Managers' Conference - Team Talk

Half Year Report round upWe’ve just published the 2012 Half Year Report, which has been doing the rounds at the Half Yearly Meetings. Here you canfind a brief round up of the half year results.Overview• Gross sales have increased by 12.5% from £388 million to £436 million• Our operating profit before significant items of £10.4 million is slightly ahead of 2011• The performance in the half year has increased the Society’s net assets by £4.6 million to £170.3 millionFood• Our Food business has performed well in the face of increased competition, achieving a like-for-like sales increase of 1.9% in a verydifficult trading environment• Overall sales are 5.2% above last year which has been achieved through continued growth with the acquisition of Harry Tuffins andthe opening of a further four new stores in the first half yearTravel• With the investment in and expansion of the Travel Group, which is now operating independently, sales have grown by 39.8% to£72.3 million• Our Travel business now operates 50 branches since acquiring the Travel Angels business in Somerset and a number branches from theThomas Cook/Co-operative Travel joint venture• We are working to develop a stronger online presence by developing our cooptravel.co.uk websiteEnergy• We welcomed 27,000 new customers as a result of our success in the Which? Big Switch auction, bringing the total number ofcustomers we supply to over 50,000• Energy sales have grown to £10.7 million from just £0.5 million last year• In our first year 100% of the energy supplied came from green sources, including community-owned wind farmsPharmacy• The government’s drive to reduce expenditure and increase efficiency in the distribution of prescription medication has resulted is salesfor the first six months being in line with the same period last year, despite a 3.1% increase in the number of prescriptions dispensed• The Group has also launched a new Co-operative Pharmacy website - cooppharmacydirect.co.uk which allows customers to ordertoiletries and medicines• We developed a hub site to service our new cooppharmacydirect.co.uk business and our new Amazon storedrive to reduce expenditure and increase efficiency in the distribution of prescription medication has resulted is salesnths being in line with the same period last year, despite a 3.1% increase in the number of prescriptions dispensedo launched a new Co-operative Pharmacy website - cooppharmacydirect.co.uk which allows customers to ordericinesub site to service our new cooppharmacydirect.co.uk business and our new Amazon store16Team Talk