An agricultural cooperative , also known as a farmers' co-op , is a producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activities.
47-425: GTExpress may refer to: A store brand operated by Giant Tiger , a Canadian discount retailer A bank location operated by Guaranty Trust Bank , a Nigerian multinational bank Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title GTExpress . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
94-681: A 29,000 m (310,000 sq ft) distribution centre on Walkley Road in Ottawa, previously occupied by Sears Canada . The company's headquarters moved to this location later the same year. In December 2005, Giant Tiger opened a new 3,700 m (40,000 sq ft) distribution centre for frozen and refrigerated products in Brockville , Ontario . In 2018, the company opened a 600,000-square-foot (55,742 m ) distribution centre in Johnstown , halfway between Montreal and Toronto, at
141-403: A Canada-wide chain based on this model. Asked by a reporter whether he had ever imagined that Giant Tiger would eventually have the success it was then enjoying, Reid stated, "Yes. That was the original intention. The idea for the business came when I was a travelling salesman. I saw the discounters growing. My original inspiration was the F. W. Woolworth Co., obviously that was a big chain. So this
188-785: A Target or Walmart . The chain has undertaken a major expansion in the Greater Toronto Area since 2005. It has opened seven stores in Bradford, Brampton, Markham (now closed), Newmarket, Scarborough and Etobicoke. The 200th Giant Tiger store opened in Nova Scotia in October 2010. In 2004, Giant Tiger opened a single store in Potsdam, New York , its first (and only) in the United States. This store closed during
235-471: A competitive yardstick or as a means of allowing farmers to build countervailing market power to oppose the IOFs. The concept of competitive yardstick implies that farmers, faced with an unsatisfactory performance by IOFs, may form a cooperative firm whose purpose is to force the IOFs, through competition, to improve their service to farmers. A practical motivation for the creation of agricultural cooperatives
282-723: A different banner. In 1977, Giant Tiger established Chez Tante Marie stores in Hull and Gatineau , Quebec. The Hull store closed in 2015. Another Chez Tante Marie store existed in Lachute , Quebec ; this store has since been rebranded as Tigre Géant. In 2017, the last Chez Tante Marie store, in Gatineau, was rebranded as Tigre Géant. In 1996, the Scott's Discount brand was launched as an alternative format for smaller stores. In 2008, Giant Tiger opened its first GT Xpress outlet at
329-425: A distribution system in which stores are restocked daily, allows stores to "pull" only the inventory they immediately need and facilitates greater turnover per square foot of scarce retail space. In 2010, Reid reported that the issuing of no-cost franchises to experienced retailers "was a great way to get experienced people. Over the years we had a lot come from Woolworth , Kresge , Kmart and later Zellers ." In
376-407: A former Giant Tiger location in Ottawa's Hintonburg neighbourhood. GT Xpress stores are intended to service less mobile residents of densely populated neighbourhoods, so that residents will not have to leave the neighbourhood to shop at a big-box store . Because larger retail spaces are unavailable in such inner-city neighbourhoods, the merchandise selection at GTXpress stores is more limited than at
423-406: A full-size Giant Tiger, let alone a big-box store. Traditional lines of Giant Tiger merchandise are further restricted to free up space for an expanded produce, dairy, deli and bakery section. Effectively, a GTXpress store is a discount version of a convenience store , characterized by a "focus on what the customer needs today, as opposed to [carrying a full assortment of] what the customer wants." As
470-540: A machinery pool, a manufacturing/marketing cooperative, and a credit union . The first agricultural cooperatives were created in Europe in the seventeenth century in the Military Frontier , where the wives and children of the border guards lived together in organized agricultural cooperatives next to a funfair and a public bath . The first civil agricultural cooperatives were created also in Europe in
517-529: A source of financing for both working capital and investments. Cooperatives as a form of business organization are distinct from the more common investor-owned firms (IOFs). Both are organized as corporations , but IOFs pursue profit maximization objectives, whereas cooperatives strive to maximize the benefits they generate for their members (which usually involves zero-profit operation). Agricultural cooperatives are therefore created in situations where farmers cannot obtain essential services from IOFs (because
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#1732801675933564-536: A strong history of agricultural cooperatives, dating back to the late 19th century. The first was the small Otago Peninsula Co-operative Cheese Factory Co. Ltd, started in 1871 at Highcliff on the Otago Peninsula. With active support by the New Zealand government, and small cooperatives being suitable in isolated areas, cooperatives quickly began to dominate the industry. By 1905, dairy cooperatives were
611-458: Is India's largest self-sustaining industry and its largest rural employment provider. Successful implementation of the Anand model has made India the world's largest milk producer. Here small, marginal farmers with a couple or so heads of milch cattle queue up twice daily to pour milk from their small containers into the village union collection points. The milk after processing at the district unions
658-405: Is related to the ability of farmers to pool production and/or resources. In many situations within agriculture, it is simply too expensive for farmers to manufacture products or undertake a service. Cooperatives provide a method for farmers to join in an 'association', through which a group of farmers can acquire a better outcome, typically financial, than by going alone. This approach is aligned to
705-572: Is then marketed by the state cooperative federation nationally under the Amul brand name, India's largest food brand. With the Anand pattern three-fourths of the price paid by the mainly urban consumers goes into the hands of millions of small dairy farmers, who are the owners of the brand and the cooperative. The cooperative hires professionals for their expertise and skills and uses hi-tech research labs and modern processing plants & transport cold-chains, to ensure quality of their produce and value-add to
752-808: The Giant Tiger banner in Alberta , Manitoba , New Brunswick , Nova Scotia , Ontario , Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan ; under the GTExpress and Scott's Discount banners in Ontario and under the Tigre Géant banner in Quebec . As of 2021, the chain reported annual sales of roughly $ 2 billion and employed about 10,000 people. Its headquarters are located on Walkley Road in Ottawa . In 2018,
799-663: The Great Recession in 2009. In 1968, Giant Tiger opened its first franchise stores, which now account for the majority of locations. The goal was to better serve the customer by having local owners in the stores. Between 2001 and 2020, The North West Company operated all of Giant Tiger's locations in western Canada under a single master franchise agreement. In March 2020, The North West Company announced that it would sell 34 of its 46 franchises to Giant Tiger, while closing six underperforming locations, maintaining five in northern markets, and converting one (Prince Albert) to
846-593: The Morrinsville -based Tatua Dairy Company and Westland Milk Products on the West Coast of the South Island . The other main agricultural co-operatives in New Zealand are in the meat and fertiliser industries. The meat industry , which has struggled at times, has proposed various mergers similar to the creation of Fonterra; however, these have failed to gain the necessary member support. In Canada,
893-672: The Taranaki -based Kiwi Co-operative Dairies. In 2001 these two cooperatives, together with the New Zealand Dairy Board , merged to form Fonterra . This mega-merger was supported by the New Zealand Government as part of broader dairy industry deregulation, which allowed other companies to directly export dairy products. Two smaller cooperatives did not join Fonterra, preferring to remain independent –
940-585: The Viterra corporation. Former wheat pools include: Other agricultural marketing cooperatives in Canada include: The Amazon region of Ecuador is known for producing world-renowned cacao beans. In the Napo region 850 Kichwa families have come together with help from American biologist, Judy Logback, to form an agricultural marketing cooperatives, Kallari Association. This cooperative has helped increase benefits for
987-490: The advertising, he found the location, he merchandised it to suit his customers, he did everything ... And, I thought, 'by golly, that's a good system.'" Because the chain most often has been shoehorned into existing spaces now too small for the major big-box store or hypermarket chains, individual store managers are given wide leeway in ordering decisions and are free to devote their limited floor space to items which sell well in their local market. This flexibility, and
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#17328016759331034-430: The capacity of farmers to prepare for and react to economic and environmental stressors and shocks in a way that limits vulnerability and promotes their sustainability. Research suggests that membership in a producer organisation is more highly correlated with farmer output or income than other standalone investments such as training, certification, or credit. In agriculture, there are broadly three types of cooperatives:
1081-527: The company ensured that, as in the co-op movement, all employees would share a common interest in maximizing profits. Giant Tiger #1, opened in Ottawa's historic Byward Market in 1961, was company-owned. The first franchised Giant Tiger was opened by Jean-Guy Desjardins in Maniwaki in 1968. As Reid would explain it forty years later, from the moment the change was made, "the [Maniwaki] store made money and I didn't have to do anything. [Jean-Guy Desjardins] did
1128-474: The company opened a 600,000-square-foot (55,742 m ) distribution centre in Johnstown , halfway between Montreal and Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario's Highway 401 and Highway 416 . It is a participant in the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code managed by the Retail Council of Canada . In the mid and late 1940s, Giant Tiger founder Gordon Reid , who was then in his early twenties,
1175-499: The company's trucks were making deliveries to each store three times a week. In 2001, Reid reported that deliveries were taking place daily: "We have the most efficient shipping and distribution system in the general merchandise field ... It is equivalent to the grocery stores. We deliver to stores five times per week. There is no one else in the general merchandise industry that does that and we do it with our own trucks." On May 31, 1996, Giant Tiger purchased and took possession of
1222-468: The concept of economies of scale and can also be related as a form of economic synergy , where "two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently". While it may seem reasonable to conclude that the larger the cooperative the better, this is not necessarily true. Cooperatives exist across a broad membership base, with some cooperatives having fewer than 20 members while others can have over 10,000. While
1269-619: The cost of the inputs that the members purchase from the cooperative compared with direct purchases from commercial suppliers. Supply cooperatives provide inputs required for agricultural production including seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, fuel, and farm machinery. Some supply cooperatives operate machinery pools that provide mechanical field services (e.g., plowing, harvesting) to their members. Agricultural marketing cooperatives are cooperative businesses owned by farmers, to undertake transformation, packaging, distribution, and marketing of farm products (both crop and livestock.) New Zealand has
1316-422: The economic benefits are a strong driver in forming cooperatives, it is not the sole consideration. In fact, it is possible for the economic benefits from a cooperative to be replicated in other organisational forms, such as an IOF. An important strength of a cooperative for the farmer is that they retain the governance of the association, thereby ensuring they have ultimate ownership and control. This ensures that
1363-440: The end of 1962, he decided to close the store. Unexpectedly, the rush of customers attracted by his going out of business sale provided enough cash flow to keep the business afloat. Although the store survived, expansion was slow. A second location, in the small town of Brockville , was not opened until 1965. By the time, of the company's tenth anniversary, in 1971, it still had only six stores. As of 2018, there are 230 stores,
1410-407: The ethnic makeup of individual inner-city neighbourhoods is likely to differ substantially, franchise owner at each GTXpress outlet will have the authority to tailor "product lines to cater to ethnic diversity in the area." In 1987, Giant Tiger launched its own trucking fleet (known internally as Tiger Trucking ) to make regular shipments from the warehouse to stores. In 1999, it was reported that
1457-530: The families involved as well as to protect and defend their Kichwa culture and the Amazon rainforest. In India, there are networks of cooperatives at the local, regional, state and national levels that assist in agricultural marketing. The commodities that are mostly handled are food grains, jute, cotton, sugar, milk and nuts Dairy farming based on the Anand Pattern , with a single marketing cooperative,
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1504-406: The intersection of Ontario's Highway 401 and Highway 416 . In October 2010, Reid stepped down as chief executive officer of Giant Tiger, in favour of Andy Gross, a 25-year veteran with the chain, who started working as a buyer when there were fewer than thirty stores. Gross had, by this time, already inherited the presidency from Jeff York. Gross decided to retire effective August 1, 2014, and
1551-1083: The largest dairy company in the US, Amul , the largest food product marketing organization in India and Zen-Noah , a federation of agricultural cooperatives that handles 70% of the sales of chemical fertilizers in Japan. The default meaning of "agricultural cooperative" in English is usually an agricultural service cooperative, the numerically dominant form in the world. There are two primary types of agricultural service cooperatives: supply cooperatives and marketing cooperatives. Supply cooperatives supply their members with inputs for agricultural production, including seeds , fertilizers , fuel , and machinery services . Marketing cooperatives are established by farmers to undertake transportation, packaging, pricing, distribution, sales and promotion of farm products (both crop and livestock). Farmers also widely rely on credit cooperatives as
1598-507: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GTExpress&oldid=932857290 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Giant Tiger Giant Tiger Stores Limited is a Canadian discount store chain which operates over 260 stores across Canada. The company's stores operate under
1645-497: The main organisational structure in the industry. In the 1920s–'30s, there were around 500 co-operative dairy companies compared to less than 70 that were privately owned. However, after World War II , with the advent of improved transportation, processing technologies and energy systems, a trend to merge dairy cooperatives occurred. By the late 1990s, there were two major cooperatives: the Waikato -based New Zealand Dairy Group and
1692-417: The milk. Production of sugar from sugarcane mostly takes place at cooperative sugar cane mills owned by local farmers. The shareholders include all farmers, small and large, supplying sugarcane to the mill. Over the last sixty years, the local sugar mills have played a crucial part in encouraging rural political participation and as a stepping stone for aspiring politicians. This is particularly true in
1739-416: The most important cooperatives of this kind were the wheat pools . These farmer-owned cooperatives bought and transported grain throughout Western Canada. They replaced the earlier privately and often foreign-owned grain buyers and came to dominate the market in the post-war period. By the 1990s, most had demutualized (privatized), and several mergers occurred. Now all the former wheat pools are part of
1786-507: The most recent three being opened on October 12, 2018, in Saskatoon , Windsor and Hamilton . The 2015, withdrawal of Target Canada from the marketplace presented an expansion opportunity for Giant Tiger. Its first acquisition of a Target store occurred in Fergus, Ontario , where 16,500 square feet (1,530 m ) of an approximately 100,000 square feet (9,300 m ) large Target store
1833-630: The profit reimbursement (either through the dividend payout or rebate) is shared only amongst the farmer members, rather than shareholders as in an IOF. As agricultural production is often the main source of employment and income in rural and impoverished areas, agricultural cooperatives play an instrumental role in socio-economic development, food security and poverty reduction. They provide smallholder farmers with access to natural and educational resources, tools, and otherwise inaccessible marketplaces. Producer organisations can also empower smallholders to become more resilient; in other words, they build
1880-453: The provision of these services is judged to be unprofitable by the IOFs), or when IOFs provide the services at disadvantageous terms to the farmers (i.e., the services are available, but the profit-motivated prices are too high for the farmers). The former situations are characterized in economic theory as market failure or missing services motive. The latter drive the creation of cooperatives as
1927-502: The same interview, Reid stated that over twenty Giant Tiger franchises are now run by former Walmart employees, most of whom had been attracted by the same franchise system that he had introduced decades earlier. Gordon Reid opened the first Giant Tiger store, on George Street in Ottawa’s Byward Market , on May 13, 1961, with a $ 15,000 investment. First year sales of $ 139,781 were far lower than Reid had anticipated, and by
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1974-683: The second half of the nineteenth century. They spread later to North America and the other continents. They have become one of the tools of agricultural development in emerging countries. Farmers also cooperated to form mutual farm insurance societies . Also related are rural credit unions . They were created in the same periods, with the initial purpose of offering farm loans. Some became universal banks such as Crédit Agricole or Rabobank . Agricultural supply cooperatives aggregate purchases, storage, and distribution of farm inputs for their members. By taking advantage of volume discounts and utilizing other economies of scale, supply cooperatives bring down
2021-550: Was a travelling salesman for an importer in the United States. In the American Midwest , Reid first saw discount stores. Discount stores were a new concept at the time. He was particularly impressed by Uncle Bill's, a chain headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio , which was one of his clients. The discount store concept did not yet exist in Canada, and it therefore represented a business opportunity. Reid reports that he
2068-423: Was acquired by Giant Tiger. This location opened in the spring of 2016. In 2001, Giant Tiger and The North West Company (NWC) signed a 30-year Master Franchise Agreement that grants NWC the exclusive right to open and operate 72 Giant Tiger stores in western Canada by 2032. In 2013, thirty-one of these stores were open and NWC was eyeing expansion into older city neighbourhoods and rural towns too small to support
2115-495: Was also inspired by Frank Woolworth’s continent-wide success, half a century earlier, in creating hundreds of profitable Five-and-Dime stores. Reid’s own retail experience, dating back to his first job as a teenager, had been in department stores rather than in discount, but his mother had worked behind the luncheon counter at a Woolworth’s in downtown Montreal . Reid stated, four decades later, that he had believed, even at this early stage, that it would be possible to build
2162-446: Was always the plan." Key head office personnel were co-owners of Giant Tiger Stores Limited. Initially, Giant Tiger’s head office was quite small; and ownership was therefore shared among a small number of people. By 1980, ownership had been shared between Reid and ten key employees. Gordon Reid has stated that Canada’s agricultural cooperative movement was his inspiration for this innovation. Making his employees into part-owners of
2209-744: Was then replaced as president and COO by Greg Farrell, who in turn was replaced on March 1, 2015, by former Zellers president and COO Thomas Haig. As of 2015, Reid retains the posts of chairman of the board and CEO. A proposal to sell the company was briefly raised in October 2013, but soon abandoned. Agricultural cooperative#Canada 2 A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their individually-farming members, and agricultural production cooperatives in which production resources (land, machinery) are pooled and members farm jointly. Notable examples of agricultural cooperatives include Dairy Farmers Of America ,
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