Co-operative 'renaissance' could set the tone for supermarkets The plan involves revamping the organisation's 2,300 convenience stores and committing £100m to cutting prices and investing in the Co-op's own-brand food ranges, which were previously non-existent. In addition, it is looking to open another 100 convenience stores every year, half of which are in London, making it one of the most ambitious expansion plans in the industry. Murrells says the plan is "self funding" because the Co-op is raising money by selling larger stores to other firms, including rivals such as Waitrose. "We know the strategy is absolutely right," Murrells insists. The convenience channel will grow by £10bn over the course of the next five years. It is not growing quite as fast as online but in terms of value it is the biggest growth area. The bullish tone of Murrells is perhaps surprising given that industry data from Kantar shows that the Co-op has been consistently losing market share in recent months. Murrells, who joined the business in 2012 from Danish meat company Tulip and used to run Tesco's One Stop convenience stores, insists that the Co-op is performing well. "In the early years of the strategy I am not going to be distracted by Kantar because actually I am a net closer of space," he says. I am coming out of large stores and selling them. I know our net close space is about 350,000 sq ft a year. The measure that will give me comfort is what the like-for-likes are doing in our stores and how those like-for-likes stack up against the competition. Those like-for-like figures, according to Murrells, show that sales in the Co-op's convenience stores are up by 3pc and sales in refitted stores are up 7pc. When the organisation's 200 large stores are included, many of which were inherited from Somerfield, like-for-like sales are up by between 0.8pc and 1pc compared with last year. Murrells" strategy is focused on tapping into the growing trend among consumers to shop regularly in small convenience shops rather than buying food in one weekly shop at an out-of-town supermarket. "Convenience today is seeing the biggest change in shopping behaviour that it has seen in many years," he says. It is food to go, food for tonight. No one is doing convenience brilliantly well because it is changing at such a rapid rate. Our challenge is that we have to be ahead of the curve and do an even better job than we have in the past. For the Co-op, doing a better job has meant redeveloping 1,500 own-brand products in its Loved by Us and Truly Irresistible ranges and also cutting the prices of 4,000 products. We had around about 1,500 lines that we just needed to stop insulting customers with and price them better. With the onslaught of the discounter you could not afford to be in a place of insult pricing," says Murrells. However, even if the Co-op convinces shoppers that it has upped its game, it faces fierce competition from rivals in the convenience store sector. As Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons slow down supermarket openings, they are piling into small stores. "It is a very hot market," Murrells says. We think we have got the best part of three to five years to get the best sites. I have not seen the level of competitiveness that I am seeing now before in the convenience market . . . In the last 18 months you have certainly seen Morrisons panic its way into the small shop arena and pay multiples that the industry hasn't seen before. Murrells concludes that people stopped talking about the Co-op brand because "the Co-op brand had stopped listening to customers." We had lost our way, and as a consequence the brand had dropped off the radar. The only way we can do that is do to what I have described to you and to do it better than the rest.