THE Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society is to sell several non-food

outlets, including its Homemaker store in Launceston, to a retailer with shops in the North East and West.

The Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society said that non-food retailing was a sector within which the group had been making

losses for several years.

The Launceston Home­maker store is among the outlets to be sold, as well as Homemaker stores in Plymouth, Kingsteignton and Exmouth.

The Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society has agreed the sale with Vergo Retail, headed by David Thompson, a former director of Mothercare, Habitat and BHS.

A consultation process with its staff and trade unions has been launched by the Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society. Vergo has re-assured Co-op employees in the outlets it is purchasing that their roles will continue under the stores' new ownership.