Society Investments in Childcare & Travel plus Doing good together
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Published 29 Sep 2023 in Phil's blog
Society Investments - Welcoming Co-op House Nursery and launching Sutton Coldfield Travel
With some exciting investments to share, this week I'm focusing on the brand-new sites in Childcare and Travel. Let’s begin with the fantastic Co-op House Warwick Nursery which launched during our Doing Good Together celebration day last week.
The nursery itself is great and will provide excellent childcare to our colleagues, surrounding businesses and the local community. With green environments for children to grow and play in, all colleagues are entitled to the enhanced discount on offer. I encourage you to drop by, have a look and organise a visit with Nursery Manager, Rachael Perry and the team. An incredible turnaround in a short space of time, you can watch the timelapse project video here.
Once again, it’s another great addition to our Little Pioneers family and if you would like to find out more or book a visit click here.
Over in Travel, there’s a new and improved branch in Sutton Coldfield too. Following its opening last week, the new branch will provide local members and holidaymakers with a bright, fresh and modernised holiday booking experience and marks an exciting next step for our store team and our members and customers with the new branch including more digital and interactive features to inspire adventures across the globe. I look forward to visiting Travel Manager, Joanne Fryer and the team after it officially launches on October 4th. Great news!
A big congratulations to everyone involved in making these launches happen, from the support teams to the operational team. They are welcome additions to our growing trading areas.
Doing good together – continuing the great work
With our Doing good together campaign in full flow, seeing and hearing the fantastic feedback across our trading area and offices has been great. From last week’s indications, there is a clear early impact down to appealing offers, members using their cards and an increase in member sign-ups. As I mentioned in my updates to sites and offices last week, the numbers are really positive. Since the launch, we are now averaging 600 member sign-ups a day (up 50% from before) with a total of 4,200 sign-ups over the last two weeks alone – which is incredible news.
As we strive towards our goal of 35% member trade in Food retail, I am glad to announce it is now at 32.44% - the highest it has ever been. This is a testament to our fantastic colleagues continuing to promote membership, sign-ups and our enticing offers. A thank you to all our colleagues for making this possible and to keep up the great work.
Doing good together at Walcot nursery with a cake sale
Colleagues at Davies Road Food
Colleagues taking a break for cake during the Doing good together celebration day
That’s not all…as part of the wider campaign, we want to showcase our unique remarkable colleagues who are doing good things every day. Whether that’s helping each other, our members & customers or our communities.
The ‘Count me in’ colleague campaign helps celebrate and shout about doing good together, so if you haven’t already submitted your story, please share them by scanning the QR code & filling in the short form. If you do, then you could win a £50 food voucher and a £100 donation to a charity of your choice. Look out for the first winner announced next week on Colleagues Connect. To take part click here.
Let’s continue Doing good together.
Colleagues signing the 'Count me in' poster - you can take part in our colleague campaign by using the QR code
ACS - Vice Chair of Association of Convenience Stores appointment
This week I have been announced as the Vice Chair of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS). A personal highlight for me, I have been a member of the ACS Board for the last 7 years so it’s a real privilege to take up one of the two vice-chair roles. ACS has always achieved a strong balance in working with retailers and suppliers for their mutual interests and is uniquely placed to promote and enhance the standing of the convenience sector to the Government through a firm understanding of the issues and opportunities in front of us. I look forward to working more closely with them and know our relationship will help better shape our Society for the better.
Society Elections – voting closes on 2nd October
Finally, voting for this year’s Society Elections will be closing on 2nd October. So don’t miss your opportunity to have your say in how the Society is run and vote for a brighter future.
Helping to create a more ethical and sustainable future for our members and communities, there are a number of spaces on the Board of Directors and Membership Engagement Committee.
To vote, eligible colleagues and members will have received their voting instructions by post or email, so please take part and vote for your chosen candidates. Results will be announced at Your Half Year Meeting on 18th October.
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