INDEPENDENT co-operatives Scotmid and Penrith Co-operative Society have completed the merger announced earlier this year.
Penrith’s turnover for the year ended 7 January 2013 was £13m. The society employs 179 staff in nine retail outlets and post offices in Cumbria and County Durham. The Penrith operation has its own loyalty card, website and home delivery service.
Scotmid has 190 convenience stores across Scotland, several other businesses and an annual turnover of £428m.
The Scotmid brand is unlikely to be used south of the border but one of the first projects following the merger will be a revamp of one of the Penrith stores using experience gained by Scotmid in its own recent extensive store refitting programmes. Everything else will be part of what a Scotmid spokesperson called “a learning process”.
John Brodie, chief executive of Scotmid Co-operative said it had been a momentous decision which hadn’t been taken lightly .
“Together we can look forward, taking the best of both societies to serve the communities and extend co-operation to a wider geographic area,” he said.
