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78-595: Central England Co-operative , trading as Central Co-op , is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia . The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society's profits. A proportion of the profits of

156-481: A Post Office counter. All stores trade under the co-operative food brand. Central England Co-operative also operates 25 petrol filling stations with some of these associated with the co-op's larger supermarkets. However the society also operates a number of stand alone petrol stations, five of which were acquired through the purchase of Shaws Petroleum in 2013. On 29 July 2022, the Society opened its food store in

234-452: A card which all look very similar but which will list the specific co-op which the individual is a member of on the front. As a part of their membership schemes, many of the larger co-operatives which have adopted 'The Co-operative Brand' will allow members of other co-operatives to earn a share of their profits in a reciprocal agreement. This is particularly the case with those co-ops which have interests in supermarkets , whereas other users of

312-654: A coffin manufacturing business. The Society owns Bretby Crematorium, set in woodland grounds adjacent to the A511 Leicester to Burton upon Trent road between Burton and Swadlincote. Central England Co-operative operates 9 florists shops located throughout the former Midlands Co-operative trading area. The Co-operative Florist is a member of the Interflora florists online scheme. The Co-operative Motor Group operated dealerships in Lincoln and Loughborough until

390-660: 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

468-432: 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

546-596: 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

624-409: A membership scheme which is branded in line with The Co-operative brand although it is run separately from that of The Co-operative Group . The scheme works through members collecting points on their purchases with any of the co-ops family of businesses and these points are converted into a share of the profits twice a year with members voting on the amount at the members meetings. In 2014 the share of

702-800: 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

780-550: A number of charities and invests a percentage of its trading profit in local communities. It also provides awards for fund-raising, community and charity and environmental projects. Members can apply for a grant to a local cause or charity that would benefit under the Making a Difference community dividend scheme. The following local party councils are funded by Central England Co-operative to organise political activity: Consumer co-operative Consumers' cooperatives often take

858-413: A panel representing all sections of the movement should be established to monitor and maintain the positive image of the brand, and that it should consider the "cloverleaf" logo's future. The Co-operative Group's designers and marketers collaborated with Harry Pearce and John McConnell of the designers' co-operative Pentagram , to develop a new identity to represent "The Co-operative". The selected artwork

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936-474: A significant investment property portfolio. It operates through a number of brands aligned with The Co-operative Group . Food retail is the Society's core business, generating around 70% of total turnover. A distribution centre in Leicester supplies 235 supermarkets and convenience stores and also provides a service to neighbouring Heart of England and Tamworth co-operative branches. 22 food stores contain

1014-721: A total of 2,290 members. Classes are open to all members include painting, sugarcraft, line dancing, keep fit classes and a wine circle. Though a partnership with a school for children with special educational needs (SEN), Selly Oak Trust School in Birmingham , the Central England Co-operative has been organising and providing work experience for children at the school in one of their food stores or florist shops. Historically, only 7% of children with SEN find paid employment after they have finished their education and this programme aimed to improve this prospect for

1092-402: A trading profit of £18.1m (£16.6m 2017/18). Operating profit of £11.9m, was lower than the prior year (2017/18: £16.6m). The society was able to pay its members a total of £3.5m (£3.7m 2017/18) in dividend and dividend bonus during the year. The Society also had net debt of £20.6m (£16.7m 2017/18) and a £109.8m (£179.6m 2017/18) pension deficit as at 26 January 2019. The Society's active membership

1170-570: A uniform blue through all business areas. Following the success of the Rochdale Pioneers , co-operative shops were established across the UK and took customers away from private traders who responded by making it difficult for co-operatives to source quality goods to sell to their members. The solution was for co-operative retailers to come together in 1863 and form the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) (now

1248-581: A variety of co-operatives based in the United Kingdom . It is not a single business, but a number of different consumers' co-operatives spanning various sectors. The Co-operative Group is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and the biggest user of the Co-operative brand in its 4,500 trading outlets. Many independent retail societies in the UK trade as "Co-op" and others, such as the Central England Co-operative , use

1326-479: 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

1404-480: Is also involved with various other programmes as outlined below. Each year the co-op distributes 1% of its profits to the communities in which it trades. The money is usually in the form of grants between £100 and £5000 to local groups, community projects and charities. During 2017, a total of £212,000 was distributed to 120 groups. In the first six years of the scheme more than £1 million has been distributed. Previous organisations which have received grant have included

1482-624: 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 ,

1560-516: Is expected that all food stores will be affiliated with a local food bank (where possible) by 2016. As a part of the Co-operative Retail Trading Group the co-op has been a champion of Fairtrade for many years and stocks a wide array of such products. The society also has food-sourcing commitments including the responsible sourcing of fish, free-range eggs and clear food-labelling. These commitments largely match those

1638-408: 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

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1716-783: 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

1794-568: 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,

1872-454: The British co-operative movement which recommended that all UK consumers' co-operative societies switch to a universal recognisable co-operative brand. This single brand would be in contrast to the previous array of brands which had existed up to this point including the '1992 cloverleaf', the 'Co-op Welcome' and 'Co-op Late Shop' brands which was understood by the commission to be holding back

1950-515: 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. The Co-operative brand The Co-operative , also known as Co-op , is a brand used by

2028-551: 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 ,

2106-714: 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

2184-411: 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

2262-401: 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

2340-599: 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

2418-614: 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

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2496-534: The 4.6% increase at shops using the 1993 cloverleaf. The brand was introduced to food packaging in 2007, and officially launched in 2008. It was used in national advertising and a national programme of shop refits. In 2016 the Co-op group reintroduced an updated version of the 1968 logo, phasing out the co-operative logo throughout all their fully owned business, in favour of the cloverleaf. This transition included refreshing all Co-op branded products within vast areas of

2574-922: The Central England Co-operative has been fund-raising for their staff-elected charity, the Newlife Foundation. The charity aims to provide specialist equipment for disabled and terminally ill children in the Midlands and East Anglia. Since the partnership began the co-op has raised over £1,000,000 for the charity. The co-op works with food banks within its trading area to provide food and support for individuals and families who are under severe financial pressure and are who suffering from 'food poverty'. The scheme operates by linking up food banks with local co-op food stores to raise awareness of how food banks can help people in financial distress through 'promotional days' and by encouraging customers and members to donate food from permanent collection bins within stores. It

2652-580: The Chesterfield Sea Cadets, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and a Cambridgeshire project to rehabilitate injured firefighters. Research by Co-operative News showed that in 2013 the amount given to the communities in which it trades in grants, donations and fund-raising by staff and members was equivalent to 8.7% of its pre-tax profits for the year. Central England Co‑operative has over 60 member groups attended by

2730-553: The Co-operative Group) responsible for sourcing and producing goods for sale in its members' shops, and for unified marketing and branding for the societies. The CWS carried out this role for members for nearly 100 years, and in 1968 launched "Operation Facelift", which resulted in the first national Co-op logo. The movement's cloverleaf logo created the impression that it was a single organisation rather than independent organisations sharing common principles . The brand

2808-488: The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, Central England Co-operative is the second largest independent retail co-operative in the UK and was formed in 2014 following the 2013 merger of the Anglia Regional and Midlands Co-operative societies. The society has a permanent seat on the board of Co-operatives UK ; it is a corporate member of The Co-operative Group , the largest consumer co-operative in

2886-687: The Midlands Co-operative Society was formed by the merger of the Central Midlands and Leicestershire co-operative societies in 1997. Headquartered in Lichfield, the Society traded in the English counties of West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West and South Yorkshire through two distribution centres. Following

2964-722: 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

3042-400: The UK which use 'The Co-operative Brand'. Members of co-operatives get to be democratically involved in the running of the society, often with votes on key business decisions and for the election of board members. It is also common for members to be provided with a share of the society's annual profits which is proportional to the amount of money that an individual has spent with the society over

3120-655: The Westgate department store and AHF businesses to J E Beale and the UKs largest worker co-operative , Anglia Home Furnishings Holdings, in 2011, Anglia Co-operative operated 27 retail stores, eight petrol stations, 21 travel agents, three opticians, a hair salon and 29 funeral homes. At the time of merger with the Midlands Co-operative it had 405,134 members (including over 189,000 regular trading members) and 1,600 employees. Tracing its origins to Derby in 1854,

3198-545: The business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes. The Society's key businesses are its 280 foodstores and over 175 funeral directors which mostly trade using the 2008 version of The Co-operative brand . The co-operative also has 9 florists, three stonemasonry outlets, a coffin factory and crematorium; it has 1,731,005 members (including over 329,000 regular trading members) and 8,600 employees (figures as January 2017) . Registered under

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3276-498: 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

3354-494: 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

3432-532: The children by providing them with the skills that they need to get (and keep) a job. Between 2013 and 2015, 151 students took part in the scheme and the co-op is working towards offering paid employment to some of the participants. This compares with an average of 2 - 3 students in previous years. For this work the co-op was commended as a finalist for the 2015 Business in the Community Inspiring Young Talent Award. Since 2012

3510-781: The cloverleaf logo, the Midcounties Co-operative took the decision to switch from the Co-operative Brand to the 'coop' Global Cooperative Marque of the International Co-operative Alliance - both in its ventures such as The Phone Co-op and The Co-operative Energy , and in new store openings such as those in Chipping Norton , Bourton-on-the-Water and Bletchingdon . Membership is crucial to co-operatives and more than 8 million people are members of co-operatives in

3588-767: The co-op's dealerships in Lincoln were sold and the Loughborough garage was closed during 2015. Leicester Carriage Builders, a specialist vehicle building and conversion business, was formed in 1903 as Leicester Carriage Builders and Wheelwrights and began its association with the Society through the Leicestershire Co-operative in 1971. It is a member of the Vehicle Builders and Repairers Association. The business has converted vehicles for many purposes including mobile libraries, welfare vehicles and mobile 'walk in' post office vans. The business

3666-432: The commitments of The Co-operative Group , of whom the society is a corporate member. As a regional food retailer the business has a number of commitments to local and regional sourcing with a range of products including ales , bakery produce, ciders , seasonal fresh produce, honey and oils available in the co-op's stores. The co-op has pledged that, by 2018, 5% of food revenue will be products which are sourced within

3744-456: 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

3822-441: 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

3900-406: The distribution on a portion of the trading surplus as the 'Member Dividend' and the 'Community Dividend'. The society also has three Membership and Community Councils (MCCs) with each representing one of the three (East, Central and Western) constituencies. There are 36 seats on the councils with nine customer-member and three staff-member seats for each of the constituencies. The Society operates

3978-421: 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

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4056-430: The early 2000s showed a consistent decline in consumer ratings. The Co-operative Movement called on then Prime Minister , Tony Blair , to establish a Co-operative Commission to consider ways to ensure the survival of the co-operative business model into the 21st century. The commission, chaired by John Monks , published its conclusions in January 2001 making recommendations regarding branding. Most important were that

4134-637: 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

4212-407: 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

4290-588: 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

4368-509: The group including Food, Funeralcare and Insurance. The roll-out of the refreshed design was announced at the group's 2016 AGM. This coincided with the re-launch of Co-op membership, with a new deal that allows members to receive 5% off their spending on co-op products and services to spend within the business, with 1% of member spending being given to chosen local charities. After the Co-operative Group's 2016 decision to re-adopt

4446-640: 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

4524-513: The members meetings. The co-op ran its first online and postal election using the new system in April 2014, with all members who have held a £1 share for six months being eligible to vote. Members meetings are held twice a year with both customer-members and employee-members being encouraged to attend. Meetings are held at a number of locations across the trading region of the society including Leicester , Stafford , Kettering and Birmingham . At these events members vote on various motions including

4602-468: The merged society approved a change of name to Central England Co-operative effective from 25 January 2014. In 2017, members of the small neighbouring Wooldale Co-operative Society in West Yorkshire voted to transfer engagements to Central England Co-operative. In November 2022 the Central England Co-operative rebranded as Central Co-op. Tracing its origins to 1876, Anglia Regional Co-operative

4680-666: The merger of Midlands Co-op Travel and The Co-operative Travel with the retail branches of Thomas Cook in 2012, the Midlands Co-operative operated 200 retail stores, 15 petrol stations, 22 post offices, nine florists, two motor car dealerships and 90 funeral homes. At the time of merger with Anglia Co-operative it was UK Co-operative of the Year with 1,005,474 members (including over 140,000 regular trading members) and 7,000 employees. The Society's principal activities are grocery retail, petrol stations and funeral services, although it also has interests in coffin manufacture, florists and manages

4758-486: 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

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4836-587: The newly refurbished Wolverhampton railway station. Central England Co-operative operates over 175 funeral homes throughout the Midlands and East of England, many under the original private names. It is a member of the National Association of Funeral Directors and its funeral bond scheme is monitored by the Funeral Planning Authority. The society also operates three memorial masonry showrooms across its trading area and operates

4914-506: 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

4992-481: The pre-2016 incarnation of the Co-op brand. Most co-operative societies have businesses in many different areas; however, the largest areas of the businesses are in food shops, particularly convenience shops, thus the largest and most visible use of the branding is as Co-op Food . The Co-operative brand as it is widely used today came about as a result of the Co-operative Commission 's report into

5070-616: The profit was equal to £1 per point (or 1% of food purchases). Members of Central England Co-operative can also earn points when trading with other co-operative societies (such as The Co-operative Group and The Midcounties Co-operative ) whereby their share of the profit in the other business is transferred to, and paid by, Central England Co-operative from the other co-op every 6 months. Conversely members of other societies can earn points whilst trading with Central England Co-operative as long as they present their membership card. Table contents correct as of July 2015 The Society supports

5148-547: The public's perception of the co-op sector's modernising approach. Not all of the UK's consumers' co-operative adopted the resultant 2008 and 2016 versions of The Co-operative brand with the Lincolnshire Co-operative and Scotmid being notable examples. At The Co-operative Group's 2016 AGM, it was announced that the Group would go back to a revitalised version of the 1968 Co-op 'cloverleaf' design, utilising

5226-411: 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

5304-490: The region in which the business trades. The current governance arrangements have been in place since the merger of the Midlands and Anglia societies. Twelve board members are elected from the society's membership with three customer-member and one employee-member being elected from each constituency at any one time. Additionally, the society has two non-executive directors, with a search committee existing to find and co-opt suitable candidates with these being elected by members at

5382-561: The rest. The Society had been providing general ophthalmic services for over 40 years, through branches in Peterborough, St. Neots and Hunstanton. Trading as Westgate Opticians, it carried out more than 200 eye examinations each week until the closure of the Beale's Department Store in Peterborough in 2020. In the last full year of trading, 2018/19, Central England Co-op recorded gross sales (excluding VAT) of £869.9m (£848.3m 2017/18) and

5460-406: 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

5538-506: The world and the national buying group, Co-operative Federal Trading Services . On 19 September 2013, it was announced that the boards of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society and Midlands Co-operative Society had agreed merger terms. Approved by members on 4 and 18 November, legal completion of the merger took place on 1 December, with the Anglia Society transferring engagements to Midlands Co-operative. On 15 January 2014, members of

5616-446: The year. This share of the profit is commonly referred to as co-op's dividend . The size of the dividend varies depending on the financial performance of the group. Membership of the majority of consumers' co-operatives in the UK was brought under one identity in 2008 as a part of the launch of 'The Co-operative Brand' however each individual co-operative retains its own individual membership scheme. Members of these societies are given

5694-514: Was based on a sans serif bold lower case ( Neue Helvetica ) logotype for the wording, with different colours representing different businesses. It won a silver award from the Design Business Association. The brand was trialled between 2005 and 2007, at several outlets of the Co-operative Group, Scotmid , United Co-operatives and Midcounties Co-operative . A 2007 pilot programme of 115 shops saw sales rise by 15%, beating

5772-651: Was closed during 2015. From the late 2000s onwards, Central England Co-operative had 3.5% stake in a joint venture travel agent called The Co-operative Travel, which was owned by The Co-operative Group and Thomas Cook Group . Involvement in the joint venture came to an end in 2016 when Central England Co-operative (along with The Co-operative Group) were bought out by Thomas Cook. After that, Central England Co-operative continued to directly manage 21 former Anglia Co-operative travel shops, many of which were co-located in former Westgate premises. In 2020 it transferred 16 of its remaining branches to Midcounties Co-operative and closed

5850-691: Was formed by the merger of the Greater Peterborough Regional and Anglia (formerly Waveney) co-operative societies in 1987. Headquartered in Peterborough , the Society principally traded in the eastern counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, although it had gained wider outreach through the acquisition of co-operative department stores in Yorkshire and the South East of England. Following divestment of

5928-500: Was over 330,000. The highest paid director in 2018/19 was the former Chief Executive whose total earnings were £730,438 (£713,491 2017/18). Because of its co-operative structure, the Society has a set of values and principles which require the business to operate responsibly and to share its profits with its members and their communities. The focus of the societies community work focuses on the community dividend, member classes, its SENse to Aspire initiative and its charity partner but it

6006-502: 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

6084-473: Was strengthened by the creation of the Co-operative Retail Trading Group (CRTG) in 1993, providing Co-op branded products and other food supplies to its members: by 2002, the CRTG provided 100% of food supplies sold by UK consumer co-operatives. Over time, the brand became tarnished by inconsistent customer delivery and image perceptions of the cloverleaf logo were irreparably damaged. Market research carried out in

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