The Co-op is making a comeback, big time, with a financial move that will make the business the fifth largest supermarket chain in the UK.
I have been around long enough to have seen the abundance Co-operative Society stores in town centres of the sixties and seventies reduced to a handful of small, off high street convenience stores during the eighties and nineties.
It is good to know that the Co-op is resilient enough to still be in the game.
The Co-ops proposed purchase of Somerfield for £1.57billion will increase their number of stores in the UK to 3000 with turnover of £8billion, a market share of 8% that will see it sit closer to the smallest of the ‘big four’ players, Morrisons.
Co-op chief executive Peter Marks described the acquisition as a “transformational deal” for the Co-op, saying it would give a major boost to the group’s drive to double its profits over the next three years.
“We will create a stronger fifth player in food and a convenience store chain with unrivalled geographic reach,” Marks said. “There is a strong strategic fit between the two businesses.”
The Top Five Supermarkets would look like this:
Tesco 31%
Asda/ WalMart 17%
Sainsbury 16%
Morrisons 11%
Co-op 8%
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