The Co-op has cashed in on its recent Nisa acquisition as it announces double digit rises in both sales and profits for the half year.
In the six months to July 7 the grocer posted like-for-like sales growth of 4.4 per cent, marking its 18th consecutive quarter of growth, while its total sales jumped 10 per cent to £5 billion.
Meanwhile its pre-tax profits skyrocketed 85 per cent year-on-year to £26 million, which it attributed to strong food sales growth around the World Cup and its £137.5 million takeover of Nisa earlier this year.
The acquisition, completed in May, is understood to have driven wholesale revenues at Co-op up to £269 million, expanding its supply network to over 7700 stores with over 850 of its own branded product lines sold in Nisa stores.
“Against a backdrop of increasing national uncertainty, I’m pleased that the Co-op has continued to perform successfully during the first half of the year,” non-executive chairman Allan Leighton said.
“It is in these times of volatility that our way of doing business, which gives back to our members and the communities we operate in, becomes even more important.
“These results show that we are growing our business and increasing the positive impact we can have on our members and the causes they care about in their communities.
“We’ll continue to grow our current businesses and through our Ventures team we’ll move into new areas where we can deliver even more value for our members and their communities.”
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