SOK

About SOK

SOK, Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta, is the central cooperative of the Finnish S Group: nineteen independent regional cooperatives and seven local ones own it, and it runs the group's joint purchasing, chains and support services from Helsinki.^[1] Because the member cooperatives own it, no company stands above SOK.^[1] It was founded in Tampere in 1904 to handle joint buying, advice and guidance for the cooperative shops, and grew from an agency into a full wholesaler with branch offices, its own importing and its own industrial production.^[1] The trade register records it as a cooperative registered on 14 December 1904, business ID 0116323-1, under the name Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta r.l. until 1 December 1955, at Fleminginkatu 34 in Helsinki.^[2]

That industrial production included the confectionery factory SOK started at Vaajakoski in Jyväskylä in 1920, in the attic of the Marjala berry works, which is where the Panda brand comes from. The factory took the official name Oy Panda Ab in the early 1980s while ownership stayed with SOK, and SOK sold the business to the factory's management in 1988.^[3]