The Co-op CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq is to step down from her position with immediate effect as the convenience retailer this morning revealed heavy losses following the 2025 cyberattack.
Khoury-Haq is set to leave after almost seven years with the mutual, four of which she served as chief executive, amid allegations of a “toxic culture” and a “chaotic” restructure.
Co-op board member Kate Allum will take the helm as interim CEO on 30 March, with support from Khoury-Haq during a transition period. Khoury-Haq’s departure date from the group has not yet been confirmed.
It comes as Co-op plunged from a £131m underlying operating profit to a loss of £35m in 2025 after taking a £107m hit from the hacking incident during the year. The attack also wiped £285m off its sales as Co-op was forced to shut down its systems in response.
Further headwinds totalling £150m, including £47m of regulatory costs associated with increases to National Insurance contributions and the new EPR packing levy, also impacted profitability.
Underlying pre-tax losses last year totalled £126m, compared with a profit of £45m in 2024.
Net debt also ballooned from £55m to £317m at the year end.
Grooup revenues in the year to 31 December 2025, which included funeralcare, fell 2.3% to £11bn, which the group estimated would have been 0.3% in growth excluding the cyber-attack.
Co-op-’s food retail business, which was hit particularly hard by the hack, registered a 2% fall in sales to £7.3bn. It expected growth of 1% if the cyberattack had not happened.
The group said this morning it needed “long-term leadership” for its multi-year recovery strategy.
Chair Debbie White added 2025 was a “challenging year”, but, she added, those challenges “had helped us reshape Co-op for the future”.
“It has been an honour to lead our Co-op as CEO,” Khoury-Haq said.
“It is not only a commercial enterprise, but also deeply embedded in communities, doing right by them and our members every day. Following last year’s cyberattack, the organisation is now ready to deliver on an ambitious strategy of stabilisation and transformation. This extends beyond the timeframe I had planned for my CEO tenure, and now is the right moment to hand over to leadership that can commit to seeing the strategy through.”
Allum, who has almost 30 years of director-level experience, including as boss of First Milk, added: “It is a privilege to step into the role of interim group CEO at such an important time for our Co-op. Ours is a business with a clear purpose, a compelling business strategy and a values-led approach to making a positive difference within the communities we serve across the UK.
“I look forward to working even more closely with our incredible colleagues, our members and the board and National Members’ Council as we continue to strengthen our Co-op for the long-term.”
Co-op pledged to slash £200m of operating costs in 2026, as it set an “immediate priority” to recover profitability growth.
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