The Co-op’s chief executive Peter Marks blamed a “catastrophic failure in ethical spending” for the current economic climate.
Addressing a conference on ethical consumerism at the British Library, Marks said: “We’re living in strange times. In the current climate this should be called the end of shopping conference rather than the ethical shopping conference.
“[If it wasn’t for] a catastrophic failure in ethical spending at the heart of our businesses we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. Customers now want value and values without compromising on price for ethics,” he said.
Despite this Marks reported that The Co-op’s ethical spending was up 15 per cent on last year to £35.5bn and green home spending is up 13 per cent to £6.7bn, citing their ‘Grown by Us’ range as a particular success.
He also restated their position on ethical spending: “We might be in a recession with tough times ahead but we will not be abandoning our fair trade suppliers when they need us most and I’m confident our customers will support this.
“We are committed to supporting regional growers [and] our vision is to be Britain’s favourite community retailer,” he said.
Marks also said The Co-op will turn the big four into the big five overnight when they buy out Somerfield.
“For the first time ever we will have 80 per cent of UK co-operative trade in one core business,” he said.
After the completion of the deal, set to take place in the New Year, The Co-op will own 3,000 food shops, a nine per cent market share, £8 billion of sales and employing more than 70,000 staff.
The Co-op is already the UK’s largest farmer, contracting work on 70,000 acres of land growing cereal, apples and potatoes amongst others.
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