The Coop grocery chain plans to start offering postal and drugstore services in an attempt to increase footfall in its supermarkets. “I would not call post office operations a profitable business,” said Zdeněk Juračka, the Coop Group chairman. “We want to offer additional value for our shoppers so that they stay in the regions, rather than escaping to shop in the city.” Other “extras” could include energy and phone service offerings.
Ranked sixth among retail chains on the Czech market, Coop includes 57 Czech consumer cooperatives and operates a network of 3,000 shops. It hopes the new services increase the revenues of the group, which is currently reporting turnover of CZK 26bn for 2012.
So far, Coop has taken over 70 small post offices that were closed in Czech villages, with other acquisitions to follow. The Czech Telecommunication Authority recently said that Czech Post should only be operating 2,100 post offices, indicating the state-owned company should close 900 of the 3,000 post offices it currently operates.
Coop is also considering launching a virtual mobile operator business, following in the footsteps of Tesco, which started offering cheaper mobile services thanks to a deal with Telefonica.
