OurCoop – the UK’s largest independent retail society formed by a transfer of engagements by Chelmsford Star and Midcounties into Central Co-op – has recorded a £4.3m trading profit for 2025-26, marking a tough year for a retail movement plagued by rising costs, category declines and the Co-op Group cyber attack in May.
The results for the 52 weeks to 24 January 2026 reflect Central Co-op’s financial performance for a full year and Chelmsford Star’s performance from 15 September 2025 following the transfer of engagements. Midcounties joined the organisation on 26 January 2026.
OurCoop recorded a turnover of £844.6m (2025: £883.9m), with trading profit halving to £4.3m (2025: £8.1m) and underlying profit dropping to £1.2m (2025: £10.9m).
Capital expenditure of £24.5m (2025: £31.0m) allowed the society to reinvest in its estate, open six new stores, and regenerate 13 food and eight funeral sites. The society says its net debt of £36.1m (2025: £30.8m) remained “well within” its debt facility of £50m (although this figure was at £2.9m in 2021-22). Net assets grew £48.2m to £331.8m (2025: £283.7m).
The organisation launched its new membership proposition and app in September, and highlighted how its carbon footprint had reduced 25% since 2023. The society invested over £2m in colleague safety and security technology during the year and campaigned for the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which introduces measures aimed at protecting retail workers and tackling retail crime.
Colleagues raised £460,000 for Samaritans and received a minimum base rate salary increase to £12.40 per hour, which remains above the National Living Wage, while OurCoop has continued its Malawi Partnership, which supports sustainable trading relationships between UK consumers and smallholder farmers in Malawi.
OurCoop notes that the cyber attack on the Group in May caused stock shortages, lost food sales and additional costs of £3.234m beyond the £4.85m insurance recovery. A fall in sales of cigarettes and tobacco (down 13.5%) and beers, wines and spirits (8.6%) and withdrawal of national Co-op advertising (following Advertising Standards Authority rulings against Co-op Group, national brand visibility was removed during the critical Christmas trading period), and declining funeral volumes also impacted the figures.
The report notes that the society changed its accounting policy in 2025/26 to revalue trading properties to market value, producing a £55.2m uplift in net assets, while its investment in co-operative and community initiatives has reduced by 50% in three years (£1.598m in 2023/24, £802k in 2025/26). This reflects reducing profitability and a pausing of the society’s Community Dividend scheme, although Co-op News understands that further funding has been ring-fenced and a new community proposition will be launched as part of the integration of the three societies.
However, the biggest question raised by the report is the unprecedented bonuses proposed for several senior executives, including Debbie Robinson (CEO, £1,506,000), Selina Butterfield-Mashoofi (CFO) (£712,015) and Sarah Dickins (COO) (£491,200) – which together amount to over half the operating profit.
Co-op News understands that these bonuses were proposed even though other senior leaders within the organisation’s Management Incentive Scheme (MIS) – which primarily pays out based on trading profit versus budget – were informed earlier this year that no bonuses would be paid due to the target trading profit (£10m, revised down to £7m following the Co-op Group cyber attack) being missed.
An OurCoop spokesperson said a number of management colleagues “were also eligible for one-off bonus payments during the year, reflecting individual and team contribution through a period of significant change”.
The society claims in the report that changes to its remuneration policy were brought about after its prevailing policy “came under significant challenge, as we faced the very real risk of losing senior executive talent, as a result of headhunting, at an absolutely critical time, in the light of the impending mergers, which we deemed to be of major strategic importance”.
In the autumn, a number of senior leaders were involved in delicate negotiations in relation to the merger with Midcounties. The report adds: “ The [Remuneration] Committee recommended and the Board approved that our practice of offering incentives to our Executive team at around one-third to one-half the levels offered by peer organisations was now inappropriate, and that we should offer incentives and total remuneration that compared more closely to peer organisations.”
Members have questioned this decision, which is likely to come to a head at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting on 20 May. The CEO salary ratio (to average) is cited in the report as 38:1 (up from 28:1 the previous year), but does not include all bonuses “to maintain consistency with the calculation of colleague total pay”. With the full proposed 2025-26 remuneration, the ratio would be closer to 80:1.
One source who has been a long-time member of the society said: “Many members are increasingly concerned that a democratic co-operative structure is not operating transparently in practice, and that executive leadership is insulated from the consequences of poor financial performance while ordinary colleagues bear the impact.“
A spokesperson for OurCoop said a significant proportion of the payments made should be regarded as one-off payments, relating to events that occurred during the year, adding: ”The remuneration of OurCoop’s executive team is determined by the society’s Remuneration Committee and approved by a board that is democratically elected by our members. The Remuneration Report sets out in full how those decisions were reached and on what basis, published precisely so that our members can scrutinise them. We welcome that scrutiny.
”This was a year of fundamental change, including the transfer of engagements that brought Chelmsford Star into Central Co-op and culminated in the creation of OurCoop, the UK’s largest independent co-operative, alongside Midcounties Co-operative. The Remuneration Committee’s decisions reflect both the strategic delivery secured through that time of transformation and its responsibility to act in the long-term interests of our members, colleagues and the communities we serve.”
