Wednesday July 16, 04:59 PM
Co-Op Boss: Painful Years To Come
By Sky News
The boss of one of Britain's largest food retailers has warned consumers that they could face two years of pain before the economic outlook begins to brighten. Co-op chief executive Peter Marks made the comments to Sky News despite his group
being buoyed by a £1.56bn deal to buy supermarket chain Somerfield.
"Clearly there will be tough times but I think we'll come through those in a period of 12 months to two years," Mr Marks said.
Asked whether that meant two years of difficulty, he replied: "Yes, I'm afraid there will definitely be some pain in the next two years."
Even so, Mr Marks did not consider himself to belong to what he called "the doom and gloom camp", and said the current slump was no different from past downturns.
His comments echoed those of Marks and Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose, who earlier this month warned of "stormy times ahead" for the UK economy.
Sir Stuart Rose said Britain's woes would be "more of a two-year problem than a two-month one" as Marks and Spencer shares sank by 24.5%.
Similar long-term warnings have also been voiced by members of the Sky News Money Panel.
Last week, Ian Templeman of the Institute of Directors said: "I think we're heading into a downturn.
"Whether it's a recession or not, who knows, but it's going to be tough economically and I think it's going to last well into next year so I think we'd better get used to it."
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