History
The story of Sampo began in 1909. This brief history of Sampo encapsulates all of the relevant milestones of Sampo Group - from the early years prior to Finland’s independence right through to the present day.
Considerable numbers of people migrated from rural to urban areas and Finland was built - one concrete suburb at a time. Sampo was at the core of shaping a new decade by financing the construction efforts.
The peak years saw as many as 70,000 new housing units built in a year.
1977
Sampo launched the groundbreaking Sampo agreement, which gathered all of the insurance policies of a family under one joint policy.
A grid-like concrete suburb with a vast area where children played represents a strong mental image of the 1970s. Finland was in the midst of a construction boom and cities grew out into new suburbs. During the peak years of the 1970s, approximately 70,000 housing units were built per year. In comparison, construction today occurs at less than half this rate.
Sampo closely followed the trends of the time and offered loans for housing construction. As an example, Sampo participated in financing over 6,000 new units in 1971.The suburbs were born out of need as half of all Finns now lived in cities.
The hot topic of the era was “customer focus”. Sampo developed its organizational structure and the company's branches prided themselves on providing excellent service. Following the introduction of computers into offices in 1976, work tasks could be completed in less time.
Sampo refreshed its product catalogue and the concept of “packaging” became popular. For example, a single travel insurance would gather together all insurance policies needed while traveling.
The field was marked with a trend of centralization, which was partly supported by the state. Sampo acquired the Tarmo Mutual Pension Insurance Company in 1970. Meanwhile, in 1977 the country's oldest life insurance company, Kaleva, a company which had found itself in financial trouble during the recession, joined Sampo Group.
The company headquarters in Turku was by now too small. Therefore, a new office building was constructed close to the original headquarters and this was completed in 1975. The building's quirks included a pool and sauna facilities on the ground floor, as well as a drive-in service for car damages.