Working on the maxim that all publicity is good publicity, Max Clifford would say the Co-op has enjoyed pretty good times recently. It is unlikely the trade historians will see it that way. The shock waves of the Andrew Regan saga are still being felt and one of the downsides for the Movement remains the highlighting of its assets and the pointers for other predators. Thus, it is no surprise that even the strongest societies are reinforcing their rule books against possible takeovers. The Co-op Congress, as predicted, was a victory bash with leading lights using their very best persuasion skills to convince the grass roots membership the organisation is fit to survive the perils of High Street Britain way beyond the Millennium. But, alas, the utterances at the 128th gathering had a familiar ring, and cynics could be forgiven for thinking they had heard it all before. Over 500 delegates listened to allegations that the Co-op had not been given a fair deal by the media when compared to the rest of retailing. But ironically, as they debated the issue in Cardiff, The Times was devoting a quarter page to Tesco's latest consumer friendly wheeze ­ a swerve-free trolley! Somehow the Co-op's coincidental announcement that it was cutting the price of champagne, while whetting the taste buds of several headline writers, hardly aroused the same interest at the news stands. But what of trading prospects? Despite the recent City mauling, the Movement has some serious thinking executives with clear agendas for developing the Co-op. The CWS chief executive, for example, tells us that he does not visualise nationwide head-to-heads with the likes of Tesco and JS. This suggests a realistic approach for societies who enjoy a plethora of valuable smaller suburban sites, and it could form the basis for a secondary strategy for the superstore-owning larger co-ops. But until other less enlightened strategists can prove they have abandoned reactive approaches for the proactive kind, they face problems. Communications is an integral part of the mix. When the whole Co-op gets that right perhaps it, too, could win a quarter of a page of good publicity in The Times.{{NEWS}}

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