East of England Co-op returns to profit, announcing a £4.6m turnaround from 2024
The regional co-operative has made a £1m trading profit*, crediting its commercial success to a year of considered investment and reshaping of its business portfolio
Andy Rigby, Chief Executive Officer for the East of England Co-op said: “We’re proud to be announcing a return to profit this year. This is an ambition we’ve been working towards for the past three years so it’s a moment for us to celebrate as we mark the start of an exciting period of growth. The next challenge for us is ensuring this profit is sustainable for our co-op and the colleagues, members and community that make us.”
Addressing the challenging economic landscape, Andy commented: “Rising costs are still having an impact on businesses and communities in our region and across the country. We’re continuing to feel the impact of this challenging financial situation. Our return to profit is a monumental achievement in the current financial landscape but we’re realistic that it’s a challenge we’ll continue to face as we make our return to profit sustainable.”
Celebrating the retailer’s continued growth, Andy said: “For the second year running we’ve grown our business into new territories, with our family of businesses now operating across five counties for the first time in our 155-year history. Following the successful expansion of our Food business into Cambridgeshire in 2023, we opened our first Hertfordshire Food store in Bishop’s Stortford this summer.
“As we celebrate our return to profit and growing our business, we also recognise that this has been a year of difficult decisions. We’ve been reshaping our store portfolio, making sure we’ve got the right stores in the right places. Our reshape has led to the closure of our stonemasonry business H.L. Perfitt, the proposed leasing of three of our supermarkets to new operators and placing 13 branches across our food and funeral business as well as our central office, Wherstead Park on the market for sale. We’ve made these decisions with the future sustainability of our co-op, its members, customers and colleagues as our top priority. Our focus is on investing in the refinement and growth of our business, providing new, modern facilities for our members, customers and clients in new locations throughout the East of England.”
Speaking of how the East of England Co-op has supported communities across East Anglia this year, Andy said: “We’re proud of the positive impact we’ve had. Our driving force always has and always will be to make a difference. The economic challenges we’ve been facing are felt across our communities too, so this year we made it easier than ever to get support from our co-op, resulting in us supporting more than 700 charities and good causes.
“Since 2020 we’ve directly supported over 140,000 people through our Community Cares Fund and this year, we established our four key community programmes to make it more straightforward for our communities to reach out for help. Whether it’s a grant for a life changing project, a chance to raise awareness in one of our branches or a donation to a raffle prize, we’ve made it simpler than ever to work with our communities to create a better place for us all.”
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025 Andy said: “I’m expecting another year filled with both opportunities and challenges. We remain a business in transition. We have an exciting pipeline of new stores and branches and will be continuing our refurbishment programme. In our journey to sustainable profit, we’ll need to continue our investment in our estate and in the technology that helps us to drive efficiencies. However, we’ll also need to absorb the increases in the National Living Wage and National Insurance contributions. Being profitable allows us to continue building our co-operative for the next generation so this must be our focus.”
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with our co-op. By working together, we continue to use our resources to make a positive local impact. The biggest thank you must go to our colleagues. Without their hard work and dedication none of this year’s success would have been possible. They continue to be our biggest strength and I’m proud of the work each and every one of them have delivered for our co-op this year.”
A full breakdown of the East of England Co-op’s audited figures is now available online here.
*£1m trading profit from continuing operations