The Co-op Group has warned of continuing problems with food supplies and inflation after revealing that profits more than halved last year amid supply chain disruption and higher staff wages.
The mutual said underlying profit for 2021, stripping out a one-off £99m gain relating to the sale of the Co-operative Bank in 2017, was down 57% to £100m, compared with the year before, and that sales slipped to £11.2bn, from £11.5bn.
Sales at the group’s food business fell by 2% to £9.1bn despite investing £140m in opening 50 new stores and refitting 87 more, and spending £18m on cutting prices. While in-store sales declined, online sales soared from £70m the year before to £200m thanks in part to tie-ups with Deliveroo and Amazon.