The Co-operative Group, which includes the food retailer The Co-operative Food, has agreed a £950m refinancing deal with a group of banks led by Barclays.

The group said the senior debt facilities have the capacity to be increased to £1bn.

The refinancing has given The Co-operative Group, which also includes its funerals and financial services businesses, funds to “develop the trading operations” of its organisation. The group operates more than 4,800 retail trading outlets and has an annual turnover of more than £13bn. 

Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Handelsbanken each provided the business with £150m. The Co-operative Bank and Bank of Ireland gave a further £125m and £75m respectively.

Roger Morgan, treasurer for The Co-operative Group, said: “The Co-operative Group is delighted to have successfully refinanced its core banking facilities for the next five years. Given the challenging economic backdrop it was extremely important to work closely with a trusted partner bank to achieve our objectives.”

The news will come as a boost to The Co-operative Food’s new chief executive Steve Murrells who joined the retailer earlier this month and will be looking to improve the retailer’s performance after consistently losing market share in 2012.

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