Co-op news

28 June 2018
Nisa retailers are now able to place orders for Co-op’s range of own label products. The range will gradually be made available to independent stores over the next few weeks. Phased roll-out Co-op will make the own label range available in four phases: The first 49 products can be ordered from next week Another 350 from mid-July A further 350 in September The final products i...
28 June 2018
John Lewis Partnership issues a profit warning and unveils strategy for the coming years. H1: a disappointing result and next steps for the business John Lewis Partnership, which owns John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has announced that profits for the first half will be “close to zero”. Future strategy will focus on three key areas: differentiation over scale, main...
13 June 2018
Costcutter founder Colin Graves has joined the Co-op as an advisor on its wholesale and franchise development plans. Chair of new Wholesale and Franchise Advisory Board Graves will chair Co-op’s new Wholesale and Franchise Advisory Board.  The board was created following the Co-op’s £137.5m takeover of Nisa which completed last month, and the start of its wholesale supply agreement with Gra...
30 May 2018
The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel, for the 12 weeks to 20 May 2018, shows that the British grocery market enjoyed improving growth over the previous month, with total sales up 2.7%. While the inflation rate remained unchanged at 2.1%, the sector benefited both from some excellent weather over the early summer national holiday, as well as the celebratory mood surrounding the wedding of Pri...
08 May 2018
The Co-op has announced the appointment of Ken Towle as Chief Executive of its newly acquired Nisa subsidiary.  The former senior Tesco executive has taken up the role with immediate effect, replacing Arnu Misra who stepped in as interim Nisa CEO in late 2017.  The announcement comes on the day that the Co-op's acquisition of the wholesale distributor gained final legal recognition. Ken Towle ...
03 May 2018
Co-op customers in Milton Keynes can now have their groceries delivered by robot.  The Monkston branch has been trialling unaccompanied robot delivery for the past four weeks, promoting the service using targetted local social media marketing. Between 10-15 robots are being used and around 1,000 orders have been dispatched since the project went live a month ago. Robots "understand" their envi...
24 April 2018
The Competition and Markets Authority has cleared the Co-op’s £137.5m takeover of buying group Nisa, saying " the proposed merger does not give rise to competition concerns ”.  Co-op is now likely to take over the running of Nisa in May. Competition between shops unaffected Co-op, as a groceries retailer, and Nisa, as a groceries wholesaler, do not compete head-to-head. However, as Nisa sup...
06 April 2018
The Co-op has reported strong trading results for the year 2017. Underlying profit is up 25%, at £65 million for the year. Strong retail performance Revenues were stable at £9.5 billion, in line with Co-op's expectations. Overall food like-for-like sales were up 3.4%, with core convenience LFL sales increasing by 4.3%. This marks four years of consecutive LFL growth for the company. Whol...
26 March 2018
The Co-op has announced an exclusive partnership with Live Nation to become the first UK food retailer to have a supermarket at four major summer music festivals. Download, Latitude, and Reading and Leeds festivals will all welcome the convenience retailer into their grounds for the first time. The deal will see Co-op operate a 6,000 square foot shop at each of the four festivals to cater for ...
07 March 2018
Two UK convenience retailers are trialling mobile payment apps to improve the shopper experience. Co-op trials “shop, scan-and-go” service Co-op is trialling a “shop, scan and go” app which allows shoppers to purchase products in-store using their smartphones. The trial of the new mobile app will start at the shop located in Co-op’s customer support centre in Manchester, followed by th...