The S Group (, ) is a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation with its head office in Helsinki. Founded in 1904, it consists of 20 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in addition to SOK, Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (The Central Finnish Cooperative Society). S Group operates in the markets for groceries, consumer durables, service station, hotel and restaurant services. It is engaged in close competition with Kesko, with which it shares an oligopolistic position in many of the markets it operates in. The group has businesses in Finland, Estonia, and Russia. The S Group also had businesses in Latvia and Lithuania, but announced withdrawal from these markets in May 2017. The organisation's member (loyalty) card is called S-Etukortti. Ownership A client can invest a small sum on the local co-operative and become a client-owner. (The exact sum is decided by the local co-operative board and varies significantly depending on local conditions.) A client-owner gets a membership card, S-Etukortti, which functions as a debit or credit card and gives access to special client-owner bargains. For the sums spent in S Group stores, Bonus is paid back to the client into the account at S-Bank. The Bonus percentage varies from 1% to 5% depending on the sum spent. S-Bank pays an interest that is competitive with interests paid by general banks into savings accounts. S-Etukortti is not a regular "loyalty card" as it represents actual monetary investment and the return is formally profit, not discount. Corporate 35 members of parliament in 2012 were representatives in the S Group or Tradeka (Siwa) corporate governance. Local co-operatives The S Group consists of 20 regional co-operative enterprises and 7 local co-operative enterprises. In total, these had 2.4 million individual members in 2018, a number that has grown from 1.2 million in 2003. In 2018, 329 million euros of Bonus was paid. Supermarkets The S Group operates five distinct chains of supermarkets: Sale – a chain of small grocery stores, mainly located in the countryside, small towns and suburbs with an emphasis on service rather than selection. Sale stores often only provide everyday groceries. There are about 240 Sale stores in Finland. Alepa – this is the equivalent for Sale in the Greater Helsinki region – there are about 110 Alepa stores in Helsinki and the neighbouring cities. S-market – larger supermarkets with a better selection of goods for sale, and often providing additional services. This is