Members set to share £3million Dividend

Over 220,000 members of the East of England Co-op can look forward to a share of a £3million dividend payment this year.

The dividend was approved at our Annual Members' Meeting, held at Wherstead Park on Saturday 7 May, following a recommendation from our Board of Directors.

Sally Chicken, Society President, chaired the meeting and reported on our performance during 2015/16. Members heard how despite a fall in overall sales and trading profits, the East of England Co-op delivered a healthy trading performance in challenging conditions.

Minnie Moll, Joint Chief Executive of the East of England Co-op said: "We're incredibly pleased to be able to share such a good dividend with our members once again this year. This is the 7th year that we've been able to pay a dividend of 2p for every £1 spent in our stores. For our regular shoppers, this will be a welcome and substantial dividend."

2015 saw the East of England Co-op invest more than £15m to improve and enhance the overall shopping experience for our members and customers, which included the refurbishment of over 40 existing stores and the opening of four new ones. Revitalised stores are seeing increased sales and margin uplifts.

At the new format Annual Members’ Meeting this year, members were invited to take part in four interactive workshops, each providing an insight into different areas of the member owned business. The workshops provided the opportunity to meet some of the producers behind our award winning Sourced Locally initiative, become a Dementia Friend, find out about how their local co-op is performing and learn ways to support their local community. Members also enjoyed a free Sourced Locally lunch.

The meeting also included a members’ vote for the election of Board Directors. This year saw 31 candidates standing for 5 available places on the board. Two new directors were appointed: Chris Matthews and Maria Veronese. Existing Co-op Directors Nicola Fox, Steve Shaw and John Hawkins won re-election to the board.