Over the past two years, we have shared these (mostly) quarterly financial updates with co-op employees and owners. In the midst of a hectic holiday season, we did not send an update in the fall, but plan to resume a more regular quarterly schedule going forward.

Looking back on 2025, we saw strong sales growth in the spring before tapering off through the summer and fall. This trend was experienced by many of our peer food co-ops, suggesting the influence of broader economic factors. Despite this trend, we are on track to increase sales by over $1 million during this fiscal year, ending June 30, leaving us just short of our peak sales of $44.9 million in fiscal year 2017. This is an important milestone. Factoring the wave of new competitors that opened around that time, the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, and other market challenges, it will have taken us 10 years to return to the 2017 sales level. Meanwhile, over that period, operating costs increased dramatically. This fact, more than any other, has been at the root of our financial reality in recent years.

This financial reality led to some frustratingly “close but not quite” results recently. Even with 3% sales growth in the first half of fiscal year 2026, we have incurred a modest loss of about $125,000, with budgeted positive net income of about $37,000. With four months remaining, we are on track to finish the fiscal year around break-even, with a small loss likely. This is a small improvement over fiscal year 2025, when moderately profitable operations were offset by the sale of the Creamery building, resulting in a pre-tax loss of about $210,000. In fiscal year 2024, we had a large loss of $850,000.

These results mark incremental progress toward our long-term goal of financial sustainability, which is one of the co-op’s strategic priorities we developed two years ago: to grow sales, achieve financial sustainability, keep it simple, cultivate a culture of inclusion and belonging, and strengthen our connection to community. Another way we are looking strategically at the financial future is with the multi-year budget we created last May that provides a roadmap for the coming years, including the repayment of our remaining $1.5 million of owner loans. We are also investing in other initiatives that will provide the building blocks for the kind of growth the co-op needs to be successful. Over the past few months, we have been working with a local firm to better understand how people, including those who don’t shop at our stores, perceive Seward Co-op. And, in December, we commissioned a market study for the first time in many years, to assess the state of the grocery marketplace in Minneapolis.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude for the support our community of co-op owners has shown in recent months. In October, nearly 90% of co-op owners who voted in the board election voted “yes” to approve the increase of a co-op ownership (A-stock) from $75 to $99. Since this change was implemented in January, over 1,400 owners have contributed the additional $24 on the online owner portal and in the stores. Special thanks to all of you who have done so. More owners making this additional $24 investment will assist the co-op in ending this fiscal year in a stronger cash position. This winter, Operation Metro Surge brought a wave of federal law enforcement actions that have been disruptive and divisive. Foot traffic was down at both our stores, as was true for many small businesses across the Twin Cities. Nevertheless, we saw an outpour of appreciation for the role Seward Co-op plays in our neighborhoods. People are shopping with their values, even in a period of economic uncertainty while grocery prices continue to rise. The surge also provided an opportunity to work with UFCW local 663 to provide resources for staff and their family members who may have been impacted.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of Seward Co-op. This is a fun time of year here; the days are getting longer, there are more bikes on the bike racks, excitement is building for the local growing season. A big thank you goes to staff, who make this all possible (including the first ever Seward Co-op employee to hit their 25th (!) anniversary working at the co-op).

In cooperation, 
Alex Betzenheimer, Finance Director