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85-626: The Rugby League Conference , also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group ), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England , Scotland , and Wales . The RLC was founded as the 10-team Southern Conference League in 1997, with teams from the southern midlands and the south east, but subsequently, rebranded and expanded both geographically and numerically to include around 90 teams stretched across almost

170-401: 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

255-447: 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

340-612: A further 1% being donated to 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

425-414: 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

510-472: 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

595-580: 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

680-506: A series of regional leagues. The Southern Conference League was founded as a 10-team competition in 1997. The following season it was rebranded as the Rugby League Conference due to its intentions to include teams from outside the traditional heartlands of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. The league steadily expanded over the first few seasons right up to the fringes of the heartlands, before expanding into Wales for

765-550: 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

850-400: 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

935-463: 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

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1020-469: A special member's meeting agreed to restructure 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

1105-419: 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

1190-498: 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

1275-479: 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

1360-797: 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 the Co-operative Federal Trading Services , formerly the Co-operative Retail Trading Group (CRTG). The Co-operative Group has developed over

1445-619: 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

1530-560: The professional structure as have Hemel Stags and Oxford although Hemel reverted to being a solely amateur club after selling its professional license to Cornwall and Oxford folded. With the top heartlands amateur league, the National Conference League voting to move to a summer season, the 2012 season saw a re-alignment of the amateur game and the Rugby League Conference was replaced with

1615-416: 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 the CWS becoming highly innovative. By 1890

1700-414: 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

1785-418: 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,

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1870-422: 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

1955-500: 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

2040-597: 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

2125-523: 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

2210-471: 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

2295-406: 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

2380-482: 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,

2465-500: 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

2550-505: 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

2635-752: 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

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2720-448: 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

2805-669: 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. Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers As the mechanisation of the Industrial Revolution was forcing more and more skilled workers into poverty, a group of 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

2890-469: 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

2975-545: 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,

3060-495: 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

3145-744: The National Division) and the Scottish League became integral parts of the Rugby League Conference structure. The Rugby League Conference celebrated passing the 100 club barrier in 2010. 2011 was the last season before the league was restructured. The Rugby League Amateur Four Nations was competition for national amateur sides from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. As of 2010 Competed for by winners of each premier division. Competed for by winners of each regional division. The Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited , trading as Co-op and formerly known as

3230-756: The Norwest Co-operative Society, based in Wythenshawe , Manchester, transferred its engagements to United Co-operatives , which was run from Rochdale. It in turn transferred its engagements to the Manchester-based national hybrid society, The Co-operative Group , in 2007. At the outset, the Pioneers had a clear set of objects, as set out in "Law the First" of its rules: Many aspects of these objects can be seen directly in

3315-634: 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

3400-695: 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

3485-411: 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

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3570-418: 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

3655-539: 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

3740-414: 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

3825-435: 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

3910-574: 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

3995-512: 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 was launched in Manchester by 300 individual co-operatives in Yorkshire and Lancashire . By 1872, it was known as

4080-684: 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

4165-447: The end of their first year trading, the Pioneers had 80 members and £182 of capital. It is widely believed that the co-operative's members were a group of 28 men. This figure is cited because it was believed that the £28 of capital was raised in equal shares of £1, often paid in instalments. However the co-operative's minutes never mention 28 men or the figure of £28 - as researchers showed in 2016, after careful and full consideration of

4250-482: The first time in 2001 with the addition of Cardiff Demons. The league expanded into the North East that same season. In 2003 National League Three was founded including some of the stronger Rugby League Conference clubs and some BARLA clubs. This same season saw massive expansion of the Rugby League Conference including an entire Welsh division. The league also pushed its borders further including more teams from

4335-625: 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

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4420-435: 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

4505-513: 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

4590-439: 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

4675-550: 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

4760-691: 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

4845-430: 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

4930-538: 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

5015-402: The less rugby league playing areas of the counties considered the heartlands and went as far south west as Somerset. The league expanded further in 2004 by allowing entry to heartland clubs. For the 2005 season the competition was split into two tiers, with Premier divisions being created for above the existing regional divisions. The next major changes were in 2007 when National League Three (as

5100-525: 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

5185-521: The modern-day co-operative movement. The Pioneers rented their first store at 31 Toad Lane and moved out in 1867 but the co-operative movement later purchased it, and opened it as a museum in 1931. The museum is known as The Rochdale Pioneers Museum. It is now a separate legal entity, as the museum and archive are operated by a charity, the Co-operative Heritage Trust CIO, which was incorporated in 2019. The society's name

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5270-450: 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

5355-418: 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

5440-523: 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

5525-496: The now famous Rochdale Principles , and over a period of four months raised £10 to rent premises in Toad Lane, Rochdale , having collected £28 of starting capital. On 21 December 1844, they opened their store with a very meagre selection of butter, sugar, flour, oatmeal for sale. Within three months, they expanded their selection to include tea and tobacco, and they were soon known for providing high-quality, unadulterated goods. By

5610-604: The organisation in its design, construction and its relationship with employees and 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

5695-421: 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

5780-408: 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

5865-470: The requirement to focus on making and retaining annual profits which can be invested in 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

5950-444: 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

6035-885: The society's records. It is believed that this was propaganda invented by George Holyoake . By 1900, the British co-operative movement had grown to 1,439 co-operatives covering virtually every area of the UK. The later minute books for the REPS (Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society) are held by Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust but the wider records of the movement are held by the National Co-operative Archive at Holyoake House in Manchester. The society traded independently until 1991, changing its name as it merged with neighbouring co-operatives, to Pioneers in 1976 and to Norwest Pioneers in 1982. In 1991,

6120-402: 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

6205-499: 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

6290-545: The whole of Great Britain from Aberdeen in northern Scotland down to Plymouth on the south coast of England. The aim of the RLC was initially to provide regular fixtures for new clubs based outside the traditional 'heartland' of rugby league in the UK, although as the playing standards increased, it also accepted teams from the 'heartlands'. The hope was that some clubs would eventually progress to become semi-professional. To date, London Skolars and Coventry Bears both play in

6375-558: 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 the Rochdale Principles – which notably introduced the idea of distributing a share of profits according to purchases through a scheme which became known as

6460-475: 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

6545-469: 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

6630-457: 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

6715-477: 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

6800-402: 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,

6885-399: 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

6970-401: 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

7055-474: 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,

7140-602: Was sold for £249 million to the Wellcome Trust , and Sunwin (the group's cash transportation business) 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

7225-546: 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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