Co-op buys David Sands shops after strong trading
SUPERMARKET chain the Co-operative Group reported strong trading figures for the four weeks to 31 December yesterday, as it announced it had bought 28 convenience stores in Scotland from the David Sands group.
Co-op, run by chief executive Peter Marks, has previously said it wants to increase the number of stores it runs across Britain by 300 in three years.
Sales in like-for-like food stores increased by 3.1 per cent in the four weeks and, in the week leading up to Christmas, were up by 16.1 per cent.
The latest figures from market researcher Kantar yesterday placed Co-op in seventh place, as it said top supermarket Tesco had lost market share in the run-up to Christmas.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) also said this morning that overall shop price inflation fell to 1.7 per cent in December from two per cent in November, but food inflation rose to 4.2 per cent last month from four per cent in November.