MAY 2018

RETAIL
What has been happening at the Co-operative Group?
UK FESTIVAL BILLING
This summer, four major UK music festivals
will have their own Co-op Food stores on
site, thanks to a partnership between the
Co-op Group and entertainment company
Live Nation.
Download, Latitude, and Reading and
Leeds festivals will each have a 6,000
square foot shop, catering for 200,000
festival goers. The festival stores will stock
over 200 products, including food, water,
beer and wine, toiletries, medicines and
those festival essentials: sun cream and
rain ponchos. Stores will be restocked
each day and be open from 7am until 1am.
“It shows our ambition to reach out to
new and younger customers, providing
essential and quality products,” said
Amanda Jennings, director of marketing
communications at the Group.
“Co-op is all about being close to the
customer and it doesn’t get much closer
than being right outside your tent.”
NEW ACADEMY SCHOOLS
The Co-op Group has announced a multimillion
pound plan to accelerate the rollout
of its academy schools programme,
with the ambition to more than treble the
number of academies it sponsors to 40 in
the next three years.
The Group is already the UK’s largest
corporate sponsor of academies, opening
three in the last year to take its current
total to 12 – five primary and seven
secondary. Its existing strategy is to take
over “predominantly weak schools in
economically challenged communities
in the North, putting in place ambitious
turnaround plans”.
IBM LEGAL BATTLE CONTINUES
IBM has denied wrongdoing in a £130m
lawsuit from Co-operative Insurance in a
dispute over an agreement signed in 2015
to provide an integrated service platform.
And it has retaliated with a demand for
£2.89m from Co-op Insurance, for what it
says is an unpaid invoice.
Co-op Insurance issued the lawsuit
last December, claiming “intentional
breaches” of contract by IBM. It says
delays to the work mean it did not have to
pay the invoice.
The case is ongoing.
NISA PURCHASE GIVEN GO-AHEAD
The Competition and Markets Authority
(CMA) has cleared the Co-op Group’s
purchase of Nisa.
The Group became the exclusive bidder
for Nisa after Sainsbury’s dropped out,
reportedly due to concerns that the CMA
could block the acquisition. Nisa members
approved the Group’s offer to buy the
business for £137.5m last November, but
the deal required regulatory approval.
After examining the evidence, the
CMA said it “found that the proposed
merger does not give rise to competition
concerns”. It concluded that the Group,
as a groceries retailer, and Nisa, as a
groceries wholesaler, “do not compete
head-to-head”.
However, since Nisa supplies over
4,000 groceries stores, the CMA had to
also consider the potential impact of the
merger on competition between shops.
The transaction remains subject to
court sanction of the scheme on 4 May.
The deal is expected to complete on or
around 8 May.
ENHANCEMENT OF PROBATE PROVISION
The Co-op Group is in the process of
acquiring Simplify Probate, the UK’s
second largest probate provider, in a bid to
transform the later life planning market.
Simplify Probate has been a specialist
provider of probate (the legal process
for dealing with the estate of someone
who has died) and estate administration
for more than 25 years. It also runs an
established Bereavement Advice Centre
which provides access to practical
bereavement advice online and by
telephone.
The acquisition supports the Group’s
ambition to deliver bereavement services
for customers and members, says Matt
Howells, managing director of its Legal
Services and Later Life business.
RECYCLING
The Group has announced plans to switch
all its bottled water to 50% recycled
plastic (rPET). The bottles, which will look
greyer than those using less or no recycled
plastic, will be sourced in the UK and be
100% recyclable, says the Group.
The change will be introduced for all its
own-brand still, sparkling and flavoured
water later this year.
It is the first retailer to run this initiative,
which it estimates can save almost 350
tonnes of plastic annually.
10 | MAY 2018