Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Fletcher, the Society’s Food Division employs a 600-strong workforce, operating from a network of 33 stores across Coventry, Warwickshire, south Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

For almost 180 years, since the roots of the Society were first laid in the area, we have taken great pride in offering customers a wide range of quality food at the fairest prices.

The Society has for generations been widely recognised as a name that can be trusted – offering our customers the very best value for every pound they spend.

As well as our everyday bargains we hold regular promotions on goods and products – from sandwiches and lunch deals to general groceries, helping shoppers to make their money go even further.

Last year we joined other Societies across the country in adopting the new ‘Co-operative’ brand.

Our Earlsdon store was the first store to undergo the re-branding as part of a pilot project. Next to follow was Southam, closely followed by our Crick store.

Feedback from customers has been fantastic with all branches showing significant increases in sales since the re-branding.
 
Our levels of investment have also continued to be substantial. In the past year we have spent £820,000 on Earlsdon and a further £495,000 on the Southam project. A further £658,000 was spent on Crick.

Also in the last year, the Society invested £1.3 million in relocating the Cedar Road Lateshop in Camp Hill, Nuneaton, into a brand new shopping parade as part of a wider project to regenerate the area.

In June 2010 we started to welcome shoppers into our new-look Hinckley Co-operative which has been given a fresh new look. As part of the £353,000 project there is a new feature wines and spirits area, new frozen food cabinets, environmentally friendly fridges and freezers, a new 600 sq ft warehouse and a new Co-op Bakery preparation room.

We believe a large part of our success is down to this rolling programme of investment on all our retail stores, which aims to provide our customers with the most vibrant shopping experience in comfortable surroundings. Every one of our newly-refurbished stores is fitted with low energy lighting and refrigeration. We have designed the new-look stores to create more space. Each store has a larger fresh foods section, wider aisles to cater for wheelchairs and prams and more retail space has allowed us to stock more lines than ever before, providing our customers with the ultimate in choice.

The extreme wintry conditions in early January demonstrated the need for local convenience stores such as ours.

The majority of the custom came into our village stores as residents looked to their local shop for food and essentials, rather than venturing out in their cars and driving to supermarkets. To this end, in preparation for emergencies in extreme conditions such as these, our Society works to ensure our shelves are always fully stocked with a wide range of goods, to give you, our customers, the very best in choice and value.

In line with our ethical policy, we give our customers the opportunity to support ourproducers, both on a local, national and worldwide scale. Through the Fairtrade movement customers are helping to sustain development in developing countries by providing better trading conditions and raising awareness of their plight. Producers are offered a guaranteed minimum price for their products and Fairtrade retailers such as ourselves offer customers stable prices and offer producers a long-term relationship.

Our involvement with the Fairtrade movement is one prime example of our ethical consideration towards our products that the consumer now recognises to be the core of our Society’s values.

As the largest independent retailer in the region we believe we have a responsibility to lead our customers and their communities by example. Our staunch support of the Fairtrade movement is one example.

In recent years the newspapers have been filled with headlines about Britain’s obesity problems and how we as a nation are growing fatter and leading increasingly unhealthy lives.

We believe it is our duty to educate our customers on filling their trolleys with the right foods, ensuring they and their families lead long, happy, healthy lives.

To this end we launched a campaign to urge shoppers to give more thought towards the food they were putting on their plates.

As part of the ongoing campaign we urge people to look at incorporating healthier foods into their existing diets without bringing about radical change. A survey commissioned by us revealed an average eight out of 10 people thought retailers should do more to promote healthy foods.

Our healthier foods and ingredients are clearly labeled and marked in all our stores and our staff are always on hand to give advice to people who take up the challenge to eat more healthily.