- Trading profit of £5.3m for the year ended 28 January, 2017 – down from £5.7m in same period last year.
- Strong balance sheet with assets in excess of £91m
- Turnover up £6m to £376m
- Strong progress from Scotmid Funerals in its 90th year
- Plans developed for Community Connect Membership initiative
Scotmid Co-operative has delivered a £5.3m trading profit, (for the 52 weeks ended 28 January, 2017) a strong underlying performance driven by innovation and continuous improvement.
The past year has seen the Society deal with a period of unprecedented uncertainty, significant cost increases from the National Living Wage and a lacklustre retail market. In the year ending January 2017, the Scottish retail Consortium reported average like-for-like sales down 0.8%, reflecting the challenge in the retail market.
John Brodie, Chief Executive of Scotmid Co-operative said: “Scotmid’s food convenience stores tackled this challenge by adapting to changing customer requirements, driven by the popular food-to-go lines and excellent local products.
“Semichem continued to find itself operating in a difficult retail landscape with increased competition impacting on day-to-day sales and pressure on the cost of goods from the weaker pound. In Northern Ireland, however, many of the stores experienced strong sales growth driven by prestige fragrance and assisted by the currency devaluation.
“Scotmid Property enjoyed a very positive year thanks to domestic property rental income growth driven by investment and specifically a successful lease renewal of one of the Society’s main commercial properties. Heading into its 90th year, Scotmid Funerals continued to grow and respond to increased local competition.
“During the year, the Board, approved an enhancement to the Society’s Community Strategy and a new five year membership Strategy. These include plans for a new trial initiative called ‘Community Connect’, which will re-enforce the link between our Membership offer and the Society’s work in the community. The ‘Community Connect’ initiative will start with a trial in the North Region.
“Last year I highlighted the specific challenge of the National Living Wage in the context of an unfavourable Scottish retail market. The Society has delivered a good response to this challenge by accelerating efficiency and other improvement initiatives. Last year will be characterised as a year of unprecedented uncertainty influenced by the Brexit Referendum and the US election result.
“I expect this political and economic uncertainty to continue in 2017 as the United Kingdom negotiates the terms of exit. Additionally, the ongoing cost challenge of the National Living Wage will be magnified by further costs arising from the apprenticeship levy and the recent rating revaluation.
“Consequently, 2017 will be another challenging year. In response to this generally unfavourable background, Scotmid will continue to seek out new sales initiatives or innovative cost control measures as part of our continuous improvement philosophy which has served the Society well for a number of years.”