The Co-operative Group has recorded a huge jump in revenues, despite warning that the road ahead remains difficult for the retailer.
Its revenues jumped 31 per cent to £13.7 billion last year, as its grocery arm absorbed the former Somerfield business and its Co-operative Financial Services banking business merged with the Britannia.
Profits before payments to members jumped 85 per cent to £402 million over the year.
The Co-operative Food enterprise grew like-for-like sales 5.5 per cent in 2009 and has now seen 16 successive quarters of sales growth.
It is now the UK's fifth-biggest food retailer, with 3,000 stores and 21 million customers each week.
The Somerfield addition saw food revenues surge by £3bn to £7.5bn, while the mutual has seen a 12 per cent sales uplift from the stores in its estate that have been rebranded or modernised.
But while chief executive Peter Marks hailed record annual results, he also warned a return to "real economic growth" could be a year away.
He said: "It may be that the UK does not start to see real economic growth until the end of 2010 or as late as the beginning of 2011.
"Therefore, sustaining the level of success we have enjoyed over the last two years will not be easy."
Marks said The Co-operative's food and financial services businesses would enjoy the benefits of greater scale over 2010 as the mutual steers through a fragile recovery in the economy.
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