English - Svenska

Press release
For publication 14 February 2008 at 13.00 p.m.

SOK Chief Executive Arto Hiltunen:

The S group improves its consumer goods offerings

Over the next few years, the S Group will improve its consumer goods offerings. Arto Hiltunen, SOK’s Chief Executive, says that the Group’s shared goal is to achieve clear‑cut growth in sales of consumer goods by 2015.

“Achieving significant growth will call for sizeable capital expenditures on new locations, notably in the Kodin Terra chain, as well as enlargements of the existing hypermarkets and department stores.”

Apart from investments in locations, chain management and boosting procurement efficiency, a further important way of meeting the new challenge is by developing the Group’s logistics. The new logistics centre that is to be built in Bastukärr, Sipoo, and was announced on Thursday is an important step towards reaching this objective.

The S Group’s target in 2008 is sales growth that outpaces the market. At the Group level, CEO Hiltunen is setting the goal of generating earnings at least at the previous year’s level. The result of SOK Corporation’s operations, in turn, must improve substantially.

The number of members has already risen to 1.7 million, and now 70 per cent of Finnish households have an S‑Etukortti card. Last year, members were paid EUR 263 million in bonuses.

“Our goal is to be the first choice for every member. In order to be able to improve our service offerings, we must also ensure the profitability of our operations. With competition getting tougher by the day, renewal and development are a continuous process.”

A responsible way of operating will also be highlighted in the Group’s operations in the years to come. Responsibility issues have now been brought to the level of strategic management, and a steering group has been set up to deal with them. In future, the new emphasis will also be reflected in better energy efficiency.

The S Group will continue to widen its international footprint in 2008. In January, the Group’s first hotel in St Petersburg, the Holiday Club St Petersburg, was opened, and during the spring two Sokos Hotels are to be opened in the city.

In the Baltic countries, sales and profits within the supermarket trade have developed well. The Prisma chain is therefore expanding beyond Tallinn and Riga to Vilnius, Lithuania, where the first hypermarket will be opened in 2009.

For further information, please contact:
Arto Hiltunen, CEO, tel. +358 10 76 80200

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