The Co-op group’s strategy of concentrating on convenience FMCG retailing has paid dividends, as it was the driving force behind the company’s half-year results, the guardian.com reports.
Pre-tax profits rose exponentially to £36 million. The same period last year saw a loss of £9 million.
The group has said that price cuts in its fresh produce products, as well as investment in non-FMCG arms of the business, will impact its full-year results, however. The fruit and vegetable price reductions, which appear to have successfully enticed shoppers into its outlets, are together worth £125 million.
Its CEO, Richard Pennycook, commented, “We’re making real progress in rebuilding the Co-op and getting back to what makes us different as an organisation, focused on members and the communities in which they live . . . We’re fixing the basics, investing for the future and it’s working.”
He went on to say that many of its larger stores will be sold, as convenience food retailing is the principal business model to an even greater extent in the future.
“We don’t have urgency and we don’t want to push stores into the market at any price. We will spend many years working them out into the market when we can see good demand.”
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
