Increasing Member Trade & Your Co-op Pharmacy Flu vaccinations
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Published 23 Sep 2022 in Phil's blog
Following the culmination of Her Majesty The Queen’s funeral on Monday, firstly I would like to thank all Food colleagues who supported our Food convenience & petrol stores during the day. Hearing from our Head of Retail our store teams continued to support many members and customers following the conclusion of the day’s processions.
'Mini-budget' announced today
You may have seen the announcement this morning made by the new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as part of his ‘mini-budget’ which will have significant implications for many colleagues and the Society overall. This includes a reversal to the increase in national insurance rates implemented in April, a reduction next April in the basic rate of tax to 19% and a cancellation of the proposed increase in corporation tax which was due to be increased next April from 19 to 25%.
This follows the announcement of support for households and businesses to mitigate rising energy costs. I am sure colleagues will welcome some of these announcements on the back of increases to interest rates announced by the Bank of England on Thursday. There is a concern in some quarters at the potential level of debt associated with these Government announcements. I met last week with Tony Danker, who is the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). He was due to meet with the Government this week and I briefed him on the challenges facing our colleagues and the Society’s businesses. This morning I attended a Board meeting of the Association of Convenience stores where again we discussed the current and future issues facing the sector. It is an important part of my job to meet with associations and industry bodies and to keep raising your concerns and those of the Society.
Distribution issues – Food
As commented by Alan in Food retail last week in my blog, we continue to experience issues involving supplier availability due to constraints they have with production volumes and securing key raw materials. Impacting resources that move products quickly through the supply chain.
On top of this, we have seen some issues at certain distribution sites where they have had localised problems. This combined with experiencing one-off challenges as Co-op Group iron out problems with their forecasting & replenishment systems, which has led to us on some days (in some stores) disappointing our Members and customers.
Please be assured we are continuing to work with all the key teams involved to get this resolved as we head toward some key events. Our Food teams will keep you updated.
Increasing Member Trade
I have some great news to share about our trade with members as we move towards the end of the year. With members now at a record 25% of our trade. An important milestone on our journey, it’s more than 4 percentage points higher than this time last year.
With all our colleagues playing a part, we have set ourselves the target of making members half of our trade by 2026.
So, let’s rewind back to October 2021, when we put a real emphasis on membership along with our star contributors:
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Membership makes a difference - We started making membership more valuable with member-only offers
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Your Co-op Members app - We launched our members app to make it easy to access the benefits of membership all in one place
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We implemented more visible marketing in-store/in-branch, on our websites and via our email communications
Colleagues have played a critical part in making this work too by making sure membership is always part of the conversation. They have encouraged existing members to use their cards and helped to convert customers to membership.
Bampton Food - Dave Zasada – Store Manager with Jeremey and Ben
Mel, Joy & Jenna from Centrum Square Food
Wesley Clifford-Turner, Samantha Salt, Kevin Abbey from Leamington Spa & Kenilworth
Headline results:
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86,000 new members have signed up since we launched the members campaign. That’s nearly three times the previous sign-up rate
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109,000 members are now using the members app
Building our trade with members is fundamental to our long-term strategy. So, I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has made our progress possible and a well done on the continuing record member trade.
Stay well this winter – Your Co-op Pharmacy Flu vaccinations & 20% off
Through our Your Co-op Pharmacy business, we want our colleagues to keep safe and well as we move towards the winter. That’s why all colleagues have an opportunity to gain either a free or discounted annual flu jab vaccination.
Starting 27 September, the team will be on the road, visiting many stores and offices so I encourage all colleagues to book on to a location convenient to them and take advantage of this exclusive service. Click here to book on.
Plus, with flu season upon us, you can also get 20% off cough, cold & flu products & Your Co-op Pharmacy products online. Click here to find out more.
Click here to view the full list of Flu Jab Clinics
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