Co-op Group, owner of several brands including Co-op supermarkets, has reported growing revenues for the first half of the year, tempered by an increased overall loss following an investment in its stores and deals.

Overall, the cooperative’s revenues grew by 2.4 per cent year-on-year to £5.6 billion, of which £3.7 billion came from the supermarket. The supermarket brand itself grew by 2.6 per cent.

However, its underlying total loss grew by £13 million to £45 million over the same period. Co-op attributed £11 million of growth to differing accounting treatment, with investments in margin, including promotions and proposition, another contributing factor.

This was particularly noticeable in its supermarket offering, where it invested one per cent of its margin in driving trade and footfall through deals, discounts and price matching to German supermarket Aldi.

This investment has allowed transaction levels to return to those seen before the 2025 cyber attack that forced Co-op to pre-emptively shut down several of its systems, costing it over £285 million in revenue. Alongside this, the supermarket has opened or refurbished 42 stores in the first half of 2026.

The supermarket has also expanded its share of the convenience market to 13 per cent and reported a 24 per cent sales growth in quick commerce online shopping.

The group said it expects to deliver a stronger second half, with progress on both sales and profitability metrics.

Co-op’s interim chief executive, Kate Allum, said: “2026 is looking like a year of two halves for our Co-op. The first half was characterised by difficult markets and low consumer confidence, especially for food retail. Against those conditions, we made decisions to drive trade – investing in promotions and investing in our stores – while also mitigating rising costs. These things have had a short-term impact on profitability.

“Speaking now in the second half, we’re seeing bigger baskets and more transactions. Conditions remain challenging, but we see reasons for confidence across our portfolio, having delivered strong growth in areas such as online convenience shopping and funerals. We expect to see a stronger performance in the second half than the first, with sales growth and improvements in profitability.”

Allum took the position of interim chief executive in late March following the departure of Shirine Khoury-Haq. the Khoury-Haq’s resignation proved to be the first of several high level departures from the cooperative this year, being followed by three commercial directors in June and the chair of the board in August.

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