Annual Report 2026 | Chief Executive overview
Chief Executive overview
2025 has been another pivotal year for us. It’s the year that has moved us from a business in transformation to a business in growth and I’m excited about what the future holds for us.
Over the 45 years I’ve been in the retail business, last year was one of the most challenging I’ve experienced in the food retail space. We’ve been faced with national and global economic challenges, as well as the impact of the cyber incident on Co-op Group, affecting deliveries to our stores. However, our incredible local suppliers and colleagues once again came together brilliantly to minimise the impact to our customers. This is one of many times where our colleagues have lived and breathed our closely held values that are so important to who we are and why we do what we do.
Together we have delivered an underlying trading profit of £2.0m, a 100% improvement on last year – this is an outstanding achievement, something we should all be proud of. We have more than 3,000 dedicated colleagues, working in over 220 sites who are focused on being of service to our members and customers.
Through making a sustainable profit we’re able to make an even bigger difference in the communities we are part of. In October, we were awarded ‘Community Retailer of the Year - Multiple’ at the Retail Industry Awards. Doing the right thing for our communities has always been the driving force for us so this recognition means a great deal. We were also recognised for our innovative partnership with Trust Retail, winning Technology Innovation of the Year at the Retail Technology Innovation Hub awards.
We partnered with Trust Retail to introduce self-checkout machines at our first fully cashless store at Ipswich Train Station – an excellent example of collaboration making us stronger together. Opening Ipswich Train Station was one of many highlights for me personally and for us as a business. This innovative store, right in our heartland, has had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers and has been recognised internationally by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) for being a ‘Store of the Future’, one of only 25 stores worldwide to be selected.
A business in growth
Ipswich Train Station was also one of five new stores we opened last year. A huge amount of work goes into opening our new stores, with support from colleagues across the whole of the business – it is another wonderful example of a team being stronger together. Four of our 2025 store openings were relocations designed to better serve local communities with improvements on services, space, customer experience and sustainability. Woodbridge Road Food store in Ipswich is a shining example of our commitment to sustainability – fitted with solar panels it’s also home to our first ever solar car port which we hope will inspire others.
Our new East Bergholt and Hellesdon Food stores were designed to better serve local communities, placing an emphasis on improving the food-to-go offering, creating sleek, modern environments to shop in and being environmentally sustainable. We also invested in two new Travel branches, with Halstead Travel moving to a new, modern easily accessible location in March and our brand new Hellesdon Travel branch opening inside the new Food store in December. As part of our strategic investment in our estate, we also unveiled three fully refurbished Food stores: Holbrook and Capel St Mary in June; and Barham in July, bringing these stores in line with our brand new ones. These investments demonstrate our commitment to improving our reach and upgrading our stores.
Reshaping our portfolio
We’re following a carefully considered strategy to support long-term growth and investment, and this means ensuring we’ve got the right stores in the right places. With this in mind, in March we transferred our Halstead Food store to Tesco, protecting the jobs of the colleagues working in the store.
Then in the summer we transferred four of our Food stores (Gainsborough in Ipswich, Mile Cross in Norwich and Holland on Sea and Old Road Clacton in Essex) to SRJ Convenience. With this move we made sure we found a purchaser with similar values to our own and protected the jobs of our colleagues, ensuring they could transfer to the new owner.
In October, we completed the sale of our Walberswick Food store to local residents of the village. Back in July 2012, our business saved the store affectionately known as The Tuck Shop from closing. We’re pleased to have now been able to hand this store back to its local community.
Our people
Each one of our colleagues has played a part in the success and growth of our business this year. We’ve been truly unstoppable, embracing all the challenges and opportunities 2025 has brought. I’m immensely proud of how our colleagues have worked as one stronger together team to make a positive local impact; serving and supporting our communities every day.
Our colleagues are our greatest asset and this year we were pleased to introduce a range of new benefits to support them, from policies on extended leave and career breaks to neonatal care leave.
Our two big annual colleague conferences were a fantastic opportunity to bring hundreds of us together, talk about our ambitions and share important updates on some of our many exciting projects and initiatives so we are all aligned with our vision and mission. For the first time, we ran our Retail Conference over two days to allow more than 300 colleagues to benefit and our Year Beginning Meeting allowed us to drive momentum forward into 2026 and beyond.
In September we welcomed our first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead: Jasmine Moss Rahman. This was the first step on an important journey. Inclusivity isn’t just a trend or a programme for us – it’s a fundamental investment in the refinement and growth of our co-op and it’s entwined in everything we do.
Our planet
It’s our responsibility to reduce our environmental impact and operate more sustainably and we’re continuously looking at ways we can influence others to help us on our journey.
Sustainability is integrated into every part of our business and, thanks to carefully planned and executed sustainability measures, we’re proud to have achieved a 25% fall in tCO2e emissions – this is a phenomenal achievement.
The upgrades we’re investing in across our Food stores have a big part to play in this achievement. Our latest energy performance figures show that our upgraded branches are using up to 55% less grid electricity than before. That’s a brilliant result and shows that the changes we’re making are saving energy and reducing our cost base – a win win.
We also signed a landmark 10-year Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA) last year with German energy company, RWE. This agreement supplies renewable wind farm energy and is now covering 37% of our annual electricity need, reducing CO2e emissions by 2,000 tonnes.
The sustainability improvements we’re making aren’t just good for the planet; they’re also helping us build a more resilient and responsible business for the future.
Our community
Making a difference in our communities is who we are and it’s what we’ve been doing for over 155 years.
This year our four core community programmes have supported 775 community groups and local charities on 1,199 occasions – I am particularly proud of how we are able to support causes that are hyper-local to our stores and make a real difference in so many ways.
Through Local Giving, our colleagues are empowered to fundraise for local charities of their choice. Colleagues went above and beyond and we were able to donate more than £100,000 to local charities through Local Giving alone.
We also made 579 Small Donations towards events and fundraising activities and booked 124 In-Branch Hosting slots, giving charities a space to promote their causes.
In October, our industry leading commitment to our community was recognised when we were awarded ‘Community Retailer of the Year – Multiple’ at the Retail Industry Awards.
As part of the wider co-operative community we have been active in engaging with Co-operatives UK and other Societies, as well as playing an active part in the organised events that facilitate co-operation. We were pleased to host the Co-operative UK Consumer Council in November in Ipswich.
Looking ahead
We’re moving into 2026 as a business in growth and we’ll be continuing to invest strategically in our estate.
With a pipeline of new stores and refurbishment programmes, we’ll be focusing our investment where it makes the most impact. We’ve got some exciting projects in progress. We’ve made a big investment in our store in West Mersea which is home to our first community hub. After breaking ground at our brand new 3,000 square foot store in Kesgrave in December, we’re looking forward to welcoming customers to this impressive new Food store.
A key priority for us is expanding and evolving our membership proposition, focusing on delivering a more personalised offer that truly benefits our current members as well as attracting new ones which is important in such a competitive marketplace.
We’re going to use the building blocks we’ve set in community and continue working with our amazing local charities to make sure we can support them to make an impact where it’s needed most. Our Local Giving initiative is unique, and we want to put even more power in the hands of our local teams to support the organisations they know make a difference in their region.
Our mission is to make a positive impact in the communities we’ve served for over 155 years.
I’m absolutely committed to serving our local community and I’d like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has contributed to the growth of our co-op throughout 2025. Achieving a sales growth in the face of the challenges we’ve seen this year is a monumental achievement. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the passion and dedication shown by our colleagues; this is an achievement that everyone should be so proud of. Our vision is to use our resources to make a positive impact and 2026 promises to be another exciting year. Our values are; Do the Right Thing, Unstoppable, Stronger Together, A Place for People to Grow and Respect for the Individual. These values are embodied by the behaviour of our incredible colleagues and they’ll continue to drive us. Combining these values with our clear strategy means we’re in a strong position to make a bigger difference in the future.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our members and customers for trusting us with your business and for your continued support – we really appreciate it and look forward to being of service to you now and in the future.
