Comment: Appreciating the Co-op
When travelling around the UK for holidays, business or other reasons, especially into less urban environments, there is inevitably one consistent beacon – the Co-op convenience stores.
They are often found in areas where the major supermarkets fear to tread – whether that is because of profitability concerns or other issues – and because of this they have often been a life-saver in remote locations and villages for me and my family.
Subscribe to TRBThey number around 8,000 in total – comprising 2,300 run by the Co-operative Group itself and the remainder operated predominantly by independent co-operative societies such as the Lincolnshire Co-op and Central England Co-op that the Co-op Group’s wholesale division supplies with product.
It has been a tough time for many of these stores over recent years as their employees have been at the forefront of the increased level of aggressive behaviour and theft from a growing number of customers. The location of many Co-op stores has placed them at the forefront of this rising issue.
The group has sensibly sought to use technology like facial recognition – despite ill-informed pushback from some bodies – and also pressed the argument about how vital they are as an asset to local communities (so show them more respect people). What they have not done though is abandon these communities despite the fact it must have been tempting at times.
The organisation has also been one of the first major victims of a cyber-attack that hit the group badly. Disruptions to trading and availability resulted in the first half year’s trading of 2025 suffering an £80 million impact on profits and a £206 million hit on revenues. It was the colleagues in its stores that ensured the doors stayed open during the period of the cyber-attack thereby ensuring local people had access to essential provisions.
Just how valuable these employees are was highlighted in the recent The Retail Bulletin ‘People in Retail Awards’ (PiRA) where for yet another year a number of Co-operative employees were shortlisted in various categories. Special mention must go to Andy Warman from Lincolnshire Co-op who won the Executive Leader of the Year award.
Despite the setbacks and pressures the Co-operative Group and the independent co-ops have faced there is forward momentum. The organisation has gone big on quick-commerce delivery, having made the service available from its thousands of convenience stores and it aims to have captured 30% of the UK’s quick convenience market by 2027.
It is working with all the third-party delivery platforms and also has its own white label delivery solution that it sells into other convenience store retailers, which utilises the infrastructures of the like of Deliveroo and Uber Eats. It has also become the first national partner of Just Eat with its new delivery-as-a-service Jet Go platform that further fuels the Co-op’s quick-commerce capabilities.
The Co-op has also embarked on a major move into the foodservice sector with the launch of ‘On The Go’ stores that are around a quarter of the size of a regular Co-op convenience store. The offer includes breakfast goods alongside freshly made sandwiches, as part of the company’s first ever counter service, available in the morning through to bagels and bowls for lunch and from lunchtime onwards it has a range of in-house cooked pizzas.
Matt Hood, chief commercial and logistics officer, stated: “This isn’t a scaled-down version of your typical Co-op. This is ground-up reinvention, a blurring of the lines between grocery and QSR. A brand-new format for a different kind of customer, in a different kind of space and location. No tobacco, no ambient aisles, no health and beauty. Just a tightly curated selection of food and drink, built and developed for right now – led by a new standout hot food serve that anchors the experience.”
There are plans to be operating several hundred such stores over the next two to three years, which certainly suggests there is plenty of progressive thinking taking place within the organisation. But for many people like me, and my family, the Co-op is the store that is the saviour when venturing out into the sticks or visiting unknown locations. Let’s take a moment to be grateful for this retail business that continues to serve communities up and down the country despite the many pressures it continues to face.
