Coop chief calls for governments to work together

The chief of the Channel Islands Co-operative has called for the Jersey and Guernsey governments to work together.

Mark Cox said the governments choosing two different ferry providers had "added complexity and costs" within the freight and supply chain.

His comments followed the CI Coop's annual general meeting on Wednesday at which a 2% dividend rate for members was confirmed.

Mr Cox said the business had returned to profitability in 2024 after a £1.8m loss in 2023 but that "if we want to be serious about reducing costs then the islands have to work together".

He attributed the return to profitability to CI Coop's new member pricing initiative and investment into seven pharmacies.

Mr Cox told BBC Radio Guernsey members had been concerned about the pharmacies at a time when dividends had been reduced but their performance had been "exceptional".

Mr Cox said the new in-store savings scheme for members had been "a real success" and had delivered more than £1m savings to them since it was introduced in October.

He said members had to wait a year for dividends and they had told CI Coop they wanted "something a bit more immediate" so the member pricing scheme had been launched.

"Of course we'd love to get back to a 4% dividend rate but I think that balance between delivery of a share of profit and giving immediate benefits is really important," he added.

Dividends were available to be collected at CI Coop member services desks but there could be delays over the next few days, he advised.

Mr Cox said the past few weeks had been "nothing short of horrific" after the recent cyber attack and resulting goods shortages.

Hackers infiltrated the Co-op UK group's IT networks and claimed to have stolen the customer and employee data of more than 20m people.

He said: "We've not been at our best over the past couple of weeks as a result of that cyber attack but day by day now we are seeing more products come in.

"We will recover, we'll bounce back and we will look at opportunities to reward members for their patience in this difficult time."

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