The Co-op’s impressive turnaround in its food business has struck a chord with shoppers when it comes to price, quality and its ethical positioning. 

Group chief executive Richard Pennycook will depart the mutual on March 1, but according to an ICM poll conducted exclusively for Retail Week, he will leave the business in much better shape than he found it in when he took the helm in March 2014.

Two months after he took the top job, research from ICM highlighted the size of the job Pennycook had on his hands, but new data has revealed the progress the convenience specialist has made in the eyes of consumers under his stewardship. 

In May 2014, 37% of consumers said they shopped at the Co-op at least once a month. That proportion has risen to 42%, with 27% of people shopping their weekly or more often and 3% buying goods from the Co-op in a daily basis.

Three years ago, 14% of consumers said they never shopped at the Co-op, even though they had a store locally, but that has been trimmed to 11%.

Ethical positioning

The ICM poll uncovered three main drivers that were wooing consumers back into Co-op stores, the first of which was its ethical positioning in championing fair trade produce and supporting local communities.

Almost a third of adults (29%) said they were more likely to shop with the mutual as a result of their ethical stance, up significantly from the 17% recorded in May 2014.

Back then, 75% of consumers said the Co-op’s ethical positioning made no impact on whether or not they shopped at its c-stores.

That has now dropped to 69%, suggesting that the mutual’s messaging and its new membership proposition - which gives 1% of everything members spend on own-label products to charity – is striking a chord with shoppers.

Almost half of the people that said they shopped with the Co-op at least once a week said they were more likely to use the retailer because of its ethical standpoint, up from 35% in May 2014.

More than one in 10 of those who said they never shopped in the Co-op said they were more likely to as a result of its ethical positioning.

Value for money 

The Co-op has invested heavily in price as a key part of its turnaround plan under food boss Steve Murrells - the man who succeed Pennycook next month.

That strategy appears to be paying dividends, after 31% of those surveyed agreed that the Co-op was value for money.

One in four said the Co-op was not value for money, although that proportion dropped from 32% in May 2014.

More than half (56%) of those who said they shopped at the Co-op more than once a week said the mutual’s grocery proposition represented good value for money, up from 46% three years ago.

However, just 10% of those who never shop at the Co-op thought it was good value.

Quality of product

The Co-op has also ploughed cash into boosting the quality of its produce, widening its proposition and improving recipes. 

Some 59% of adults rated the quality of the Co-op’s products as “good”, up from 49% in 2014.

Just 3% said its food was poor, compared to 6% three years ago.

Almost nine in every 10 (86%) of the adults who said they shopped at the Co-op once a week or more said the quality of products was “good” – an improvement on the 77% that was recorded just after Pennycook took the hot seat. 

But just over a quarter (27%) of the respondents who never shop at the grocer said they rated its products as “good,” suggesting that the Co-op still has some work to do in communicating its quality message. 

Methodology

The ICM poll surveyed 2,035 adults, asking them the same questions that were put to respondents in May 2014, just after Pennycook took on the group chief executive role at the Co-op.