The Co-operative Group food arm has announced that it is planning to increase its property estate from 2,800 to 4,000 shops by adding around 150 convenience stores a year.
Steve Murrells, the group’s retail chief executive, told Retail Week that the business also plans to remodel around 1,000 shops in 2014.
The Group has admitted that the crisis at the Co-op Bank has caused damage to its food business.
Revelations at the end of 2013 that the bank’s former chairman Paul Flowers had been caught on film allegedly buying illegal drugs had damaged the mutual organisation’s reputation.
Mr. Murrells compared the impact to the horse meat scandal that affected Tesco and other supermarkets in 2013. He said that the Co-op had been seeing trust in its brand recover, and that shoppers were now spending more money in the stores.
He said that the group could double its convenience store base within five years. During the same period, the Co-op may shed about 200 of its larger stores through a combination of disposals or closure.
Mr. Murrells pointed out that some of these locations were very profitable but the company wants to focus its attention on convenience shops and does not want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
On the subject of pricing, Mr. Murrells said that Co-op had become too expensive on some food items and would introduce reductions. He did not say how much the group would commit to cutting prices, but said that it would be a “real investment.”
