Midcounties Co-op sales hit £1.35 billion

In the year to January 28, the society generated an eight per cent increase in sales to £1.35 billion, with profits before significant items of £11.4 million reflecting a fall from £15.5 million the year before.

Membership rose by a fifth and now stands at 649,000.

Group chief executive Ben Reid said: “The society has continued to make good progress, matching commercial success with a strong focus on co-operation and member engagement.

“We continued to invest, spending £30 million on site acquisitions, branch refurbishments and IT infrastructure, while our strong cash generation allowed us to reduce borrowings to £18 million, comfortably within agreed limits.

“We also made real progress with our Regional Communities programme. Our colleagues contributed 36,000 volunteering hours and we engaged with over 32,000 members at local events and meetings.

“I’m particularly proud that we have given out more than £390,000 to over 500 good causes chosen by our members across our 20 regional communities.”

Food outperformed expectations, with both supermarket and convenience stores enjoying good growth.

The group has a number of branches across Shropshire, including post offices and shops, and runs a number of former Harry Tuffins stores around the county.

Travel had an exceptional year, the group said, while there were strong results in retail, personal travel agents and the Co-op Consortium while Co-operative Holidays grew significantly.

The funeral group also came in ahead of expectations but healthcare was impacted by reductions in government funding.

Energy continued to grow significantly. It now has more than 420,000 customers following the acquisition of GB Energy in November and recently appointed David Bird as its new chief executive from E.on, where he ran the UK residential and metering business.

Mr Reid said he was confident Midcounties would absorb extra costs such as increases in the National Living Wage, business rates and the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy.

“This all adds up to a challenging year to come,” he added. “But the decisions and actions taken this year mean we are well placed to meet these challenges and continue to progress our strategic objectives.”