Sales grow for Central England Co-op

Gross sales for the Lichfield-based co-operative society increased 0.7 per cent from £869 million in 2020-2021 to £875m with operating profit of £23.2 million – up 9.9 per cent or £2.1m.

There was capital expenditure of £21.5m in the year including on three new food stores, one relocation and 41 regenerations.

Debbie Robinson, Central England Co-op chief executive, said: “It’s been another year of significant change. Our purpose of creating a sustainable society for all, has been invaluable in guiding our decisions through this challenging period. During the first half of 2021, we saw lockdown conditions continue albeit with a cautious relaxing of restrictions at various points. Our goods and services remained in high demand.

"In the second half of the year, as restrictions were eased and more businesses started to reopen, the demand for our goods and services declined. Brexit combined with the pandemic resulted in significant challenges with product availability, which impacted heavily upon sales in our food business. Whilst the situation is improving and mitigations have been put in place, we expect the trading environment to continue to be challenging into the new financial year."

“Looking ahead there are significant challenges facing the convenience sector including new rules governing the way we market items to customers that are high in fat, sugar and salt from October 2022 as part of the Government’s strategy to tackle obesity. This is a real opportunity to encourage and support customers to eat better. Inflation has reached a 30-year high, which will impact on our cost base and households will face considerable increases in the cost of living. Therefore we expect to see a significant threat to both household spending and business profitability.

“We have great people throughout our society and I would like to thank each and every colleague for their commitment and hard work," added Mrs Robinson.

During the year 136 good causes and charities shared £170,000 from the society's community dividend fund.

The society operates more than 400 food, funeral and floral sites across 19 counties.

Jane Avery, society president, said: “The board and executive, guided by our society purpose and co-operative values and principles, continued with our mission to strengthen our society, aware that good times inevitably follow bad times, and we need to prepare for any eventuality. Despite the uncertain future we are facing due to events on the world stage, I remain optimistic that our values will endure and our society remain strong and successful.”