The Co-op to increase member-owners to 8 million by 2030
This growth aligns with the retailer’s broader growth ambitions across its core businesses, aiming to attract, reward and engage member-owners
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The Co-operative is looking to substantially increase the number of members-owners from five million to eight million by 2030.
This new target follows the release of data, which showed that momentum in Co-op membership continued to grow significantly ahead of expectations. The Co-op now has five million active member owners, up almost 15% on the previous year.
There was also a 21% increase in members shopping with Co-op during December, which the retailer believes demonstrates “the value that members place on the benefits they receive”.
This growth aligns with the retailer’s broader growth ambitions across its core businesses – Food, Funerals, Legal and Insurance – aiming to broaden reach and scale and attract, reward and engage member-owners.
The Food business has 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, which include Funeralcare, Legal and Insurance, plan to extend and improve the product ranges and bring on board new partners, whilst making membership more integral.
Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of The Co-op, said: “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.”
He added: “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.”
