Lincolnshire Co-op saw its turnover over the year to 7 September grow by 6.1% to £375.6m after a strong performance from its food operations
Sales at its 96 food stores increased by 8.8%, while its Gadsby’s bakery business achieved growth of 6.4%
The society noted that it faced significant cost increases in the period including a bill of £6.2m for energy. Its personnel costs were also higher, rising by £5.7m following the impact of the National Living Wage and staff pay rises.
Despite this, Lincolnshire Co-op achieved a surplus of £10.8m and was able to share a profit share bonus with its almost 3,000 employees.
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 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.”
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.”
