The Co-op lowers prices as it eyes ‘golden era’
The Co-op has revealed plans to grow its membership to eight million by the end of the decade as it eyes a “golden era of co-operation”.
The Manchester-headquartered group, which has food, funerals, legal and insurance divisions, wants to increase its number of members from five million, itself a 15 per cent increase on last year.
The Co-op’s food business also has ambitions to acquire new stores, more than double the number of new franchise locations, open 400 new Nisa shops and accelerate its share in the quick commerce market to over 30 per cent.
Its life services businesses, which includes funeralcare, legal and insurance, plans to “extend and improve the product ranges and bring on board new partners”.
The Co-op has also launched a “significant” new round of member prices in its food business which sees a further 117 “everyday low prices”, which for the first time will also include branded goods.
The move follows what the group has described as its “biggest ever investment in convenience pricing” last year, where member prices were introduced on 175 everyday essential products and takes total investment to £100m.
The price reductions covering key lines such as bakery, dairy, soft drinks and pet food, which the group has said could see members save up to £10 a week.
Chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “Over the past year our underlying financial strength has enabled us to support our colleagues and their communities, through the cost-of-living crisis.
“By placing our member-owners firmly at the heart of our Co-op, we’ve seen a marked increase in new members joining us and greater engagement from existing members.
“As we enter our 180th year, we now have a unique opportunity to make this a golden era of co-operation.
“Co-op membership is not a loyalty scheme but rather a different way of doing business. We exist and are run for the benefit of our millions of members.
“As owners of our business, our members not only benefit financially from their membership, but also have a say in decisions we take as a business and help support and make a difference to issues that our members care about in communities across the UK.
“We are looking to not only provide greater financial benefits to our members through lower prices and offers across our businesses, but also to deepen our engagement with members on the decisions we take and the issues that matter most to them.”