The cyberattack will cost The Co-op £120m this year. But it may yet be that the defining moment of 2025 for the Co-op turns out to be its commercial restructure. For better or worse.
It’s a hugely ambitious project in which the Co-op plans to unify its commercial operations so individual buyers will simultaneously negotiate deals with suppliers to sell goods into its retail estate, franchise stores, regional Co-op societies and its Co-op Wholesale (Nisa) customers. And it’s creating a new group commercial and logistics division, headed up by former Food MD Matt Hood.
But the plans have got off to a shaky start. When the restructure was announced last month, Co-op chief commercial director Sinead Bell – appointed to run the new ‘goods for resale’ division – warned suppliers that with buying teams “undergoing a period of collective consultation [they] may have less availability than normal, or take slightly longer to respond”.
What no one would have anticipated is that, as The Grocer revealed this week, Bell herself has left the business – along with another supposed proponent of the restructure, propositions director Adele Balmforth.
Not surprisingly, confusion reigns among Co-op colleagues. And insiders say the consultation process has been “chaotic”, with over 100 affected colleagues presented with as many as three contracts due to alterations and errors.
And suppliers are equally confused, if questions posed at the recent IGD briefing last month are anything to go by, with particular concerns from branded suppliers about how promotional activation can work across a managed retail estate and an unpredictable independent wholesale customer base.
Make no mistake. Offering suppliers a single point of contact in which it can simultaneously close deals with 8,000 outlets across multiple routes to market is very attractive, with the prospect of more to come if it plays it right. But even Tesco has not attempted (yet) to integrate its Booker operations in this way. And the Co-op will not achieve its vision if it doesn’t listen to colleagues or customers as it tries to navigate a path.
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