Financial sustainability Part Two by Brad Salmon

As General Manager of the cooperative it is my responsibility to find ways to try and balance the incoming revenues with the outgoing expenses associated with operating a retail grocery store, while retaining enough capital for future growth. In order to try and strike that balance I often find that tough choices must be made. Can we raise employee wages to keep pace with rising costs of living?  Will we ever be able to offer the staff medical insurance while holding product costs in line? Can we offer our members and shoppers value while ensuring that the bills can be paid?  Is there money for replacing equipment, adding inventory and expanding the store? With this in mind I thought that it might be instructive to share some basic financial information that must be taken into consideration regarding how financial decisions are impacted.  

For each $1.00 in customer purchases the coop pays 61 cents to our suppliers for those products that we sold. This leaves 39 cents to cover all of the operating expenses.

We will spend that 39 cents as follows:

25 cents for staff  wages, taxes and benefits

 7 cents for rent/utilities/property taxes

 1 cent for member/senior/low income discounts

 2.5 cents  for equipment leases/maintenance/depreciation

 1.7 cents for packaging containers, plastic deli cutlery, labels, coffee bags

 1.3 cents  for credit card & banking fees

 1.3 cents for principal payments on loans

  3 cents for remaining costs such as interest/insurance/office supplies/permits/governance

42.8 cents total

So as you can tell the 39 cents remaining after the coop pays our suppliers is not enough to cover the 42.8 cents required for other cash requirements. Clearly this is not a sustainable ratio so my task is to find ways to gain 4 cents through a combination of expense reductions and/or revenue increases.  In the meantime we are forced to supplement our cash flow with money raised from member share payments in order to fund operations at the current level. And on top of all these costs, we also need money to replace antiquated equipment, a primary purpose for which the member shares are usually reserved. So our challenge is great but not insurmountable. I ask for your continued patience and support while we move forward along the path of financial sustainability.

From the Board

Our Co-op annual member meeting was held on November 7. About twenty members and directors gathered in our community room at noon to share food (potluck goodies from members and soup and cake from our deli), co-operative enthusiasm, and friendship. Our formal meeting commenced at one o’clock with introductions.

The members and directors each introduced themselves. New director Doug Speakman was welcomed to the board, and resigned director Todd Grosby was thanked for his service.

GM Brad Salmon gave a presentation about the state of the Co-op. Brad  spoke of the need to revise some of our accounting practices to insure compliance with tax code regulations. These adjustments resulted in an unfavorable restatement of last year’s operating results, but puts us in position to move forward with clarity about our results. Brad expressed the hope that we may slowly make progress in updating our facilities and practices, and find ways to increase the involvement of our membership as Co-op shoppers and volunteers.

On another topic, we still have one vacancy on our Board of Directors, and we are seeking a willing volunteer to commit to a few hours monthly to learn the governance process and joining the board. Board Members are eligible for the PFC employee discount while serving their term.

The board wishes to extend to all our owners best wishes for a happy holiday season and to remind owners and non-owners alike to shop the Co-op for your holiday fare. The pies from our deli are awesome.

John Le Pouvoir, Board President

john@placervillecoop.org