by John Cleary, Board President
At the January meeting, the Co-op’s board reviewed and approved the 2026 Budget, providing an annual operating plan for the business. With only one year of operations at this location, there are still significant unknowns about how fast the business will continue to grow. The budget used conservative estimates and there is a good chance that we will perform better than budgeted. This is a welcome change from many years at the old village location where the sales were decreasing and we rarely hit our targeted budget numbers. The 2026 budget shows annual sales of approximately $2.9 million, compared to the last few years in the village location where sales hovered around $1 million.
Sales of certain categories such as Beer/wine and Bakery have doubled compared to the village location. While the produce department hasn’t reached its potential yet, sales will be about $50,000 higher than they were in the village. Core hardware sales should benefit from a full store refresh that will be happening over the next few months. In exchange for signing a new 7 year contract with our current hardware supplier, they have committed significant resources to redesigning the hardware layout and product selection as well as providing new shelving and physically helping to implement the new layout. Very exciting!
Our cash position is also significantly improved. Last year we had to take out a short term loan to finance the purchase of the greenhouse inventory because we were short on cash. We paid that back almost immediately and now have sufficient cash on hand to handle stocking the greenhouse as well as getting through the slow winter season. The primary financial challenge facing the Co-op has to do with budgeting and planning for significant repairs to the building and infrastructure. As we get further into this year and see how well the business performs, we will feel more confident in spending money from our capital reserve account on these long term improvements.
Personally, it feels great to have this level of optimism about the future of the Co-op. The last few years in the village were incredibly stressful and uncertain. Even as the plan for the new store developed, it was still uncertain if it would work out in the way we envisioned. The success we are seeing today is due to the strong support of the Co-op community. Thank you all!
Board Members
- John Cleary, President <johnclearyvt@gmail.com>
- Carla Siegle, Vice President <carla@littlebrookvermont.com>
- Maureen Lynch, Secretary <maureen.mlynch@gmail.com>
- Jeremy Matt, Treasurer <jeremy.matt@gmail.com>
- Allen Freund, Liaison to the Building committee <allenfreund123@gmail.com>
To contact as a group: board@plainfieldcoop.com
The Co-op Board meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month from 6-8 p.m., in person at the Co-op. Board Meeting Minutes can be found here
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Article amended on 2/20/2026