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116-544: The Co-operative Group Limited , trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society , is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance, and social enterprise. The group has its headquarters located at One Angel Square in Manchester , England. The Group also manages

232-401: A legal services business (providing conveyancing , will writing and probate services) and an Energy Generation business, the latter included significant investment in renewable energy generation which formed another key aspect of the co-op's drive towards its ethical image. This period was successful for the co-op in increasing its profitability and in beginning to rationalise what had been

348-637: A telephone exchange ; the Faraday Building now stands on the site). The Post Office Savings Bank continued to occupy Blythe House until the early 1970s; however it was announced in 1963 that its main centre of operations would be decentralised to Glasgow. A small headquarters staff remained in London, moving to Charles House on Kensington High Street . In 2017, NS&I managed around £150 billion in savings. Funds from NS&I have historically been

464-668: A 100% guarantee from HM Treasury on all deposits. As of 2017, approximately 9% of the government's debt is met by funds raised through NS&I, around half of which is from the Premium Bond offering. National Savings and Investments was founded by the Palmerston government (following a suggestion made by George Chetwynd , a clerk in the Money Order department of the General Post Office ) in 1861 as

580-724: A basement; the public business of the Savings Bank was conducted on the ground floor, and the clerks had their offices on the upper floors. An extension was built to the north, in Carter Lane, in 1890-94 by Sir Henry Tanner ; but soon afterwards work began on a new headquarters in West Kensington: Blythe House , where the Post Office Savings Bank took up residence in 1903. (The premises on Queen Victoria Street and Carter Lane became

696-447: A consistent branding whilst also driving for efficiency savings to make the food business more competitive – the similarity in conclusions between the 1919, 1958 and 2001 reports highlights the distinct lack of progress within the movement during this time. The 2001 report also highlighted the need to market what it called 'The Co-operative Advantage'; a favourite idea of Graham Melmoth, which suggested that commercial success would provide

812-660: A food cooperative directory. Seattle-based R.E.I. , which specializes in outdoor sporting equipment, is the largest consumer cooperative in the United States. Outdoor retailer Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) in Canada was one of that country's major consumer cooperatives. In the Canadian Prairie provinces as well as British Columbia , gas stations, lumberyards, and grocery stores can be found under

928-432: A for-profit enterprise will treat the difference between cost (including labor etc.) and selling price as financial gain for investors, the consumer owned enterprise may retain this to accumulate capital in common ownership, distribute it to meet the consumer's social objectives, or refund this sum to the consumer/owner as an over-payment. (Accumulated capital may be held as reserves, or invested in growth as working capital or

1044-414: A further attempt to differentiate itself from its larger competitors The Co-operative Bank had introduced an ethical policy in 1992 and this, along with its technical innovation, was well received with customers. The CWS decided that, though it had always aimed to trade responsibly (for example though the working conditions in its factories and plantations as well as its boycott of South African produce during

1160-472: A governance arrangement which was complicated and not understood by many individual members and which led to relatively few members becoming democratically engaged with the business. During 2007 the then chief executive Martin Beaumont was critical of the lack of commercial expertise on the board, foreshadowing the conclusions drawn from later Myners review into the near failure of the business during 2013 which

1276-542: A lease on a nearby warehouse at No. 27 St Paul's Churchyard . In the following years the business of the savings bank expanded, and further premises were acquired to the south, linked to the old warehouse by a bridge across Little Carter Lane . In the 1870s, with the lease on these buildings due to expire, work began on a new purpose-built Central Post Office Savings Bank building further to the south in Queen Victoria Street . The building had five floors plus

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1392-582: A local cause of their choosing. Following years of under-investment, the Co-op brought in Mike Bracken , in order to completely re-invent the Society's digital operations and to drive back office efficiencies in the food, funeral and insurance businesses. Focus was also given to re-targeting the insurance business as the preferred insurance provider for Co-op members rather than chasing market share. In 2016

1508-596: A means to achieve social reform. They believed such a development would bring benefits such as economic democracy and justice , transparency , greater product purity, and financial benefits for consumers. One of the world's largest consumer co-operative federations operates in the UK as The Co-op , which operates over 5,500 branches of 'Co-op' branded business including Co-op Food (the UK's sixth largest supermarket chain), Co-op Funeralcare , Co-op Travel , Co-op Legal Services , and Co-op Electrical . The Co-operative Group

1624-800: A mixture of co-operative philosophy and practical advice about running a shop using cooperative principles. The first successful co-operative was the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers , established in England in 1844. This became the basis for the development and growth of the modern cooperative movement. As the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution forced more skilled workers into poverty, these tradesmen decided to band together to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. With lessons from prior failed attempts at co-operation in mind, they designed

1740-579: A purpose-built National Distribution Centre in Coventry during 2006. As a result of their steady expansion after 2000 the Pharmacy and Funeralcare businesses were performing well, however the farming business was poorly aligned with the needs of the food stores and so was significantly reorganised in 2007 to focus the farmland on producing produce for the business's food stores. The co-op also moved into new business opportunities during this period adding

1856-917: A relatively cheap source of government borrowing. NS&I sets interest rates both to attract savers and provide low-cost finance for the government, and 100% of any individual's savings are guaranteed by HM Treasury; rules are in place to ensure that it does not offer market-leading products that would stifle competition. NS&I's head office is within the Department of Education building, in Westminster, London; with operational sites in Blackpool , Glasgow , and Durham . However, its back office and customer services operations are contracted out. NS&I first outsourced out its operations in 1999 to Siemens Business Services; some 4,000 staff were transferred to Siemens, leaving 130 NS&I staff responsible for

1972-497: A shift in consumer habits towards shopping little and often. Owing to their strength in the market, the food business chose to focus on their estate of approximately 2,500 convenience stores , selling over 100 of their larger supermarkets and opening 300 new convenience stores during 2014, 2015 and 2016, particularly in London and the South East of England. The business also sold 298 of its smallest stores to McColl's in 2016 with

2088-428: A significant increase in sales of Fairtrade goods (sales of Fairtrade products rose 18% during 2016), through being the first major UK supermarket to switch all of its own brand meat (excluding continental meats like chorizo ) to being British sourced and through reinventing the Society's membership scheme to include a reward of 5% of spend on own brand items being credited to the member and a further 1% being donated to

2204-412: A small profit during 2014, but would not pay a dividend to members until 2018. When The Co-operative Group released its annual report in 2016, it showed that its food business was growing faster than the overall grocery market (by 3.2 percentage points) and that like-for-like sales were up 3.8% in its core convenience estate. This reflected the significant growth in the convenience sector in the UK following

2320-418: A sprawling but rather unsuccessful conglomerate. Many however, believed that for the co-op to survive in the long term it would need to merge with other large co-operative societies. At the start of 2007, the group began discussions with United Co-operatives , then the UK's second-largest co-operative, about a merger of the societies. Such a merger was expected to lead to significant efficiency savings owing to

2436-494: A strategy of driving sales by reducing the price and increasing the quality of products, by increasing the proportion of produce produced in the UK and the roll-out of locally sourced products in small clusters of stores (following a successful trial in Yorkshire). As their ethical image had largely recovered after their financial crisis, they focused attention on differentiating the food business through measures such as by driving

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2552-477: A subsequent criminal court case, Regan's bid was rejected and two senior CWS executives were dismissed and imprisoned for fraud. An arrest warrant was issued for Andrew Regan in 1999 however he had already emigrated to Monaco . The shock that Regan's bid sent through the co-operative movement has been attributed with sowing the seeds for the reduced hostilities between the CWS and CRS factions which eventually ended with

2668-479: A vision that went far beyond the simple shop with which they began: That as soon as practicable, this society shall proceed to arrange the powers of production, distribution, education, and government, or in other words to establish a selfsupporting home-colony of united interests, or assist other societies in establishing such colonies. Cooperative Federalists , a term coined in the writings of Beatrice Webb , advocated forming federations of consumer cooperatives as

2784-624: Is by far the largest of these businesses, itself having over 4,500 outlets and operating the collective buying group . In Switzerland , the two largest supermarket chains Coop and Migros are both co-operatives and are among the country’s largest employers. In Ireland , the Dublin Food Coop has been in operation since 1983. In Scandinavia , the national cooperatives Norway , Sweden , and Denmark joined as Coop Norden in January 2002, but separated again in 2008. In Italy ,

2900-408: Is one of the largest cooperatives in the world. In addition to retail co-ops there are medical, housing, and insurance co-ops alongside institutional (workplace based) co-ops, co-ops for school teachers, and university-based co-ops. Approximately one in five of all Japanese households belongs to a local retail co-op and 90% of all co-op members are women. Nearly six million households belong to one of

3016-783: Is open to everybody. It has franchises under the brand Aliprox not owned by Eroski but sharing its product range. Its origin is in the Basque Country . In its process of expansion, it merged with the Valencia-based cooperative Consum , but the merger dissolved in 2005. It has expanded across Spain and entered France and Gibraltar. After the Spanish crisis of 2008 , Eroski sold several of its supermarkets and hypermarkets. The Co-op Bookshop sold textbooks both online and on university campuses. It also owned Australian Geographic . In 2020 its retail stores closed and its online store

3132-568: Is wholly owned by its customers, reported at 125,000 in 2012. Japan has a large and well-developed consumer cooperative movement with more than 14 million members. Retail co-ops alone had a combined turnover of 2.5 trillion Yen (21 billion U.S. Dollars) in April, 2003. Co-op Kobe (コープこうべ) in the Hyōgo Prefecture is the largest retail cooperative in Japan and, with more than 1.2 million members,

3248-528: The Co-Op brand . All credit unions in the United States and Canada are financial cooperatives. Tim Worstall has called the Vanguard Group a customer owned cooperative, since the owners of Vanguard funds are the funds' investors. In Puerto Rico , several Supermercados Fam Coop operate. National Savings and Investments National Savings and Investments ( NS&I ), formerly called

3364-589: The Co-operative Federal Trading Services , formerly the Co-operative Retail Trading Group (CRTG). The Co-operative Group has developed over the years from the merger of co-operative wholesale societies and many independent retail societies. The Group's roots are traced back to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers , established in 1844. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers was based on

3480-551: The Coop Italia chain formed by many sub-cooperatives controlled 17.7% of the grocery market in 2005. In Finland , the S Group is owned by 22 regional cooperatives and 19 local cooperative stores, which in turn are owned by their customers. In 2005 the S Group overtook its nearest rival Kesko Oyj with a 36% share of retail grocery sales compared to Kesko's 28%. In France , Coop Atlantique owns 7 hypermarkets, 39 supermarkets, and about 200 convenience stores. In Germany ,

3596-586: The Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings , is a state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is both a non-ministerial government department and an executive agency of HM Treasury . The aim of NS&I has been to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purpose of funding the government's deficit . NS&I attracts savers through offering savings products with tax-free elements on some products, and

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3712-566: The Post Office Savings Bank , the world's first postal savings system . The aim of the bank was to allow ordinary workers a facility "to provide for themselves against adversity and ill-health", and to provide the government with access to debt funding. As an example, savings certificates were issued in the First and Second World Wars to help finance the war effort. On 1 June 1957, the Premium Bonds draws were inaugurated, using E.R.N.I.E. –

3828-714: The ReWe Group is a diversified holding company of consumer cooperatives that includes thousands of retail stores, discount stores, and tourism agencies. It ranks as the second largest supermarket chain in Germany and in the top ten cooperative groups in the world. In Spain, Eroski is a supermarket chain within Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa . As a worker-consumer hybrid , some of the personnel are hired workers and some are owner-workers. The owners include workers and mere consumers, but buying

3944-635: The Rochdale Principles – which notably introduced the idea of distributing a share of profits according to purchases through a scheme which became known as the dividend or "Divi". Although the Co-operative Group incorporates the original Rochdale Society, the business's core for much of its history were its wholesale operations. This began in 1863 when the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial and Provident Society Limited

4060-411: The bylaws or organizing document of the cooperative. Most consumer cooperatives hold regular membership meetings (often once a year). As mutually owned businesses, each member of a society has a shareholding equal to the sum they paid in when they joined. Large consumers' co-ops are run much like any other business and require workers, managers, clerks, products, and customers to keep the doors open and

4176-618: The first national co-operative branding , the 'Co-op' cloverleaf. Though Operation Facelift led to some improvements, the movement (including the CWS) remained largely unreformed with its grocery market share continuing a downward trend. Again, it was suggested that societies merge to form regional societies to improve their competitiveness through enhanced economies of scale. Many local co-op societies strongly resisted such mergers but, as their financial situation declined, many were forced to merge to create regional societies or were absorbed into either

4292-401: The labour movement . As employment moved to industrial areas and job sectors declined, workers began organizing and controlling businesses for themselves. Workers cooperatives were originally sparked by "critical reaction to industrial capitalism and the excesses of the industrial revolution." The formation of some workers cooperatives was meant to "cope with the evils of unbridled capitalism and

4408-537: The public sector borrowing requirement . The then Director, Stuart Gilbert was given a target of £2 billion rising to £3.8 billion of the following three years to raise in National Savings - targets that were achieved. The name was changed again in 2002 to National Savings and Investments . The previous graphic identity of NS&I, including the NS&;I logotype, was created in 2005 by Lloyd Northover,

4524-599: The "Network Movement" ("Tokyo Seikatsusha (it means "Living Persons") Network", "Kanagawa Network Movement", and so on). They depend on consumers movement, feminism, regionalism, and prefer to anti-nuclear. These parties keep small but steady sections in prefecture and municipal assemblies. In the United States, the PCC (Puget Consumers Cooperative) Natural Markets in Seattle is the largest consumer-owned food cooperative . The National Cooperative Grocers Association maintains

4640-614: The 1,788,000 Han groups . These consist of a group of five to ten members in a neighbourhood who place a combined weekly order which is then delivered by truck the following week. A strength of Japanese consumer co-ops in recent years has been the growth of community supported agriculture in which fresh produce is sent direct to consumers from producers without going through the market. Some of co-op organisations, for example, in Tokyo metropolis and Kanagawa prefecture , manage their local political parties from 1970's; generally names itself as

4756-414: The 1990s would become a crucial decade if the Co-op was to survive. In order to raise capital to invest in its food stores (and also the increasingly successful Co-operative Bank), the CWS sold many of its factories to Andrew Regan in 1994 for £111 million in what initially appeared to be a highly beneficial arrangement for the CWS. However, later it appeared that those involved in this deal did so without

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4872-418: The 2001 Co-operatives Commission, The Co-operative Group launched a brand panel which was tasked with developing a single consistent national branding standard for the movement. For decades, marketing by co-operatives was confusing for many customers with different societies adopting different store names (notably "Co-op Welcome" and "Co-op Late Shop"), various shop fascia designs and inconsistent marketing. Also,

4988-422: The 500,000 'active members' he could gain control of the CWS. Though this strategy worked for the carpetbaggers working to demutualise UK building societies at the time, it failed to recognise that the ownership actually lay with millions of ordinary members and that many of these 'active members' were staunch co-operators and who would be unlikely to back the bid. After investigations by a private detective and

5104-568: The British design consultancy founded by John Lloyd and Jim Northover. The identity was updated in 2020, however no public information has been released regarding this. The Post Office Savings Bank initially operated from a room in the General Post Office building on St. Martin's Le Grand in the City of London. By 1864 it had outgrown the space available there, so the Post Office took out

5220-498: The CRS becoming a member of the CRTG before fully merging with the CWS in 1999. The merger took two years to complete and the launch of the newly combined business, named The Co-operative Group, was timed with the release of the 2001 Co-operative Commission report, chaired by John Monks , which proposed a strategy of modernisation. The report focused on improving store design and building

5336-597: The CRS or the SCWS to avoid failing. Consolidation within the movement was considerable, and in 1973 serious financial mismanagement of the SCWS Bank led to the SCWS and the CWS merging to form a single UK-wide wholesale society. The merger did highlight the potential of The Co-operative Bank as it was building a sizeable base of customers (notably local authorities, mutuals and local groups alongside co-operative societies) and this became an increasingly significant proportion of

5452-523: The CRTG had been working to switch the role of the CWS from "selling to" to "buying for" co-operative societies as a way of maximising the economies of scale to become more competitive to the major supermarkets. Since the 1960s the Co-op had been following retail trends after they had occurred, always having to catch up, in a way that it led the changes before the Second World War. Many leaders within

5568-470: The CWS Board's permission and had been also handing confidential CWS files to Regan. Notably, one Sunday newspaper printed the CWS' annual report before it had been officially released. This would later pose a huge threat to the CWS when in 1997 Regan posed a highly ambitious £1.2bn hostile takeover attempt of the CWS. This shocked many in the movement and consolidated support for the CWS as the 'linchpin' of

5684-406: The CWS as a valuable supplier but did not want to exclusively purchase produce from them owing to perceptions of high cost (mostly transport costs) and unreliable quality – some things the CWS were at pains to resolve. In contrast to this, the CWS had its aim to be the centrepoint for the whole co-operative movement in the UK and lobbied hard for loyalty from co-ops. To this end, they started to assist

5800-544: The CWS becoming highly innovative. By 1890 the CWS had established significant branches in Leeds , Blackburn , Bristol , Nottingham and Huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits ( Manchester ), boots ( Leicester ), soap ( Durham ) and textiles ( Batley ). In an attempt to drive down the significant cost of transportation for produce the CWS even began its own shipping line which initially sailed from Goole docks to parts of continental Europe . One of

5916-482: The CWS began planning for the future, as even then they could see the potential disruption to the retail market that the new multiple grocers could have. What was less obvious at the time would be the impact of National Savings and national taxation on the movement, as Britain shifted from a country of friendly, building and co-operative societies, to one with a National Health Service, National House building programs and National Post Office Bank NS&I GPO . In 1944,

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6032-505: The CWS published a report entitled Policy and Programme for Post War Development which focused on methods for revitalising the co-op movement after the war had ended. The report suggested merging the CWS with the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS); reducing the number of co-operative societies through merger; moving into the manufacturing and production of white goods and the expansion of

6148-633: The CWS' steamships, the Pioneer , was the first commercial vessel to use the Manchester Ship Canal . This rapid expansion continued so that by the outbreak of World War I the CWS had major offices in the United States, Denmark, Australia and a tea plantation in India. There was a great deal of consideration on the role of the CWS in the British co-operative movement around the turn of the twentieth century. Many, fiercely local, societies saw

6264-447: The CWS's annual profits. The growth in the bank largely related to its aggressive expansion into the personal banking market and with the pioneering of free banking (1972) in the UK, nine years before any of its larger rivals. The co-operative movement's marketshare and profitability continued to decline during the 1970s and 1980s, in part, due to a number of reasons. Firstly, the process of deindustrialization , that had characterised

6380-895: The Co-op announced its intentions to replace its "The Co-operative" branding with revitalised "Co-op" branding from the 1960s, following fears that members associated the branding with the failures of the organisation leading up to 2013. Consumer cooperative Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers, such as food co-ops . However, there are many types of consumers' cooperatives, operating in areas such as health care, insurance, housing , utilities and personal finance (including credit unions ). In some countries, consumers' cooperatives are known as cooperative retail societies or retail co-ops , though they should not be confused with retailers' cooperatives , whose members are retailers rather than consumers. Consumers' cooperatives may, in turn, form cooperative federations . These may come in

6496-469: The Co-operative Bank . This report received much criticism from the fiercely local co-operative societies and the proposals of the report were only partly and slowly implemented. The end of war allowed some attempt to modernise the co-operative stores around this time, while the slow demobilisation of the wartime boost of full employment and high wages partly waned consumer spending power. After

6612-475: The Co-operative Group today. It was hoped that these financial ties, as well as the CWS corporate dividend, would increase loyalty to the CWS. During the Second World War , rationing led to an effective pause in any major changes to the co-operative movement in the UK with the CWS becoming highly involved in sourcing overseas goods for UK consumers and manufacturing wartime goods. During this time,

6728-707: The Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment machine (now located in the Science Museum ). In 1969, the bank was transferred from the Post Office to the Treasury. Its name was changed to National Savings Bank , and it gained an independent legal identity under the National Savings Bank Act 1971. Despite its independence, it was used by Government in 1980 to fund a significant proportion of

6844-494: The London Co-operative Society opened its first self-service shop in 1942, the co-operative movement led the way on the development of self-service stores to the point where, by the 1950s, 90% of self-service shops in the UK were run by co-operatives. Despite this the subscribed share capital (risk capital) available to societies to innovate and take risks dwindled causing market share and relative quality of

6960-625: The Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (1973) and the South Suburban Co-operative Society (1984). Consumer cooperatives utilize the cooperative principle of democratic member control , or one member/one vote. Most consumer cooperatives have a board of directors elected by and from the membership. The board is usually responsible for hiring management and ensuring that the cooperative meets its goals, both financial and otherwise. Democratic functions, such as petitioning or recall of board members, may be codified in

7076-634: The UK. It was an early adopter of the RSPCA 's 'Freedom Foods' animal welfare certification. It introduced the first supermarket range of 'environmentally friendly' household products and the first range of toiletries certified by Cruelty Free International as "not tested on animals". This new adoption of an ethical strategy was only part of the CWS' changes. The Co-op had been pioneering on notable changes to its packaging with nutritional labelling on food (1985) and later introduced Braille on its packaging. Many own brand products were also reformulated to reduce

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7192-692: The United merger was complete, the Chief Executive, Peter Marks, was already preparing another significant acquisition as he believed that only though significant growth could the co-operative become truly sustainable in the long term. In July 2008, the group announced a deal to purchase the Somerfield chain of 900 supermarkets and convenience stores. The sale was completed on 2 March 2009, costing £1.57 bn. The conversion and rebranding of Somerfield stores into Coop stores took just over two years and

7308-410: The aim of providing a more consistent shopping experience by focusing on stores primarily in the 2000–4000 square foot bracket where a greater range of own brand products could be sold. The food range in stores was refreshed with a smaller range of items, that were tailored to individual stores, rather than their previous policy of determining product range purely on store size. The Co-op also shifted to

7424-418: The amount of salt, sugar and fat in order to make the product range more healthy. So successful was this initiative that competitors such as Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer began to follow aggressively on these initiatives. In an attempt to build upon the success which was being felt around the increasing public perception of the Co-op as an ethical retailer and to implement what was a core recommendation of

7540-537: The bank's credit rating by six notches to junk status (Ba3) and the bank's Chief Executive, Barry Tootell, resigned. The difficulties stem largely from the commercial loans of the Britannia Building Society , acquired in the 2009 merger. The Co-operative Insurance sold its life insurance and pensions business to Royal London releasing about £200M in capital, and planned to dispose of its general insurance business. Further financial restructuring

7656-428: The business running. In smaller businesses the consumer/owners are often workers as well. Consumers' cooperatives can differ greatly in start up and also in how the co-op is run but to be true to the consumers' cooperative form of business the enterprise should follow the Rochdale Principles . The customers or consumers of the goods and/or services the cooperative provides are often also the individuals who have provided

7772-494: The capital required to launch or purchase that enterprise. The major difference between consumers' cooperatives and other forms of business is that the purpose of a consumers' cooperative association is to provide quality goods and services at the lowest cost to the consumer/owners rather than to sell goods and services at the highest price above cost that the consumer is willing to pay. In practice consumers' cooperatives price goods and services at competitive market rates. Where

7888-414: The cloverleaf design of the Co-op logo was seen by many as too associated with the years of neglect and decline within the movement and hence The Co-operative Group aimed to launch a totally new brand. The new " The Co-operative " branding was first displayed at the 2005 co-operative congress and became the first brand which could bring together all of the co-operative businesses (both those of The Group and

8004-433: The co-op having both corporate (co-op societies) and individual members, hence making it both a primary and secondary co-operative . The CWS's expansion into direct retailing (especially after the mergers of the 2000s) led to the CWS becoming a highly visible business in the UK. The legacy of this was that many people perceive the British co-operative movement to be one business, The Co-operative Group, or co-op for short. By

8120-573: The co-operative movement including The Co-operative Group. These changes to the business are largely credited with the successes in profitability and the achievement in social goals which improved in the years after the Co-operative Commission report. As a part of the CWS-CRS merger, new governance arrangements were designed with the 'independent societies' becoming part owners of the new Group and their representatives were elected to

8236-523: The cooperative as would appear in any other company. This is one critique of consumer cooperatives in favor of worker cooperatives . Many advocates of the formation of consumer cooperatives—from a variety of political perspectives—have seen them as integral to the achievement of wider social goals. For example, the founding document of the Rochdale Pioneers , who established one of the earliest consumer cooperatives in England in 1844, expressed

8352-441: The cooperative movement stemmed from such socialist writers as Robert Owen and Charles Fourier . Robert Owen , considered by many as the father of the cooperative movement, made his fortune in the cotton trade, but believed in putting his workers in a good environment with access to education for themselves and their children. These ideas were put into effect successfully in the cotton mills of New Lanark , Scotland , where

8468-506: The design, management and marketing of products, and managing the relationship with Siemens. A 2000 report by the National Audit Office stated that the contract was better value than keeping the operations in-house, and suggested other government departments could learn from the way this public-private partnership was procured and managed. The Siemens business unit was acquired by French company Atos in 2011, and by 2023

8584-421: The early 19th century and by 1830 there were several hundred co-operatives. William King made Owen's ideas more workable and practical. He believed in starting small, and realized that the working classes would need to set up co-operatives for themselves, so he saw his role as one of instruction. He founded a monthly periodical called The Co-operator , the first edition of which appeared on 1 May 1828. It gave

8700-681: The economic downturn, half-year profits had risen by 35.6 per cent to £292.6 million for the six months to June 2008. In January 2009, Co-operative Financial Services and the Britannia Building Society announced their intention to merge, subject to regulatory and member approval. Members of the Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society joined the Co-operative Group in September 2009. The Group's reputation suffered in 2007 when 38 of its 41 stores in Sussex failed fire safety inspections and it

8816-637: The first co-operative store was opened. Spurred on by this success, Owen had the idea of forming "villages of co-operation" where workers would drag themselves out of poverty by growing their own food, making their own clothes, and ultimately becoming self-governing. He tried to form such communities in Orbiston, Scotland and in New Harmony, Indiana in the United States of America , but both communities failed. Similar early experiments were made in

8932-624: The following five years. Even after The Co-operative Group's financial crisis of 2013 the 'Have Your Say' survey found that more than 70% of the public agreed that the Co-op 'tries to do the right thing'. Following the integration of the CRS and CWS into the new Group structure it became evident that the business required significant modernisation and rationalisation of its businesses. The Co-operative Group followed by selling its loss-making footwear and milk processing businesses as well as some aspects of its agricultural production. The business also sold many of its larger supermarkets and hypermarkets using

9048-407: The form of cooperative wholesale societies , through which consumers' cooperatives collectively purchase goods at wholesale prices and, in some cases, own factories. Alternatively, they may be members of cooperative unions . Consumer cooperation has been a focus of study in the field of cooperative economics . Consumer cooperatives rose to prominence during the industrial revolution as part of

9164-435: The funding for the social goals of the movement which (when the public saw a tangible benefit to their own lives) would provide a competitive advantage to the Co-op which would further its commercial success – a virtuous cycle. Unlike Gaitskell Commission's 1958 report the recommendations of the report, notably the major update to "The Co-operative brand" and the re-launch of the membership dividend scheme, were largely adopted by

9280-512: The funds to expand further into the convenience store sector, notably through adding 600 stores, following the acquisition of the Alldays chain. Alldays had previously purchased the VG chain of small supermarkets, which operated a franchise operation, supplying marketing and own-brand products to independently owned grocers. The Co-op invested significantly in distribution facilities, notably by opening

9396-438: The future. Its recommendations had two main thrusts: that a strong response to the emerging multiple-store supermarket chains (including the appointment of professional managers) was needed and that the Co-op needed to come to terms with the rise in consumerism and to move away from its association with the "working poor" rather than a more prosperous working class. The CWS responded with operation facelift in 1968 which introduced

9512-550: The group's national board. The largest change, however, was the much stronger representation for the individual members of the retailing operation with a string of regional boards and area committees designed to facilitate a clear democracy and representation on a local and national level. The composite nature of the Co-op as both a primary and a secondary co-operative led to the business having both individual members and corporate members (independent co-operative societies) which had to be included in any democratic structure. This led to

9628-691: The independent societies joined this new branding however, with United Co-operatives (prior to its merger with the Co-operative Group), the Scottish Midland Co-operative Society and the Lincolnshire Co-operative Society not adopting the new brand design. In combination with the new "The Co-operative" redesign, the Co-op sought to relaunch the co-operative membership scheme using a single consistent national standard and featuring

9744-430: The independent societies) under a single consistent brand. With the brand came a set of standards which any outlet using the brand must adhere to – to maintain a high standard of impression with customers. A twelve-month pilot of the new branding followed and these suggested that a significant growth in sales followed the re-branding of stores, largely understood to result from a major impact on public perceptions. Not all of

9860-640: The insecurities of wage labor." The first documented consumer cooperative was founded in 1769, in a barely-furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire , when local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker's whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers' Society . In the decades that followed, several cooperatives or cooperative societies formed including Lennoxtown Friendly Victualling Society, founded in 1812. The philosophy that underpinned

9976-537: The large duplication of services which the two societies provided. On 16 February 2007, the boards announced they were to merge subject to members' approval, and on 28 July 2007 the newly enlarged Co-operative Group was launched. At the same time, the group transferred the engagements of the Scottish Nith Valley Co-operative Society which, while trading profitably, was suffering a burden with its pension fund commitments. Before

10092-525: The local retail societies in more ways than simply as a wholesaler. The CWS Bank, the precursor to The Co-operative Bank , financed loans for societies to use for expansion through purchasing new buildings, land or new equipment. After the acquisition of the Co-operative Insurance Society in 1913, the CWS also provided insurance services to members and the CWS also began providing legal services – all businesses which form parts of

10208-553: The long-term future of the business and to avoid the risks of over-expansion and 'empire-building' as had nearly destroyed the business in 2013. During 2014, the group sold a series of businesses to reduce debt. The Co-operative Pharmacy was sold for £620 million to the Bestway Group , Co-operative Farms was sold for £249 million to the Wellcome Trust , and Sunwin (the group's cash transportation business)

10324-519: The merger of many independent retail societies, and their wholesale societies and federations. In 1863, twenty years after the Rochdale Pioneers opened their co-operative, the North of England Co-operative Society was launched by 300 individual co-ops across Yorkshire and Lancashire . By 1872, it had become known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). Through the 20th century, smaller societies merged with CWS, such as

10440-449: The movement began to appreciate that this 'me too' approach to retailing was not working, for example, expanding into hypermarkets after Tesco and Sainsbury's had already developed a dominant position, but without the resources to compete on price. After the 1997 strategic review the business suggested that it close the majority of its hypermarkets and department stores and instead focus on its core chain of convenience stores . As

10556-418: The movement in a way that many had previously opposed. The CWS, under the leadership of Graham Melmoth, was able to defend itself from this takeover bid, largely by informing Regan's creditors that his hostile takeover was based upon dubiously sourced data and bad business practices. The deal also failed because Regan had greatly misunderstood the CWS' complicated ownership structure, assuming that by paying off

10672-523: The mutual or co-op model was almost dead. The Co-op's reputation was not helped in this respect by the factions within the movement, notably the strong rivalry between the CRS and the CWS, acting in a manner which exacerbated the belief held by many members of the public that, rather than working for the interests of all members, co-ops were largely acting in the self-interests of a dominant 'clique' of members within each society. Together these crises meant that

10788-506: The now-famous Rochdale Principles , and over a period of four months they struggled to pool one pound sterling per person for a total of 28 pounds of capital. On December 21, 1844, they opened their store with a very meagre selection of butter, sugar, flour, oatmeal and a few candles. Within three months, they expanded their selection to include tea and tobacco, and they were soon known for providing high quality, unadulterated goods. The Co-operative Group formed gradually over 140 years from

10904-462: The number of staff involved had reduced to just over 1,600. The Atos contract was renewed for a further seven years in 2014, then extended to March 2024. In November 2023, a six-year customer services contract was awarded to Sopra Steria , another French company, after Atos missed performance targets. In the past the bank offered many of its services through post offices, but in November 2011 it

11020-421: The period led to serious economic difficulties in many of the movements heartlands (notably the northern industrial towns), which disproportionally impacted on the societies through a decrease in consumer spending despite the British economy seeing a rise in overall consumer disposable income. This was largely due to the strong increase in wealth and social inequality in the UK at this time. The co-operative movement

11136-411: The purchase of capital assets such as plant and buildings.) While some claim that surplus payment returns to consumer/owner patrons should be taxed the same as dividends paid to corporate stock holders, others argue that consumer cooperatives do not return a profit by traditional definition, and similar tax standards do not apply. Since consumer cooperatives are run democratically, they are subject to

11252-407: The re-introduction of the member dividend. Together, this renewed focus on responsible trading, the redesign of "The Co-operative" brand and the reintroduction of the member dividend helped to build the start of a renewed relationship with the British public. In 2006 a survey found the Co-op to be the most trusted major retailer in the UK and almost six million people joined the membership scheme over

11368-406: The same problems typical of democratic government. Such difficulties can be mitigated by frequently providing member/owners with reliable educational materials regarding current business conditions. In addition, because a consumer cooperative is owned by the users of a good or service as opposed to the producers of that good or service, the same sorts of labor issues may arise between the workers and

11484-444: The service societies could offer their members to dwindle. Consequently, this impacted the movement by reducing the number of society members willing to enter membership and then actively trade with their co-operatives, leading to further real terms falls in withdraw-able member share capital levels, and in the level or return generated co-operative investment in the form of lower interest and dividends. A corollary of falling market share

11600-402: The start of the 1990s, the co-operative movement's share of the UK grocery market had declined to the point where the entire business model was in question. This was at a time when many building societies were demutualising as many of the public preferred the short-term financial gain of the windfall payment over the perceived lack of benefits from the mutual model. For a time it seemed as though

11716-517: The surrounding communities. The centrepiece of the initial development is One Angel Square , one of the largest buildings in Europe to have a BREEAM Outstanding Distinction as a result of its high sustainable energy credentials. Occupation of the new building began in early 2013. In May 2013, after recognising inadequate capital levels in its banking group , Euan Sutherland took over from Peter Marks as Chief Executive. That month Moody's downgraded

11832-499: The time was a period of notable inflation and a strong pound, which had led to a wave of cheap imported goods – this devastated much of the UK's manufacturing industries (including the CWS). By the 1980s, it became clear that the trend in the retail sector was towards large (often out of town) supermarkets and hypermarkets with hundreds of them appearing across the UK. The co-operative movement did build some superstores, having 74 by 1986, but often their development and competitiveness

11948-507: The way members elected the board, largely along the lines suggested in a governance report by Lord Myners . The Myners Review was very critical of the co-operative movement's (and especially the Group's) lack of response to the 1958 commission report and for the failure of the Group's governance since the merger of CWS and CRS in 2000. The review also underlined the requirement to focus on making and retaining annual profits which can be invested in

12064-474: The years of apartheid ), by cementing its "ethical" credentials in a series of strong and clear policy commitments it could work to convince the public of the "co-operative difference". This move posed a bold step for the CWS leadership as this was a wholly new approach for such a large business. As a part of this, the Co-op worked with The Fairtrade Foundation to help introduce the Fairtrade Mark in

12180-468: Was (in part) due to an unfit governance arrangement. In 2014 the governance arrangements were completely redesigned to reflect the recommendations of the Myners review – for more information see the governance section . Though the modernisation of the business was most noticeable after the 1997 takeover attempt, this is not to say that modernisation of the CWS had not been under way for some time. Since 1993

12296-420: Was announced that most products would only be available by phone, online, or by post; Premium Bonds would be the only remaining product sold in post offices. From August 2015, NS&I stopped selling Premium Bonds through post offices, and became a purely direct business. NS&I offers a wide range of savings and investment products, specialising in tax-free and income-generating products. As of December 2019

12412-399: Was completed by summer 2011. In 2008, the group bought ten convenience stores trading as Bell's and Jackson's in the north and east of England from Sainsbury's. In autumn 2008, Lothian, Borders & Angus Co-operative Society members voted to transfer engagements to the Co-operative Group. The transfer came into effect on 13 December 2008. The group announced in November 2008 that despite

12528-476: Was continued ownership of freehold land, property and infrastructure, such as warehouses, dairies and farmland (the Co-operative Farms ) built up by societies with accumulated surpluses from the 50 years of growth before the war. The Co-operative Independent Commission (1958) was tasked with investigating the decline in the co-op movement and for making recommendations for revitalising the movement in

12644-446: Was expected. On 5 June 2013, Richard Pennycook, former Finance Director of Morrisons , was named The Co-operative Group's Finance Director, and Richard Pym, former Chief Executive of Alliance & Leicester , as Chair of The Co-operative Banking Group and The Co-operative Bank. The group lost £2.5 billion in 2013, and debt stood at £1.4 billion at the end of 2013. In May 2014, a special member's meeting agreed to restructure

12760-541: Was fined £250,000. It was fined £210,000 in 2010 after an investigation at one of its Southampton stores. In May 2010, the Co-operative Group unveiled plans to build a new headquarters in Manchester. The initial phase of construction commenced on Miller Street near the existing estate where the Group has been based since 1863. The project, entitled NOMA , aims to reflect ethical values of the organisation in its design, construction and its relationship with employees and

12876-401: Was hindered by the lack of a national distribution network and price competitiveness. In an attempt to improve the collective buying power of the movement the CWS acted to reposition itself from a wholesaler (from which societies can choose to buy) to a 'buying group' (where the CWS buys on behalf of), in order that CWS could increase the proportion of produce sold through co-operative stores that

12992-544: Was launched in Manchester by 300 individual co-operatives in Yorkshire and Lancashire . By 1872, it was known as the 'Co-operative Wholesale Society' (CWS) and it was wholly owned by the co-operatives which traded with it. The CWS grew rapidly and supplied produce to co-operative stores across England, though many co-ops only sourced around a third of their produce through the CWS. It was this continued and fierce competition with other non-co-operative wholesalers which led to

13108-474: Was not well placed to tap into this increase in middle class spending due to the geographic spread of its stores and The Co-op's historic association as the shop for the "working poor". Secondly, redevelopment projects in many cities between the 1950s and 1970s often moved people from rows of terraced housing (which featured co-op stores dotted throughout) to newer purpose-built estates, with around 18,000 co-op stores closing as they had become redundant. Thirdly,

13224-428: Was sold for £41.5 million to Cardtronics . Having scaled back their operations to their core food, funeral, insurance, electrical and legal businesses in the preceding years, the business set about modernising these businesses in order to create a stable and profitable base for the future. In April 2015, The Co-operative Group announced that it had reduced its debt levels by approximately 40% (to £808M) and had made

13340-502: Was sold to Booktopia . The Wine Society (Australian Wine Consumers’ Co-operative Society Limited), established in 1946, now has more than 58,000 members. It sources and sells premium wines under the Society label, runs comprehensive wine education courses, and recognises excellence from young winemakers. Bank Australia was formed in 2011 as the Members and Education Credit Union. It changed its name to Bank Australia in 2015. The bank

13456-545: Was sourced by itself. Though this did work to increase loyalty, it was not until the 2000s with the development of the Co-operative Retail Trading Group that the CWS became the de facto wholesaler for co-operative stores. During the 1980s, the CWS began to merge with a number of failing co-operative societies, having returned to direct retailing after its merger with the SCWS the decade before. These mergers with consumers' co-operatives led to

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