The group revealed that total sales had increased 8% to £1.35 billion across all of its businesses for the year ending on January 28.

Midcounties Co-op also made a profit before significant items of £11.4 million during the financial year, although this was down from £15.5 million in 2015.

“Travel had an exceptional year,” said Midcounties in a statement. “There were strong results in retail, Personal Travel Agents and the Co-op Consortium while Co-operative Holidays grew significantly with city break locations and Co-operative Rooms performing well.”

Midcounties also operates food, funeral, childcare, post offices and energy services as well as travel.

Group chief executive Ben Reid said: “The society has continued to make good progress, matching commercial success with a strong focus on co-operation and member engagement.

“We continued to invest, spending £30 million on site acquisitions, branch refurbishments and IT infrastructure, while our strong cash generation allowed us to reduce borrowings to £18 million, comfortably within agreed limits.”