Investing over £2m, independent retailer Siva Kailasapillai will open five more Co-op franchise stores in the next four months – growing his portfolio of Co-op stores to eight, including stores in (map included below):
· Barking
· Dewsbury
· Westhoughton
· Northolt
· Wakefield
· Andover
· Ripon
Kailasapillai has over 20 years' experience in retail after starting his career in the sector as a manager in a supermarket in 2000 and opening his first independent grocery store in 2005. He opened his first Co-op franchise store in 2020 and decided to expand based on the success he’d had. He said:
“The Co-op model has the capability to support me and my stores across the country and makes it easy for them to just run on their own. I care deeply about the quality of products I can offer my customers, as well as paying a fair price to the people behind the products so have many alignments with Co-op and their values.
“As a retailer I know the role I can play in the community and I know by working with Co-op and I can do even more for them and help support those that need it.”
Why Co-op franchise?
As part of our ‘Closer to’ strategy, we aim to extend the Co-op’s reach beyond the traditional retail model. We offer retailers a mutually beneficial solution, enabling their business to work with our trusted brand and offer while reaching more customers in more places.
We work with independent retailers who become Co-op Franchisees by either converting their current store, re-purposing an existing site or building a new one.
The model has proved especially successful in student unions across the UK, which saw our Co-op sign a deal with the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2019 to become their exclusive grocery franchise partner with stores across a number of university unions, including Newcastle and Leeds.