Co-Op Boss: Painful Years To Come

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 makes his comments to Sky News 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... [read full story]