Co-op defends plans that threaten 68 Jersey jobs

Thursday 25 September 2014

The Co-op has defended its announcement that 81 Channel Island jobs are being put at risk by the planned closure of its warehouse operation – saying they need to reduce waste and cut out inefficiency to compete.

Co-op chief executive Colin Macleod announced last Friday that 58 jobs at Co-op’s Jersey warehouse and a further ten at TotalSport are at risk. The move has enraged union bosses, who have threatened to lead a rebellion against the plans at the Co-op’s AGM.

Mr Macleod has defended the plans in a blog, in which he called the day of the announcement his worst of his 24 years at the Co-op.

He has also pointed out that none of the Co-op’s competitors – Sandpiper, Waitrose and M&S – use warehouses in Jersey, and that all of them operate warehouses in the UK as the Co-op now plan to do. And he says that the Co-op is working on a deal to bring in some food by air if there is serious disruption to sea freight links, after fears were raised about the food security implications of the last supermarket warehouse in the islands closing.

In his blog, Mr Macleod wrote that controlling their own costs reduced the pressure to put up prices to consumers.

He wrote: “Our society operates in an intensely competitive industry which has been going through the biggest structural shift, both locally and internationally, in a generation.

“The costs of doing business inevitably feeds through to pricing and, with many consumers struggling to make ends meet, the effective control of our cost base is of significant importance.

“We simply have no choice but to be agile and constantly explore ways of improving our customer proposition whilst containing our cost base wherever we can in order to stay relevant to our members.”

Mr Macleod’s blog can be read in full at: http://www.colinmacleod.co/warehousing-operations-to-move-to-uk/