Brent<\/a>, North-West London, as part of its 14 new-store expansion. The Co-op has said it is pushing forward with a number of new stores and major refurbishments as it bounces back from a damaging cyber attack.<\/p>\nThe Co-op will open 14 new stores, which include it becoming the first permanent retailer at the new Brent Cross Town development in London, five new micro-format \u2018on the go\u2019 stores and a new franchise store at Lancaster University.<\/p>\n
The retailer said 50 stores will be opened or re-opened by Christmas as it urged the Government to reform business rates ahead of the autumn Budget.<\/p>\n
It said reforms will be \u201cvital\u201d to encourage further high street investment as it continues with its own expansion ambitions. The latest slew of openings will take the Co-op\u2019s store openings and refurbishments to more than 200 sites for the latest financial year.<\/p>\n
It added that the programme will have seen the business invest more than \u00a3200 million across the store estate.<\/p>\n
The remainder of the 50 stores will consist of sites which have been closed for a lengthy period to undergo an extensive refurbishment and will re-open with a new look and updated product range.<\/p>\n
Growth efforts come as the group, which has around 6.9 million member-owners, continues to recover from a major cyber attack. It said in September that the hack, which took place in April, will knock its annual earnings by around \u00a3120 million.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it said the cyber attack, which left it with bare shelves and saw data stolen for all its members, impacted on sales by about \u00a3206 million.<\/p>\n
The group said the hackers impersonated workers to trick employees into giving them access to their accounts. They created a copy of one of the firm\u2019s files but were unable to attack its platforms further and install ransomware.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the group, which runs more than 2,300 food stores, made renewed calls for property tax reform and increased certainty from the Government ahead of the autumn Budget.<\/p>\n
Shirine Khoury-Haq, Co-op Group chief executive, said: \u201cWe\u2019re investing in stores and communities right across the UK because we believe in the future of the high street.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sustained growth needs certainty. Business rates reform is vital if retailers \u2013 especially the 99% who run small stores \u2013 are to plan with confidence, protect jobs and keep local economies thriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cCo-op is showing what\u2019s possible when businesses commit to communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government now has an opportunity in the autumn Budget to do its part by delivering the reform that\u2019s long been promised \u2013 giving every retailer, from small to large, the stability to invest and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to our London Court & Crime newsletter for the latest major court updates and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.<\/strong> Sign up HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It said reforms will be \u201cvital\u201d to encourage further high street investmentA new Co-operative is opening(Image: Mike Kemp,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,39178,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-560817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-the-co-operative","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115523813633341055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2_Co-op-Food-In-London.jpg\")
A new Co-operative is opening(Image: Mike Kemp, In Pictures via Getty Images)<\/p>\n