State of the Co-op, December 2021

To Our Community,

This week at the Co-op Board of Directors meeting, I presented a brief overview of the Co-op’s operations for the month ending December 2021.

This December had 5 weeks compared to December 2020, which had 6 weeks. To adjust for the extra week, the comparisons will focus on average weekly data. Below are the highlights.

Activity in our stores accelerated during the last two weeks of the year. Our teams rose to the increased demand and foot traffic with grace and professionalism,
despite contending with certain well-documented
out-of-stock conditions for select products.

The graphs below reflect data for sales, customer count, basket size, average price for gas and gallons pumped for the years 2019 through December 2021.

Sales

Grocery, Meat, Produce, Dairy, and Frozen Foods continue to provide strong sales growth. Sales for the 12 months ending December were lower than the same period the year before ($80.33 million versus $82.01 million). Despite the extra week in 2020, average weekly sales for 2021 were in line with 2020 ($1.54 million versus $1.55 million).

On a year-to-date basis sales continue to exceed budget.

Financials

Customer visits for December 2021 averaged 28,005 per week versus 25,619 for 2020. Average basket size is approximately $59.81 down from $64.75 the previous December.

Gasoline

Gas prices began the year at approximately $2.24 per gallon. At the end of December, the average price was approximately $3.46 or $1.12 more per gallon. For the month, we pumped an average of 15,913 gallons per week compared to 10,574 in 2020. For full year 2021, we pumped over 107,000 more than in 2020 (17,282 weekly average versus 14,932 in 2020). Sales of our non-gas business was ahead of budget for the month and year to date.

In Other News:
Interested in Running for the Board?

The Co-op Board of Directors election is coming soon! If you are a Co-op member and have an interest in running for the Board, please do not delay. Now is the time to declare your candidacy and to learn more about what is involved.

Board members do not run the business or have direct control over day-to-day operations. That is the role of management.

The director’s role is to be a visionary, keeping the business focused on its principles and values
and strengthening it for future generations.

For more information, check out our website or email election committee chair Conicia Jackson at coniciajackson@board.coopfoodstore.com.

Wrap Up

Thank you to all our members and shoppers for the ongoing support. We will talk again next Thursday. 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,

Paul

The following two tabs change content below.

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.

Latest posts by Paul Guidone (see all)