The Midway Co-op held their 78th annual general meeting Wednesday night in Watson.

Board President Ramsee McGrath provided the financial report during the agenda, that document highlighted a $1.56 million drop in sales from 2015.

General Manager Nick Koroluk explains the reasoning behind the decrease.

"Lots of it has to with energy and fuel prices and stuff like that. Some of the agriculture products that we brought in early, we got them at a little better price so it brought down our overall sales."

The agriculture section of their operations took a hit of over $600,000 itself.

Their finances are still in good shape however, assets rose by $150,000, savings also climbed by $90,000. It was also stressed they have no debt on the books.

Among the highlights for 2016 was the move to sell liquor from their grocery store with new provincial legislation. Koroluk feels that will be a positive money maker for the moving forward.

"We're going to keep expanding it more and more. We had a pretty good start already and as time goes and people find more about it I think it's going to be better and better. it's going to better for our grocery store also."

During a question and answer period, one former board member and current membership holder brought up the idea of amalgamation, something Koroluk didn't dispute but he admitted any potential partnership with other cooperatives is likely years down the road.

"Me and the board have been in talks, we need to put a plan together. It's going to be maybe a five or ten year plan, but we are looking at different parts of the Co-op. We don't necessarily have to do a complete amalgamation maybe just parts of it. We might just do some agreements with other Co-ops."

The Midway Co-op has over 1,000 active members serving the communities and rural areas around Watson, LeRoy and Englefeld.

Equity cheques are expected in June, also last year they contributed $35,000 to charities.

You can hear more from Koroluk below in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.