Coping with crisis: Strategic renewal in The Co-operative Group, 2013-2023

Although The Co-operative Group remains a significant competitor in British retailing, with sales exceeding 11.5 billion and a 4% share of the UK grocery market, since the 1950s it has suffered a series of crises, arising from either a significant fall in market share or more serious financial crises that raised fundamental questions concerning whether the organization would survive. This chapter concentrates on how The Co-operative Group coped with a major crisis in 2013, when problems in the Cooperative Bank resulted in losses of 2.5 billion. The Group's historic pattern of development. The core research question will revolve around The Group's ability to respond effectively to these dual challenges, contributing to the literature on both retail co-operatives and the concept of strategic renewal. Having stressed the importance of these strategic changes to the Group and its management, it is vital not to forget the temporal issues that continued to feature prominently in all internal debates about the direction of travel.