£5m payment bonanza for Nisa-Today’s members

The Scunthorpe-based convenience store and buyers’ group will reward members through a £4.5m surplus payment and £500,000 dividend payment, which equates to £8 per share.

The firm grew sales from the £1.42bn figure posted for the year to March 2010. Earlier this month, chief executive officer Neil Turton said the firm had added £500m to sales over the last six years despite a “very tough trading background”.

The coming year would be “tougher”, he added, but said Nisa expects to grow four per cent in cash terms and two per cent in volume.

Mr Turton said: “We’ve had another fantastic year, reaching a number of milestones for the business, none of which would have been possible without the support of our members. The payment of surplus and dividends, we hope, demonstrates our appreciation of that support and our on-going commitment to creating benefits for our members.”

Nisa said growth was driven by the group’s New Era and New Era Gold packages, the growth of Nisa symbol stores which now stand at over 800, boosted by the group’s first national television advertising campaign, and strong retail recruitment figures of 190 new members and 445 new stores in the last financial year.

Mr Turton added: “The fact we operate on a low profit margin which is passed back to our membership, demonstrates our unique focus on creating benefits to members rather than to the central business or profits for external shareholders.”

Earlier this month, Leo Gillen, Nisa Retail Council chairman, warned that independent retailers will not survive if the price gap between them and the big supermarkets remains. Writing in Nisa-Today’s Your Consortium magazine, Mr Gillen said he “can’t remember a tougher period for retailers” with high street vacancy rates of almost 15 per cent and added he was dismayed by the struggles many are facing in the retail trade.

The article stated: “Some are experiencing troubling times, others have regrettably fallen into administration...Suppliers of the big multiples, across all sectors, I’m afraid, are reaping what they have sown.

“The independent sector will not survive if the disparity in prices between the big four supermarkets and ourselves continues.”

Mr Gillen highlighted the fact that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King had warned that the squeeze has another three years to run. He added: “When we work together with suppliers, on similar terms to the multis, we are unbeatable.

“This must be our goal over the coming months.”

Nisa Today’s is Britain’s biggest buying group for independent retailers with 870 retail members operating over 4,000 stores and 225 wholesale members operating 265 depots.

The group is considering splitting wholesale group Today’s from Nisa retail. Writing earlier this year in May, Mr Turton said the outcome would be for members to decide and wholesalers will have consultative meetings “in the next few weeks” and the group would continue to be open about the process.

In 2009 Bibby Line tried to buy Nisa-Today’s, resulting in a bid worth £51m that was rejected by management as being a “very significant undervaluation” of the business.

Store group on the march

Nisa-Today’s is owned by its members – independent retailers and wholesalers supplying local shops. Each member holds up to 100 shares in the company.

Nisa represents 870 retailers which trade under their own fascia. The Today’s Group has 225 members across the UK and has also developed its symbol group offering for the retail customers of its wholesale members.

Nisa has 870 retailer members equating to approximately 4,000 stores throughout the UK. Over 800 of these carry the Nisa fascia and 500 are new Store of the Future stores. Nisa has undergone a heavy brand development in recent years, with the latest expansion into TV advertising.