Co-op plans 300 new stores

THE Co-operative has announced plans to open 300 stores over the next three years as it attempts to grow its market share.

The Manchester-based group, whose share of the UK grocery market has increased to 7.7% since the Somerfield deal, will complete the integration of the 800 stores it acquired from Somerfield by the end of the first quarter of 2011. The group’s head of portfolio Stuart Hookins said that it was keen to maintain recent growth.

“In this market, our competitors aren’t going any slower. The Somerfield deal propelled us into becoming one of the top five grocers in the UK and we want to make sure that momentum isn’t lost.

Mr Hookins said the group would look for sites across the UK and had already exchanged contracts on a number of sites in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands.

The Co-operative is currently “recruiting for a large team” of property professionals including surveyors and location analysts to help them find the necessary sites, and as a result Mr Hookins said that the momentum of store openings would pick up considerably throughout 2011 and into 2012.

He added that the group would look at acquiring chains of convenience stores as well as one-off stores, but had a preference towards the latter.

“We do very well with cold starts as it allows us to put down the size and type of stores we want. We feel that they’re probably the biggest area of growth for us.”

In the six months to July 2010, the Co-operative Group reported a 13% increase in profits at its food arm to £151m, but said that like-for-like sales fell back by 1% as a result of store closures to convert them from Somerfield to the new Co-operative format.

It added that like-for-like sales within the converted stores increased by 2.5%.