Exec Update, Royal Foundation & the FLF Competition Winner

Executive Update 

At our Executive meeting this week we were joined by Dan Hope, Administration Manager for our Member Investments team. Dan was there to represent the Inclusion Allies Network in presenting proposals on how the Society might support the Pride movement during the month of June. Dan presented with great passion and enthusiasm and I am pleased to say that all of the ideas, which were very well thought through, were approved by the Executive team. Good luck Dan and the Inclusion Allies Network and we look forward to the events in June.

Out and about – British Retail Consortium CEO Roundtable 

On Wednesday I was in London at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) offices where I was joined by around 30 other CEO’s from across the Retail sector to discuss the challenges and opportunities, we all face. This included how brands can take more of a community approach, how can we do more to support retail colleagues in the face of increased crime and what role AI will play in improving support and back office efficiency. All subjects are extremely relevant to our businesses and the session was really helpful to me as a sense check of where we are right now and how we can do more going forward.

Royal Foundation Update

I was proud this week to see our work in supporting early years development called out as part of a new report by the Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood. The Royal Foundation was established by the Princess of Wales to promote the importance of early years education in addressing some of society's greatest challenges and we have worked closely with the Foundation, attending roundtables and contributing to the report’s findings. 

As well as the expertise of our childcare colleagues being used to help inform the Foundation’s recommendations, our Little Pioneers Nurseries were used as a case study, with particular focus given to our workplace nurseries and the establishment of the Little Pioneers Nursery at our Warwick HQ as a test-bed for innovation.  

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting early years development, we have also announced a commitment with our partners at Co-op Group and the wider businesses involved in the Taskforce. This will see us contribute £50,000 of our unspent apprenticeship levy funds to a specific early childhood fund, which will create more apprenticeships in the sector, helping more people develop long-term careers in childcare.  

Being involved in such initiatives is another way in which we can demonstrate the Society’s role as thought-leading pioneers and is an enormous credit to the impact and expertise of our brilliant childcare colleagues.

Fairer Living Festival & AGM competition winner – Matt Kingman

Following our fantastic Fairer Living Festival & AGM, we selected a colleague winner as part of our competition prize draw. Well done to Matt Kingman from our Finance team who brought along his wife Holly on the day. Enjoying a great day, Holly attended the festival for the first time and shared the following… 

“Had a wonderful day at the Fairer Living Festival. It was great to see all the brilliant work Midcounties does for its communities and the hard workput in by everyone to host such a great event."

Well done and thank you for the feedback Matt.

Bank Holiday offers in-store 

Finally, it’s Bank Holiday weekend, so why not take the opportunity to get your essentials from our Food stores? Along with the enhanced 20% colleague discount, there are some great offers on dinner made easy, save £5 off any 4 bottles of wine and those picnic/BBQ essentials if the weather brightens up! 

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