Keeping You Informed

To Our Community,

I have covered a lot of ground in my blog posts of late. Many of these topics have a broad impact and are worth repeating.

In case you missed any of the information or need a refresher, today I would like to provide you with a brief review.

COVID-19 Dashboard

Update (2/19): We are happy to let you know that all employees who may have been in close contact with the positive case at the Co-op Kitchen have been tested and all the results have been negative.

Late last month we launched a new tool called our COVID-19 dashboard. The goal is to provide a quick, at-a-glance summary of the number of COVID cases within our cooperative community.

To stay informed and up to date, please visit the dashboard regularly and review the data. You can find it online here. You will notice that the dashboard provides only the number of cases, not names, locations, or similar information. This is intentional, as we do not want to inadvertently reveal anyone’s identity.

As I have expressed before, a huge key takeaway is that our exposure is remarkably low so far, which tells us that our safety policies are working. Keep up the great work, everyone. Thank you to all of our members and shoppers for your commitment to following these safety protocols.

Lebanon Project

Construction on the ambitious, multifaceted Lebanon store remodeling project is set to begin this spring. So far the project is on track, with teams meeting weekly and staying in touch daily in order to meet key milestones. This is a team effort to say the least, so my utmost thanks to all involved. I will keep all of you updated along the way.

Salesforce

I am very excited about the potential for Salesforce, a new feature-rich application that will take our membership database to new levels. Teams set the groundwork for this project throughout 2020 and began meeting regularly after the first of the year.

The first major milestone is to successfully move all the data from our various systems into Salesforce. Once the database is fully in place, there is incredible untapped potential in terms of all the enhanced services we will be able to provide to our members.

Local

After a year of promotions devoted almost solely to communicating updates about our response to pandemic, our teams are excited to work on new projects for 2021. One of the top priorities is local foods, as consumer interest in local greatly intensified during the pandemic.

Currently our teams are working on utilizing customer feedback on local—setting metrics and building a plan around local promotions.

Financials

In closing, we are getting much closer to wrapping up our financial audit for 2020. This information is used to draft the financials for our Board of Directors. This is a huge yearly project that involves an enormous amount of work and diligence, much of which takes place behind the scenes.

Stay tuned for more information, which I will be sharing with all of our members in the coming weeks.

Wrap Up

My thanks to all of you for the continued support. Remember to be kind to one another and to yourselves, and we look forward to serving you in our stores and at the curbside.

Onward and upward,

Thanks,

Paul

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Paul Guidone

Paul Guidone, CFA, spent the better part of four decades in the investment management business here and abroad. He held positions ranging from analyst through Deputy Chairman and Group CEO, at organizations such as Citigroup (US) and The HSBC Group (London and Hong Kong). He joined the Co-op in 2016 as the CFO and in 2018 became Strategic Advisor to the General Manager. Paul was appointed by the Co-op Board as interim General Manager in March 2020 and General Manager in September 2020. To contact, email PGuidone@coopfoodstore.com.

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