The Manx Co-Operative Society continues to go from strength to strength amid turbulent times for the UK Co-Operative group, society chairman Eric Calderwood has said.
Mr Calderwood’s words came at the Manx Co-operative Society’s AGM held at the Sefton Hotel recently where the audience of shareholders and colleagues were informed
that the sales achieved by the Isle of Man’s 10 food stores during 2013 were £29.9million, up by more than £4million on 2012 and underlying profits declared at £2.16million.
The figures were particularly pleasing given the well documented financial problems within the UK Co-Operative group over the past year, Mr Calderwood added, and he also highlighted the strength of the co-operative’s food store operations on the Isle of Man.
The key trading periods of TT and Christmas, in particular, both delivered record breaking sales performances and it was also recognised that improvements had been made to the fresh food delivery times and on shelf availability and that store teams have been working hard to provide a high level of customer service and to minimise queuing times for customers.
Andrew Corrie, area operations Manager for the Manx Co-Operative Society said he was particularly pleased with the hard work and dedication shown by all of the Isle of Man store teams.
He added they had not allowed themselves to be distracted by matters in the UK and had remained focused on providing Manx shoppers with delicious food conveniently served with character.
Out of over 2,800 stores across the UK and IOM just 1.4 per cent of them ( 41 stores) were deemed by the Co-Operative Group Board to have met the highest standards in sales, profit, customer service and colleague engagement and impressively four of these stores are part of the Manx co-Operative Society. The entire store team at each of these stores (Ramsey, Castletown, Duke Street and Woodbourne road) were afforded special recognition for their achievement.
cream of the crop
‘I am delighted that so many of the Isle of Man stores have been nominated as the cream of the crop and am proud of the achievement gained through the hard work and commitment of the colleagues in all of these stores,’ said Mr Corrie.
‘I am especially grateful to our members and customers for their continued support and patronage of our stores.’
Mr Corrie went on to say that the future is bright for the Co-Operative food group and the Manx co-Operative Society, with the company’s True North strategy building momentum which would continue to see improvements in quality and value of own brand “Loved by Us” products, a significant investment in pricing and continued improvements to the store offer through refits, improved ranges and store face lifts with the needs of the customer being at the heart of everything the Manx Co-Operative does.
In addition to the strong performance from its retail operations, the Manx Co-Operative Society has continued to support local causes through charity events, raffles, dress down days and bag packing island wide.