To Our Cooperative Community,
Today the Co-op’s Leadership Team made the difficult, but necessary, decision to close our Co-op Market on Lyme Road in Hanover, with a projected closing date set for October 18. Our Market team is dwindling and under a great amount of stress and many challenges at that location. This team has been incredibly dedicated, but we have reached a point where setting a firm closing date can give them the closure they need so they can move forward with their careers.
We are deeply thankful for the amazing team there, and our top priority is to support them during this time of transition. We are working closely with each employee to assist them in finding new roles within the Co-op if they wish or offering severance packages if they feel their future lies elsewhere. Our number one priority has been, and remains, doing right by our team.
Many of you may know, from years of financial reports and annual meeting discussions, what has brought us to this point. Despite the best efforts and tireless commitment of many different people here over the years, we have been unable to make our Co-op Market on Lyme Road a viable retail business. Losses to date are north of $2.6 million, and unfortunately, the ripple effect of this impacts our entire cooperative community. Operating a business at a loss in one area significantly impacts so many areas of our cooperative, including the farmers, vendors, and employees who rely on the Co-op for their livelihoods. Continuing to sustain these losses jeopardizes the viability of so many things our cooperative values and the principles we hold dear.
While this is a challenging time, it is important to remember that our focus remains on building a strong cooperative future. At the end of the day, we are a cooperative, which means we are about people, not about buildings.
We will continue to assess the future use of the space and will keep our entire cooperative community informed of the next steps. For now, we offer a heartfelt thank you to all of our Market teams, both past and present, who have worked so hard to build and operate a store that’s been such an important part of our cooperative’s story.
Cooperatively,
Dawn
Dawn Archambeault is the Co-op’s Director of Marketing & Consumer Relations.
