The Co-op is looking to increase the number of its active members by one million over the next five years.
The mutual society’s CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq made the announcement today as she hailed a “robust” set of annual results, with profits boosted by the sale of its petrol forecourts to Asda, as well as cost-cutting.
Khoury-Haq declined to give further details of a relaunch of its membership scheme, which is understood to kick off in the next few weeks. She confirmed that in the latest financial year, the Co-op had recorded its first increase in the number of active members for five years. The figure has now hit 4.41 million, and Khoury-Haq said almost half of these new members were under 35.
In terms of the results, a £319m gain from the sale of the forecourt business in October helped the group avoid a loss for the 52 weeks to 31 December 2022.
Pre-tax profits came in at £247m for the year, compared with £57m in 2021, while underlying operating profit held steady at £100m.
Co-op also protected its bottom line with £101m of cost savings in 2022 as it battled rising inflation.
Revenues for the year nudged up by £300m to £11.5bn, with the sale of the petrol stations reducing the top line by £150m.
The food retail arm reported revenues of £7.8bn, a rise of 1.8% year on year, with wholesale revenues up 3.6% to £1.4bn. Its Nisa wholesale arm added 473 stores to its supply chain during the year, while Nisa’s sales of Co-op branded products grew by 12.5% in 2022 to £199m and now represents 20% of total sales, excluding tobacco.
The group also reported a £587m reduction in net debt to £333m as it focused on building cashflow during the year, with cash generated from operating activities jumping from £178m in 2021 to £455m.
Despite the “strong” operational performance and “robust” financial returns, the Co-op warned of a “volatile external environment and turbulent economic headwinds”, with ongoing inflationary pressures.
“It’s clear that our early action to significantly reduce our debt, improve our cash position, and tighten cost controls, has made a significant difference to the financial strength of our Co-op and has enabled us to look forward with confidence, despite continuing market uncertainty,” said Khoury-Haq.
“We now have an even better foundation upon which to grow our businesses.”
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