.
The growth of S Group’s grocery sales outpaced the market in Finland. S Group’s grocery sales amounted to EUR 1,582 in the first quarter. The Group continued to reduce prices, which increased the sales of Finnish vegetables in particular.
The ABC chain has recovered from the decline caused by the deregulation of opening hours, and its sales resumed growth in the first quarter.
The comparable sales of the Prisma stores in St Petersburg assumed a growth trend in 2016 and continued to grow in 2017. A good rate of growth was also recorded for S Group’s hotels in the St Petersburg region.
S Group’s retail sales excluding taxes, Jan–Mar 2017
| Business area | Sales (EUR million, entire S Group) | Change in comparison to Jan–Mar 2016 (%) |
| Supermarket trade* | 1795.2 | 0.2 |
| Service station store and fuel sales | 372.4 | 10.7 |
| Travel industry and hospitality business* | 182.3 | 1.6 |
| Department store and speciality store trade | 70.9 | 11.0 |
| Hardware trade | 29.6 | -5.0 |
| Other | 116.2 | 6.4 |
| S-Group total | 2566.6 | 2.2 |
* The figure includes sales in the Baltic countries and Russia.
More information:
Taavi Heikkilä
CEO
SOK
tel. +358 10 76 80200
Jari Annala
Senior Vice President
CFO
SOK
tel.: +358 10 76 82040
Jorma Vehviläinen
Executive Vice President
SOK
tel. +358 10 76 80608 (Baltic countries and Russia)
Source: S-Group
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