S Group

Goal-oriented sales management for S Group’s supermarket trade

S Group is a Finnish retail and service sector network owned by its customers, with over 1,900 locations in Finland. S Group consists of cooperative stores and the Central Organization of Finnish Cooperative Stores (SOK) along with its subsidiaries.

S Group’s overarching strategic goal for the entire supermarket trade is to increase active and goal-oriented sales management. S Group’s supermarket trade encompasses a total of 900 locations and employs nearly 20,000 people.

Goal-oriented sales management at S Group focuses on communication and leadership as levers for implementing change. In the project Kasvu Partners helped to create management concepts and tools for proactive and coordinated communication related to trade periods, campaigns, and new products from the chain to the stores, as well as for raising and standardizing the level of execution capability at the store level. The aim of these tools is to provide stores with better insight and ability to anticipate upcoming commercial actions and to give store managers common best practices for creating an attractive and stimulating shopping environment for customers.

S Group chose Kasvu Partners as its partner for Goal-Oriented Sales Management. Kasvu Partners acted as an advisor, facilitator of internal development work, and partner in developing and piloting sales management tools in a year-long development project.

“Kasvu Partners provided honest and rigorous sparring, improving our thinking on selected topics throughout our entire journey together. In my opinion, this was the most significant added value in our collaboration. They were also very helpful in building concrete implementation tools and communication materials. They are passionate professionals, and it was a pleasure to work with them,” says Päivi Hole, Sales Director of Non-Food Products at S Group Supermarket Trade.

“From a project manager’s perspective, the collaboration with Kasvu Partners went excellently. Things progressed according to the agreed schedule, and changes to the plans were implemented in good cooperation,” says Tero Mölkänen, Development Manager of Chain Management at S Group Supermarket Trade.

“We are very satisfied with the outcome. The customer-centric and goal-oriented operating model built through the development project contributed to our exceptionally strong market share growth. In addition to effective tools and practices, the project left a legacy of a more customer-centric, collaborative, and sales-oriented culture,” says Antti Oksa, Sales Director of Grocery Trade at S Group Supermarket Trade.