In the 2000s, the membership-based cooperative business form has grown into a success factor by which S Group stands clearly out from the competition.

The beginning of the 2000s was a phase of historically intense growth.In grocery trade, the number of outlets in the Prisma, S-market, Sale and Alepa chains increased by over two hundred new units between 2000 and 2007.The grocery trade was boosted by the Spar sales agreement in 2005, when over 80 former Spar shops were turned into Sale, Alepa and S-market outlets.

Procurement is centralised within S Group through dedicated procurement companies.Inex Partners Oy became a hundred-per-cent subsidiary of SOK in early 2006, and the consumer goods procurement company Intrade Partners merged into Inex Partners in 2010.

In 2012, a new logistics centre for S Group consumer goods will start its operations in Sipoo. Over 90 percent of the centre's warming and heating systems are operated by renewable energy.

An important milestone in the development of consumer goods has been the Kodin Terra chain,which focuses on hardware, interior design and gardening sales. (link to the Kodin Terra webpage)The first Kodin Terra outlet was opened in Lahti in 2005, and there were altogether 11 Kodin Terra outlets at the end of 2010.

In the service station and fuel trade, the ABC chain expanded duringthe 2000s.(link to the ABC webpage) Among other things, the ABC chain was boosted by the sale of over 40 outlets by Oy Esso Ab to regional cooperatives in 2006.

Versatile services for co-op members

In the tourism and hospitability business, the services offered to co-op members expanded in 2006, when Sokotel Oy bought six spa hotels from Holiday Club. Five years later, some of the spa hotels were sold back to Holiday Club and some merged into Sokos Hotel chain.

At the end of 2007, in turn, banking operations were launched within S Group as S-Bank was founded.At the end of 2010, the bank already had over 2.3 million customers.

In the 2000s, S Group expanded its operations also in the Baltic Countries and Russia. Hotel Viru in Tallinn was incorporated intothe Sokos Hotels chain in 2003. In St Petersburg in Russia, hotel operations were launched in 2007 and supermarket trade in 2008. At the end of 2010, SOK had a total of seven Prisma outlets in Estonia, two in both Latvia and Lithuania and six in St Petersburg, Russia.

S Group also develops its e-commerce operations.Customers can download music on Poimuri, book a holiday through S-Matkat, and buy cosmetics in the Kauneus online shop. The Agrinet online shop of SOK's subsidiary Hankkija-Maatalous Oy is a convenient means for farmers to purchase fertilisers and animal feed, among other things.