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Co-op appoints Shirine Khoury-Haq, its first female chief executive since group was founded in 1863

Linda Stewart — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 11:01:27 +0000

Co-op has appointed its first female chief executive since the group was founded in 1863.

Shirine Khoury-Haq will replace Steve Murrells, who will step down in May after 10 years at the retailer.

Khoury-Haq is Co-op’s finance chief and head of its Life Services division, which sells insurance policies.

She was paid £1.1m in salary and bonuses in 2020 but is expected to see her salary increase in line with Murrells’, who took home £2.2m in 2020.

Co-op’s board had asked Murrells to stay in post for another five years or step down. He said he could not commit to the extension and so had decided to leave the business.

Khoury-Haq is also a nonexecutive director of housebuilder Persimmon and has held positions at IBM and McDonald’s.

Murrells said: ‘I have had 10 wonderful years at the Co-op.’

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McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks suspend operations in Russia

Linda Stewart — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 10:35:51 +0000

McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Starbucks have halted sales of their best-known products in Russia. All four companies have major operations in Russia.

McDonald’s said it would go on paying salaries to its 62,000 employees in Russia as it closed 847 restaurants.

Its first location to open in Russia, in central Moscow’s Pushkin Square in 1990, became a symbol of flourishing American capitalism as the Soviet Union fell.

Coca-Cola Co said it will suspend its business there. Coca-Cola was the official drink of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, despite the United States boycotting the event in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Starbucks Corp is temporarily closing hundreds of stores. The company said that its partner, Alshaya Group, which operates at least 100 cafes in Russia, will “provide support to nearly 2,000 partners in Russia who depend on Starbucks for their livelihood”.

Pepsi Co Inc will suspend all advertising in Russia and stop the sale of its drinks brands, while continuing to sell essentials such as milk and baby food.

Scores of other companies also have rebuked Russia, and Amazon.com Inc said it would stop accepting new customers for its cloud services in Russia and Ukraine.

Universal Music suspended all operations in Russia and online dating service Bumble Inc will remove its apps from stores in Russia and Belarus.

Earlier, Royal Dutch Shell Plc stopped buying oil from Russia and said it would cut links to the country entirely while the United States stepped up its campaign to punish Moscow by banning Russian oil and energy imports.

“It’s impossible to predict when we might be able to reopen our restaurants in Russia,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a note emailed company wide and posted on the company’s website.

“We are experiencing disruptions to our supply chain along with other operational impacts. We will also closely monitor the humanitarian situation.”

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Ballymena retail park on the market for £1.5m

Linda Stewart — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 09:27:34 +0000

The Pentagon Retail Park in Ballymena has gone on the market with an asking price of £1.5 million.

Home to Halfords and Subway, it is the latest retail asset in the area to be put up for sale.

The Fairhill Shopping Centre in Ballymena was sold to local developer Magell in June, while the nearby Braidwater Retail Park, which went on the market in October with an asking price of £4.5m, is already under offer, according to Savills.

Built in 1998, the Pentagon Retail Park includes a McDonalds outlet, which has already been sold off on a 10,000-year leasehold to the fast food giant.

The sale comes during a busy period for the retail property market. The Shane Retail Park in Belfast, Lisnagelvin Retail Park in Derry, The Showgrounds Retail Park in Omagh and Balloo Retail Park in Bangor were among the major deals done in 2021.

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Drive-thru revolution pushing up demand for sites

Joe Kearney — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:38:00 +0000

Demand for suitable sites for drive-thrus in the UK has jumped 25% since Covid hit, leading real estate company P-Three has revealed.

There are now around 2,500 drive-thrus across the UK and fast-food chains are expected to open around 200 new locations before the end of the year – with many sites already earmarked in Northern Ireland.

Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons, which already has a number of sites in Northern Ireland, plans to open at least 25 drive-thrus here in a two-year period – proof not only of the Canadian firm’s ambitions but also the growing trend for ordering food and drinks from our cars.

Much of that has been put down to the coronavirus pandemic and market researcher NPD revealed that visits to existing sites in the year to April 2021 were up by 40 million.

A ‘bunfight’ for new locations has seen suitable sites selling for £200,000 a pop, according to This Is Money, and from September to November 2020 there were 121 million visits to Britain’s 2,000 quick service restaurants (QSR) that offer drive-thru – a 14% increase on the same period last year, with spend up 45% to £723m.

Tim Hortons, which was first brought to the UK in 2017, has drive-thru offerings at half its 30-plus sites and the chains’ chief commercial officer in the UK, Kevin Hydes, said they were doing particularly well.

‘Exceptional performance’

He explained: “Despite challenging times for the sector, our drive-thru and flagship locations have delivered exceptional performance and our model is proving to be well attuned to the evolving needs of customers at this time.

“We’ve seen significant growth in drive-through lanes, and as restrictions have eased, that growth has remained.”

And more QSR chains are opening drive-thrus every day including Subway, Taco Bell and Krispy Kreme.

Among those joining the revolution in the months ahead are two huge American chains in the shape of fried chicken chain Popeyes and home of the square burger patty Wendy’s.

Wendy’s, which reported in March 2020 that drive-thru sales accounted for 90% of its US business as lockdowns bit, is returning to the UK after 20 years, hoping to steal a slice of a marketplace dominated by McDonald’s and Burger King.

In May it unveiled plans to open up to 400 outlets, creating at least 12,000 jobs – with drive thru certain to figure largely in its plans.

To read the full feature on the Price of the Protocol make sure to open the upcoming edition of Neighbourhood Retailer

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