Co-op food profit excluding IFRS 16 was up 19% on 2018 to £95 million. Food sales increased by 3% on 2018 to reach £3.7 billion, with like-for-like sales up 1.7% The Co-op stated this was particularly pleasing given the strong sales from last summer.
Growth in Co-op Food
In March, the Co-op launched an online delivery service trial with zero emission cargo bikes. The trial initially took place in Chelsea, London, but has since been rolled out in eight other stores in the capital. The partnership with Deliveroo that enables customers to order products and receive a delivery within two hours at an allocated time has also been extended to cover Edinburgh, Milton Keynes, Brighton as well as London and Manchester.
Over the first half of the year, the Co-op opened 20 new stores and re-developed 94. Co-op Food to Go range is also being trialled in 7 Superdrug stores across the country. Over 90% of Nisa partners have now taken lines from across the 2000 product range offered by the Co-op. The own brand products are now generating weekly sales in excess of £2.5million from Nisa stores.
To encourage further growth for the Co-op in the Food to Go sector, they announced their presence at eight UK music festivals this year, including Glastonbury.
Responsibility
Since 2006, the Co-op have halved their GHG emissions, however, they have set a new goal to reduce their emissions by another 50% by 2025. In April the Co-op made a commitment to source 100% sustainable soy to prevent deforestation. In addition, they have pledged to remove all single-use plastic in their own brand packaging by 2023 and the most difficult to recycle plastic packaging by 2020.
Brexit
Chief Executive, Steve Murrells, commented:
“If a negotiated withdrawal from the EU doesn’t take place at the end of October, we expect some disruption to our supply chain, at least in the short term. We’re particularly concerned about what a no-deal Brexit will mean for the British farmers whose produce we’ve championed over the last few years”.
The NFU Brexit team have created a no-deal Brexit hub with resources to help members prepare. Click here to learn more.
Grocery Code Adjudicator
Allan Leighton, Group chair, said:
‘Following the GCA investigation which completed in March 2019 into Co-op’s compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP), we have made good progress to address the underlying findings of the five recommendations made by the GCA. The 2019 GCA survey results, announced in June, reported Co-op as the most improved retailer’.