OurCoop, an independent mutual that runs about 500 food stores across England, is facing criticism from members after it more than tripled its chief executive’s pay to £2.2m despite falling sales and profits.

The chain, which is a separate company from the Co-op Group but relies on the much bigger business to supply some products, has not approved an annual profit-share payment to members this year, although they have received discounts on shopping.

Total pay for Deborah Robinson, the chief executive of OurCoop, which stretches from Wiltshire to Tyne and Wear, rose to £2.16m after she received an 11.5% increase in basic pay, an £1.1m “incentive” payment and £400,000 one-off discretionary remuneration payment.

The annual pay package of the finance, technology and property officer for the group, Selina Butterfield-Mashoofi, increased by more than 3.5 times to £1.13m, including a £500,000 “incentive” and a £212,015 one-off payment. Her basic salary jumped from £257,606 to £400,000.

OurCoop was formed by merging Central Co-op and Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society last year, and adding the Midcounties Co-operative in January.

Sales at the group fell 4.4% to £844.6m and trading profit almost halved to £4.3m while net debt rose to £36m in the year to 24 January. It was partly affected because it sources goods via the Co-op Group, which was hit by a cyber-attack last year.

The nationwide Co-op Group operates more than 2,000 food stores, hundreds of funeral parlours and a financial services business. Its former boss Shirine Khoury-Haq was paid £1.9m last year – less than Robinson.

The OurCoop report said changes to the remuneration policy were implemented as the previous one “came under significant challenge, as we faced the very real risk of losing senior executive talent, as a result of headhunting, at an absolutely critical time, in the light of the impending mergers, which we deemed to be of major strategic importance”.

It added: “In a year of change, previous incentive arrangements became unmeasurable and obsolete having been superseded by the scale and pace of change in the society.” The report did not lay out how the renumeration was benchmarked against similar businesses.

A spokesperson for OurCoop said: “The remuneration report sets out in full how those decisions were reached and on what basis, published precisely so that our members can scrutinise them. We welcome that scrutiny. On 20 May 2026, the annual report and accounts, including the remuneration report, were approved by members, with 85% voting in favour.”

OurCoop said its executive team’s pay was set by the society’s remuneration committee and approved by a board that was democratically elected by members. “No members of the executive team sit on the board of the society or the remuneration committee,” the spokesperson said.

The team’s decisions reflected “a year of fundamental change”, including the mergers that created OurCoop and “the fact that this significantly expanded the scope, complexity and responsibility of the executive roles”.

A further £8.5m had been spent to increase pay for staff in 2026, so it could offer competitive hourly rates above the “national living wage” for all employees regardless of age, spokesperson added, as well as paid breaks and additional benefits including access to free health checks, a virtual GP service, free counselling sessions and access to a nutritionist for all colleagues.

However, one member told the Guardian they believed there had been insufficient scrutiny of the pay rises at the annual meeting, where they said the actual figures had not been read out.

“As a member, I find it incredibly difficult to understand how executive bonuses of this scale can be justified at a time when the society’s financial performance is deteriorating and members and colleagues are seeing no equivalent benefit. It leaves many people questioning whether accountability and co-operative values are really being applied equally at the top of the organisation.”

A former senior staff member commented on LinkedIn: “Wow! After delivering such significant decline in profits and making many support office staff redundant I don’t know how such payments can be justified by the remuneration committee. Is this what Co-op values look like now?”

Another described the pay awards as “so galling”.