Improved trading performance, increased membership and potential for growth were highlighted by chairman Eric Calderwood at the annual general meeting of the Manx Co-operative Society.
2010 was ‘an exceptionally good year’ said Mr Calderwood, who reported commendable performance from the Island’s 10 stores and almost 13,000 members registered since the scheme was launched locally in January that year.
In his trading performance review regional operations director John McNeill said that despite ‘a difficult backdrop to trading’ the Isle of Man operation had continued to show signs of buoyancy and growth and, in 2010, generated a ?23 million turnover, a profit of some ?1.1 million. Additionally, membership in the Island was growing at a rate faster than comparable regions in the UK and already some ?210,000 had been paid to members in dividends, success he attributed to store investment and efforts of the 190-strong workforce employed in the Island. For the future the focus would be threefold: employee training and coaching, driving down prices and creating memorable customer shopping experiences.
The Manx Co-operative Society was, said Mr McNeill, ‘at the heart of the community’, and had raised more than ?6000 for local charities, including ?3000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. It was also supporting Hospice Isle of Man, Manx Wildlife Trust and Mencap, the latter having already benefited from donations of more than ?1000.
Guest speaker was ex-general secretary of the International Co-operative Alliance Iain MacDonald, now an international consultant on co-operatives, who said the worldwide co-operative movement was growing, despite the global downturn, because of its ‘democratic credentials’, aversion to risk and its strategy of operating as a business with clearly defined social goals. Co-operatives, he said, offered a ‘fairer, more socially just’ form of economy.
The AGM also provided an opportunity to elect two new members to the Manx Co-operative Society board: John Slevin, manager of Ramsey’s Christian Street Manx Co-operative store and former business consultant Beryl Ackerly from Laxey. The meeting concluded with a long-service award to Gerry Callister from the Port Erin Store, an employee since 1968.
ENDS
Friday 8th, July 2011 09:17pm.
