At the 2017 Spring General Membership Meeting, convened in the spacious, light-filled cafeteria of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s Springside campus, Weavers Way leaders struck a note of cautious optimism.

“We’re excited to to rock and roll into the new world we’re facing now,” said Board President Chris Hill in greeting the 150 or so attendees.

“The Co-op, our business, is doing pretty well,” General Manager Jon Roesser said. “The grocery business is a tough business to be in right now; Weavers Way is definitely above average.”

On the Ambler expansion, Roesser said our contractor’s “aggressive but doable” four-month estimate for completion of construction is “tattooed on my brain. . . . We would really like to be in before Labor Day. August is our slowest time of the year so it would be really great to get the doors open and work out the kinks.”

In his mid-year finance summary, covering the first half (July-December) of fiscal 2017, Roesser reported, income was $11,440,000, compared to $10,912,000 in the same period the previous fiscal year. “That’s growth — it’s not rapid growth, but it is growth and that’s an important distinction between us and most others that are in our industry.”

And Mt. Airy sales are up 4.81 percent. “Putting up growth like that would make our little Mt. Airy store the darling of Wall Street if we were for sale,” he said.

Two other numbers were less positive, but with explanations:

• Chestnut Hill sales were down 0.49 percent from the same period last year, which was largely before the opening of “our competitor down Germantown Avenue.” But since Jan. 1, Chestnut Hill sales are up 2.5 percent, in this case over a prior year that does factor in the impact of the Fresh Market. “That’s a pretty OK number,” Roesser concluded. “We can feel good about that.”
• “In terms of net income, this is a scary number: We lost $107,000 compared to last year, where we made $277,000,” he said. “But we know why: expenses related to expansion,” including architect and consulting fees and staff time that amounted to $178,000. Adjusting for that, net income was $70,700.

Moving on to Ambler, Roesser said general contractor W.S. Cumby is “ready to roll — we’re just waiting for permits.” Financing is secured, including a $1.7 million line of credit for equipment from PNC Bank and $600,000 from refinancing our Reinvestment Fund loan on the Chestnut Hill store.

Getting outside lenders on board was enabled, Roesser emphasized, by “the amazing $1.5 million from our Member Loan Campaign, which sent a very powerful message to the institutional lenders we’re working with that this is an organization that has an incredibly dedicated membership.”

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More photos from the Spring 2017 GMM.