Co-op targets eight million members by 2030

The Co-op has set an ambitious new target of having eight million members by 2030.

The society said it was given confidence in its ability to hit the new target after witnessing an almost 15% increase in new members during 2023. Co-op said it currently has five million active members and that it saw a 21% increase in the number of members shopping in its stores during December.

A key driver of new members has been the launch of its Member Prices initiative in April last year. Last week it emerged Co-op is now making these the primary focus of its membership benefits, and is therefore scrapping its reward initiative whereby 2p in every £1 spent on own-brand items would both be returned to shoppers and awarded to members’ chosen community projects.

Co-op has today kicked off a new round of Member Prices with new member-only discounts on 117 more products, including branded lines for the first time. It said this takes the total amount invested in lower prices since the launch of the initiative to £100m. The price reductions include bakery, dairy, soft drinks and petfood products, and Co-op said they could see members save up to £10 a week.

Co-op also said today it is targeting an even greater share of the UK convenience market, with plans to “acquire new Co-op stores, more than double the number of new franchise stores, open 400 new Nisa stores and accelerate share in the quick-commerce market to over 30%”.

“Over the past year our underlying financial strength has enabled us to support our colleagues and their communities through the cost of living crisis. By placing our member-owners firmly at the heart of our Co-op, we’ve seen a marked increase in new members joining us and greater engagement from existing members,” said Co-op CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq.

“As we enter our 180^th year, we now have a unique opportunity to make this a golden era of co-operation. Co-op membership is not a loyalty scheme but rather a different way of doing business. We exist and are run for the benefit of our millions of members. As owners of our business, our members not only benefit financially from their membership, but also have a say in decisions we take as a business and help support and make a difference to issues our members care about in communities across the UK.

“We are looking to not only provide greater financial benefits to our members through lower prices and offers across our businesses, but also to deepen our engagement with members on the decisions we take and the issues that matter most to them.”