Growing and refining our co-op
Store sales and transfers
Throughout 2025, we continued our work to reshape our Food store portfolio, ensuring we had the right stores in the right locations for our members and customers. In March, we successfully transferred our Halstead Food store to Tesco, with all colleagues transferring under TUPE regulations. The transfer and lease of this store secured a rental income, protected our Halstead Food store colleagues’ jobs and meant that a convenience store will continue to serve the local community.
In June, we completed the transfer of our Food stores in Gainsborough in Ipswich, Holland on Sea, Old Road in Clacton and Mile Cross in Norwich to SRJ Convenience. SRJ Convenience is run by award winning entrepreneurs Arul Palaniappan and Palanivel Vaiyapuri and they trade these stores in partnership with Spar. Once again, colleagues across all four locations transferred to the new owner as part of a TUPE process, which protected their jobs and local services.
In October, we completed the sale of our Walberswick Food store to local residents of the village. Back in July 2012, East of England Co-op saved the store affectionately known as The Tuck Shop from closing and the store has now been handed back to the local community.
The decision to sell any Food store is made with the longer-term sustainability of our co-op in mind. It enables us to continue to invest in new stores and services, such as our first cashless store at Ipswich Station and our new community stores on Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, East Bergholt and Hellesdon, Norwich as well as refurbishing stores from our existing estate.
Upcoming property projects
We’ve completed some great projects this year and looking forward to next year, we already have some more exciting projects underway.
Work is currently underway on site to bring a brand-new Food store to Kesgrave in Suffolk. The 3,000 sq ft store will be located on Hartree Way, Grange Farm.
West Mersea Food store
refurbishment
We’ve also begun our biggest Food store refurbishment to date at our West Mersea Food store. This landmark refurbishment will feature our first dedicated community space in a Food store, supporting our commitment to improving community cohesion and integration.
We remain committed to opening a brand-new Food store in Kingsfleet, Thetford later this year.
Witham
housing development
We’re also in the process of building seven new homes as part of a development of Kings Chase in Witham. The development will consist of four 3-bedroom houses with gardens, two 2-bedroom flats and one 1-bedroom flat and all the properties will have access to a parking space.
Refreshing our shopper experience in-store and online
In March we refreshed the design of our £1 shopper bags with two eye-catching designs made from 100% recycled materials. Our strong, functional bags have been a big hit with customers – with almost 50,000 being sold within the initial 14 weeks!
We refreshed our in-store experience by bringing Deli to Go back into 16 of our food stores in November. The deli sections feature produce from across East Anglia as well as from further afield, including Wild Venison Beer Sticks from The Real Cure, Wicks Manor’s award-winning sausages and a selection of artisan cheeses from The Cheshire Cheese, Croome Cheese and Godsell’s.
Snappy Shopper also made a return in five food stores as a trial in November, with plans to roll out the service to more stores in 2026.
Enhancing Co-op Secure Response
We took steps to enhance our Security business, Co-op Secure Response last year, and this included the recruitment of Ben Grover as Business Development Manager.
Ben has over 12 years of experience in sales and business growth roles and has created a new business strategy for Co-op Secure Response in 2025.Over the next 12 months, Ben will work on evolving Co-op Secure Response’s services, attending business events and showcasing its expertise to new clients. All with the aim of sustainable growth and strengthening its presence as a leading security provider in the UK. Thanks to the work of Ben and the wider Co-op Secure Response team, we’re already seeing early signs of success in this field.
Travel business nominated for two prestigious awards
In the summer our Travel business was shortlisted across two categories in the Travel Weekly UK Agent Achievement Awards. We were proud to be nominated by our tour operator partners for:
• Central England and Wales – Medium Agency
• Southern England – Medium Agency
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Modernising Our Stores for the Future
As with all our refurbishments, a big emphasis was placed on improving the food-to-go offering in our stores, leaning into our members and customers shopping habits. We’ve created sleek, modern environments to shop in, but also environmentally friendly food stores, using LED lighting, cleaner refrigerant gas and in some cases solar panels on roofs. The first-in-class refurbishments brought these stores in-line with our brand-new stores and will allow us to build on our reputation as one of the most modern and convenient shopping destinations in the region.
