Chris Conway, The Co-op’s highly rated quick commerce MD, has left the business, The Grocer has learned.
Since joining from Morrisons in 2018, Conway has transformed the Co-op’s digital capabilities, launching its ecommerce operation from scratch and developing an innovative quick commerce solution that has become one of the Co-op’s fastest growing and most profitable revenue streams. Off the back of the model he set up Peckish, the Co-op’s q-commerce marketplace for independent retailers, last February. The Co-op’s share of the quick commerce market reached 24% in April before falling to 17% in the wake of the cyberattack last May [NIQ]. By September it reported that share had recovered to 21%.
But Conway, who reported to Co-op CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq and was a board member of the £8bn Co-op Food business, said his time at the retail group had “come to an end”.
He told The Grocer: “I’m proud of what we achieved during a period of significant growth and operational challenge, particularly establishing q-commerce as a meaningful part of the online grocery landscape and leading the business throught the cyber disruption with resilience and focus. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such committed colleagues and am taking some time with family before considering my next move.”
Co-op’s ‘chaotic’ changes
Conway’s exit follows a wave of high-profile departures from the Co-op that have been linked to management changes introduced since the devastating cyber attack. In October the Co-op created a Group Commercial Logistics division, led by ex-Coop Food managing director Matt Hood. The new division was set up to offset the £120m losses incurred as a result of the cyber attack and increased employee costs, and entailed reducing the size of its commercial team and growing third-party sales. Khoury-Haq took on responsibility for running Co-op Food until a new Food MD was apppointed.
But chief commercial officer Sinead Bell, who was charged with leading the Co-op’s newly established independent buying group for all food and goods for resale, left the Co-op within weeks of the restructure, along with propositions director Adele Balmforth, who was responsible for own label, technical, merchandising and planograms.
The “chaotic” handling of the ongoing collective consultations with commercial colleagues is said to have caused confusion and low morale. “We’ve basically spent the last six months interviewing each other,” one source told The Grocer. And last week a letter sent to the Co-op Group board, alleging a “toxic culture” at the Co-op characterised by ”alienation and fear”, was leaked to the BBC. The letter claimed to represent “a signficant proportion” of senior management at the so-called WL2 and 3 level (a cohort of 140 people).
The Co-op vigorously denied these fresh claims last week. Meanwhile a new Food MD has still not been appointed, and The Grocer has learned that Hood is back running the division in addition to his new responsibilities.
A Co-op spokesman said: “Shirine Khoury Haq stepped in to temporarily undertake day to day leadership of Food in September 2025, as Matt Hood stepped up to create and run GCL. After the creation of GCL, Shirine returned to her full-time role as Co-op Group CEO in January. Matt, in addition to leading GCL, has assumed responsibility for the Food Retail P&L alongside Kate McCrae, Operations Director, and reports into Shirine, along with Katie Secretan (MD Co-op Wholesale) and Caoilionn Hurley (MD Life Services) and other Co-op Group division leaders.
“There is work in progress to improve the efficiency of our central Food operations. As such, Kate has also assumed responsibility for QComm operations alongside her wider responsibility for the Food Operations Support Centre as, following time away from the business, Chris Conway has now left our Co-op and we wish him well for the future.”
The Grocer has also learned that Derek Furnival, the Co-op’s long-standing logistics and supply chain operations director, will leave this summer. The spokesman added: ”After 30 years at our Co-op, Derek Furnival, who has played an integral role to our business over those years, has decided to leave our Co-op, and is going with our very best wishes. He has made a huge impact for our business over those years, and we will miss him. Derek will be with us until June, and we expect to announce his replacement shortly.”
Other recent departures have included Rebecca Oliver Mooney, one of three commercial directors in the new food and goods for resale buying group, who joined Hip Pop as strategy and insights director last month.
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