Lincolnshire Co-op hails positive trading year with sales up 6.1%
Lincolnshire Co-op has seen its annual sales grow by 6.1% to £375.6 million after a strong performance in food.
In the year to 7 September, sales at its food stores and Gadsby’s bakery increased by 8.8% and 6.4% respectively.
The society faced significant cost increases in the period including a bill of £6.2 million for energy. Its personnel costs were also higher, rising by £5.7 million following the impact of the National Living Wage, and all staff received a pay rise of at least 3.75%.
Despite this, Lincolnshire Co-op achieved a surplus of £10.8 million and was able to share a profit share bonus with its team of almost 3,000 colleagues.
Over 23,000 new members joined Lincolnshire Co-op over the year to bring the total number of dividend card holders to 288,984 people.
Lincolnshire Co-op’s chief executive Alison Hands (pictured) said: “Thanks to the combined efforts of our people from food, travel, pharmacy, funeral, post office, property and our support centre, we have exceeded our expectations by hitting challenging budgets despite external factors.
“My thanks go out to all my colleagues and our members and customers, who continue to support us.”
The society is planning to open 30 new food stores over the next three years and is also working on a new health hub model which aims to bring more services into pharmacy and create a ‘one stop shop’ for health and wellbeing. The first of these will open in Lincoln’s Birchwood Centre in 2025.
Looking ahead, Hands added: “There is no doubt the retail environment is tough and will remain difficult over the coming year, especially in view of increasing costs.
“We are investing in growth programmes to help mitigate those, including a pipeline of new stores because our food business is a key driver for success.”
