Central England Co-op posts dip in half year sales
Central England Co-op saw its gross sales decrease from £487.3 million to £477.9 million year-on-year in the six months to 7 August.
However, sales were up compared to the same period in 2019 when the total reached £458.1 million.
Meanwhile, trading profit of £15.7 million was down compared to 2020’s £19.3 million, but up on the £11.4 million achieved in 2019.
Debbie Robinson, Central England Co-op chief executive, said: “Thank you to our members, for your loyalty and support, and thank you to our valued colleagues across our family of Co-operative businesses for making sure our members and customers in the communities in which we serve could access the food and goods they needed, as well as providing consistently high standards of care for the deceased and support to the bereaved.
“As reported last year, the first half of 2020 showed a dramatic spike in trading performance after the first lock-down in March 2020. In order to fully represent our underlying financial performance, we have used financial comparisons from both 2020 and 2019 in this report.”
Central England Co-op operates over 400 food, funeral and floral sites across 16 counties. The business opened two new food stores and refurbished 23 shops in the period.
