Readers may have seen in the national news that The Co-operative are planning a restructure that would see a rise in their convenience stores across the UK.
Reuters yesterday reported:
Existing convenience stores will be refitted, while some larger stores, many of which were inherited as part of the Co-op’s 1.6 billion pound purchase of Somerfield in 2009, will be sold or closed.
With several large stores on the Isle of Wight the news has raised concerns for staff, particularly as once branch has called of meeting of all staff for Monday.
We spoke with The Co-operative HQ today who were less than exact, but when pressed they wouldn’t absolutely confirm or deny whether there would be anything happening on the Isle of Wight in relation to store closures.
The spokesperson also confirmed that the meeting called for staff at Ryde branch had nothing to do with closures.
A spokesperson for the Co-operative Food said:
“The Co-operative Food has a clear vision to be the best local food retailer in the UK and over the coming years our main focus will be to develop our existing convenience estate of 2,000 stores.
“We aspire to increase our numbers of smaller stores significantly and over time we expect the balance of our estate to be much more concentrated within the convenience sector.
“It would be wrong to assume, however, that we are automatically going to sell our larger stores, we regularly consider the performance of our entire estate and on a business as usual basis this will lead to us buying and selling stores as a matter of course.”
Image: theco-operative under CC BY 2.0
