The Co-op, the UK’s largest consumer co-operative, today announces its growth plans by building on the momentum of 2023, as it looks to substantially increase the number of members-owners from 5 million to 8 million by 2030 – making a difference for members, communities, and wider social issues they face.
This new target follows the release of data, which shows that momentum in Co-op membership continues to grow significantly ahead of our expectations. The Co-op now has 5 million active member owners, up almost 15% on the previous year. There was a 21% increase in members shopping with Co-op during December, demonstrating the value that members place on the benefits they receive and highlighting the wider resonance of member ownership.
This growth aligns with broader growth ambitions across the Co-op’s core businesses – Food, Funerals, Legal and Insurance – aiming to broaden reach and scale and attract, reward and engage member owners.
The Food business is targeting an even greater share of the UK convenience market through omni channel growth, with ambitions to acquire new Co-op stores, more than double the number of new franchise stores, open 400 new Nisa stores, and accelerate share in the quick commerce market to over 30%. Additionally, the Life Services businesses (Funeralcare, Legal, Insurance), plan to extend and improve the product ranges and bring on board new partners, whilst making membership more integral.
Today also marks the launch of a significant new round of member prices within the Food business. This sees a further 117 everyday low prices, which for the first time will also include branded goods. This follows the biggest ever investment in convenience pricing last year, where member prices were introduced on 175 everyday essential products and takes total investment to £100m. This major investment sits alongside the many other benefits of being a member-owner of The Co-op.
The price reductions covering key lines such as bakery, dairy, soft drinks and pet food, could see Co-op members save up to £10 a week. Furthermore, for the first time, member owners can now access unique offers across Co-op Insurance products, giving them the opportunity to access insurance deals saving them up to £54 on average.
Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of The Co-op comments: “Over the past year our underlying financial strength has enabled us to support our colleagues and their communities, through the cost-of-living crisis. By placing our member-owners firmly at the heart of our Co-op, we’ve seen a marked increase in new members joining us and greater engagement from existing members.
“As we enter our 180th year, we now have a unique opportunity to make this a golden era of co-operation. Co-op membership is not a loyalty scheme but rather a different way of doing business. We exist and are run for the benefit of our millions of members. As owners of our business, our members not only benefit financially from their membership, but also have a say in decisions we take as a business and help support and make a difference to issues that our members care about in communities across the UK.
“We are looking to not only provide greater financial benefits to our members through lower prices and offers across our businesses, but also to deepen our engagement with members on the decisions we take and the issues that matter most to them.”
During 2023 members were able to access savings of up to £500 annually across the Co-op with an additional £280 on average for one-off purchases of Life Services products. Futhermore members have had the opportunity to have a say in how funding totalling £100 million to date has been distributed to local communities, supporting over 36,000 causes. And members have engaged with Co-op over 2.5 million times in 2023 to influence our community work, key policies and decisions, including voting at the AGM.
Beyond lower prices, members also enjoy benefits such as access to pre-sale tickets for the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester – with over 50,000 new members joining during the initial Co-op Live pre-sales.
