Lexington Co-op held their annual general meeting & Oktoberfest dinner Wednesday night at the Nardin Academy for their member-owners. The mood was celebratory, buoyed by the recent announcement that the “BIG Direction Capital Campaign” had successfully managed to surpass the $2M goal of member-owner donations – one of the largest capital campaigns in food co-op history. The money was raised over a summer-long funding drive to finance the construction of the new location at 1678 Hertel Avenue. Lexington also spent part of the year remodeling their existing store at 807 Elmwood, paid for out of the $80 membership fees generated from all new owners who joined since the store moved to its Elmwood location.
Despite the periphery activity involved in the planning, remodeling and fundraising, Lexington’s sales managed to grow 10% this year to reach $12M in gross revenues. The number of customers grew 8% in 2015 to 550,000, while the store purchased over $1.4M of goods from local farmers, fulfilling their goal of reinvesting sales revenue back into the local community.
After the dinner came the speeches from the six candidates (of which two are incumbents) running for the three open Board of Directors seats. Finally, there was a presentation from Dave Olson from National Co-op Grocers on “The New Normal”, discussing where the co-op model fits in a world that is increasingly clamoring for natural, organic foods.
This annual meeting was a special one for Jennifer Nalbone, the outgoing board president who is stepping down this year after successfully leading the board through the process of expanding to a second store location. The next board president will be chosen from the existing slate of directors once election results are announced.