Thornbury Store Launch, ICA World Congress & Pulse Survey
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Published 26 Nov 2021 in Phil's blog
This week, the Executive has spent three days at an off-site conference, reviewing the plans and forecasts for coming years. All of these plans have been centred around making members lives easier and more rewarding in their day to day, a consistent message in line with the strategic direction agreed by our Board.
Along with all the other Executive team, I was really impressed with the clarity of thinking by all the presenting teams; by the use of insight about what’s happening that may affect our businesses in the future; by the concentration on members; colleagues, communities and our Co-op difference as well as by the work on the financial details. We’ll continue to review priorities and actions from these before we present these to our Board for approval in January, and then share more widely but I’d like to say thank you to all of those who’ve contributed to this work so far.
Welcoming our Thornbury store
Yesterday saw the latest store launch in Thornbury, Gloucestershire as part of our continued Society investments. Being the final store added to our trading areas this year, the opening will create 15 new jobs for the local area with Amy Bonsor as Store Manager.
It caps off a successful year for new investments providing more choices for our members and communities. I would like to say a big thank you and well done to everyone involved, especially the property team who make these launches possible. Good luck to Amy and the team, I look forward to visiting very soon.
ICA World Congress in Seoul
Next week between 1-3 December in Seoul, South Korea, is the 33rd World Cooperative Congress hosted by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). Over the years at this prestigious international cooperative event, we have had the chance to join in and explore how the cooperative identity makes such a difference globally, but this year is particularly special.
Alongside my fellow colleagues, Pete Westall, Sally Bonnar & Lizzie Hieron, we will all be representing Midcounties with dedicated sessions on brand, sustainability, education and innovation within cooperatives. It’s a great honour as it really showcases how Midcounties makes a difference internationally through our trading areas and co-operative approach. With a 9-hour time difference in Seoul from the UK, the event will take place during the night or early mornings, so the alarms will be set quite early to join in virtually!
Energy Market
You will have heard about the many energy suppliers who have run into financial difficulties and gone into administration over the last few months. Since September alone, this figure is now at 24. Unfortunately, one of them is Bulb Energy, who is by the far the largest supplier so far to cease trading with the Government having to step in to support their 1.7 million customers.
As you know, our Board took the decision in 2019 to partner with Octopus Energy. That decision meant that Your Co-op Energy customers would have the advantage of using Octopus technology and customer service, whilst enabling us to concentrate on serving our members with a truly green offering and developing relationships with community power generators. That’s worked really well for us, with Your Co-op Energy offering a real point of difference for our members.
The decision was also good in that it meant that the financial risk to the Society was removed, as Octopus would take responsibility for forecasting future energy prices and buying that volume. We are not involved in that aspect. As I mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago, the steps taken in the past with respect to Energy have helped us ensure security for both the Society as well as Your Co-op Energy customers.
Pulse Survey
Finally, with the latest pulse survey open until the end of the week, I encourage you all to take part and let us know your views. This month, the process of the survey has changed slightly (with a new provider) but all you need to do is log in via Colleagues Connect and the survey link will be shown in your dashboard. As I have mentioned before, to give us a more rounded view, we need as many colleagues as possible to take part so please share this with your fellow teams. All entries are anonymous and if you take part you have a chance to win one of five £20 Your Co-op Vouchers. Click here to find out more.
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