New Store, New Distribution Centre & Charity Partner Visit

I was heartened by the joint cooperative response and the collective action taken in response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. This was recently covered in Co-op News which you can see here and includes how we are supporting the DEC appeal.  

With more than 1 million people having already fled their homes to escape the conflict and another 4 million predicted to be displaced, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine appeal will help make a big difference in the current circumstances.  The DEC are working in Ukraine and neighbouring countries to meet the immediate needs of all people fleeing by providing food, water, medical assistance, protection, and trauma care.  If you would like to donate to the cause, please click here. 

Underwood Croft Food store opens – Society Investments Continue

Yesterday we welcomed the latest addition to the Midcounties family, Underwood Croft Food store in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. This was the 5th store in as many weeks and is part of a £5 million investment that will see ten store openings in total in 2022 and is in addition to £3.5 million invested in opening seven stores in 2021. 

Once again, a big well done and thank you to all the teams for making these store launches possible week after week. The store will help create 20 new roles for the community and is led by James O’Farrell-White, store manager. Welcome and good luck. 

New Distribution Centre for Food Will Help Take the Pressure Off

I had the pleasure this week, along with a number of CEO’s from the other Societies, of visiting the brand new food distribution centre at Biggleswade in Bedfordshire. At over 600,000 square feet it is bigger than 4 football pitches and the largest distribution centre to have ever been opened by Co-op. Construction started at the beginning of 2020 and despite the pandemic, the operation has been completed on time. It is now ramping up and has started distributing ambient products to around 50 stores.

When it is fully operational it will deliver to over 300 stores in the network and importantly has doubled the size of frozen food storage for the entire network which will significantly improve this area of distribution. This site is critical in taking the pressure off the existing depots across the South of England including Andover and Avonmouth where many of our stores are serviced from and where we have seen lots of problems over the last year or so.

I am pictured with Ahmed Sharif who is the General Manager with overall responsibility for the new centre.

Riding for the Disabled (RDA) Abingdon visit

This week I also had the chance to visit one of our partners, Riding for the Disabled (RDA), in Abingdon following on from my visit to Longlevens store last week.  It was fantastic to see exactly how the charity partner operates and how they provide a unique therapy to over 84 children and adults, whose ages range from 2 to 70.

Providing the experience of riding with approximately 12 ponies, the charity partner gives the opportunity of social activities, competitions, and National holidays for many who would be restricted otherwise.  They are a brilliant partner, and I am delighted that we can help them make a difference. 

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