C-store specialist Co-op has unveiled new targets of having 8 million members and increasing its share of the quick commerce market, as part of wider changes to its membership scheme rolled out today.

Co-op sign

As was first reported by Retail Week, the Co-op has scrapped its rewards scheme and will be replacing it with an extended member-only price offering across its food, funeral and legal services businesses.

To coincide with the changes to the membership model, the Co-op has unveiled new targets for the growth of the business.

The group said it currently has around 5 million members and wants to grow that to 8 million by 2030.

The 5 million active members figure is up 15% from 2022 and the Co-op said it saw a 21% increase in member shopping activity during December in the run-up to Christmas.

The retailer has extended member prices to a further 117 lines, taking its total price investment to £100m.

The group also wants to grow its share of the UK convenience market through multichannel growth, with “ambitions 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%”.

Co-op Group chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “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.

“As we enter our 180th year, we now have a unique opportunity to make this a golden era of cooperation. 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 that 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.”