British co-operative movement

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The United Kingdom is home to a widespread, diverse and popular Co-operative Movement. Modern Co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844.

Co-operativesUK is the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK. This is a Co-operative of Co-operatives. Most kinds of co-operatives are eligible to join Co-operativesUK.

Contents

[edit] Consumers' Co-operatives

For more details on this topic, see Consumers' Cooperative.

The largest and most recognised part of the UK movement are they many Consumers' Co-operatives. They a co-operative businesses run for the benefit of their customer members. Of these co-operatives, the largest sector is food retailing though they have a significant presence in other sectors such as Travel Agencies and Funeral Directors. They are gradually exiting the non-food retailing market.

Many co-operatives started out in a single village, town or city usually with just a single store. Here, members would be customers of the society's trading location and the society would reward these members with a proportion of any profits based on that member's spending with the society, or a dividend. This is the fundamental difference between a Co-operative and a company. As each society was so small there were thousands of co-operatives covering virtually every area of the UK. Gradually, societies expanded and opened further stores or they would merge with a neighbouring society. Today, there is one dominant, national society, The Co-operative Group, with over 4,500 trading outlets. The Co-operative Group is complemented by a number of large regional societies such as Midlands Co-op, the Midcounties Co-operative and Scotmid. However, many societies have remained with a single store such as Shepley Co-op, Coniston Co-op and Allendale Co-op.

[edit] List of Societies

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Society Website Founded Members Activities

(number of outlets)
Allendale Food retail (1)
Anglia Regional arcs.co.uk 1876 216,102 Food retail (30), Funerals (18), Travel (11), Non-food retailing (38), Petol retailing (12), Opticians (2)
Chelmsford Star chelmsfordstar.coop 1867 52,937[1] Food (28), Non-food (2), Travel (3), Funerals (6)
Channel Islands ci-cooperative.com 1919 Food (16), Non food (3: two 'Homemaker' stores and one 'Totalsport' store), Travel (2)
Clydebank 1881 Food (6), Non-food, Funerals, Post Offices
Coniston conistonco-op.co.uk 1896 Food (1)
The Co-operative Group co-operative.coop 1863 600,000 (2007) Food, Funeral, Travel, Post Offices, Car sales and service, Petrol, Banking, CIS (approx 4500 locations)
East of England eastofengland.coop 1858[2] ≈350,000
Heart of England heartofengland.coop 1832[3] 179,657[4] Food (33), Non-food (21), Funeral (9), Travel (3), Post Offices (4)
Highburton 1856 Food (1)
Langdale Food (1)
Lincolnshire lincolnshire.coop 149,247 Food (69)
Lothian, Borders & Angus lothianco-op.co.uk 1839 (or earlier) ▼65,074 (2008) Food (52)
Midcounties midcounties.coop Food (147)
Midlands midlandsco-op.com Food (160)
Moulton Food (1)
Musselburgh & Fisherrow www.mfco-op.co.uk at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
www.mfco-op.co.uk		 approx. 1862 1080 (2005) Food (1) Non-food (1) Funerals (2) (demutualized or demutualizing)
Penrith penrithco-op.co.uk Food (10), Non-Food (1)
Plymouth and South West psw.coop Food (71)
Radstock 1867 Food (7) Non Food (1)
Scotmid scotmid.coop Food (129)
Seaton Valley Food (1)
Shepley Food (1)
Southern southern.coop Food (108)
The Phone Co-op phone.coop
Tamworth tamworth.coop Food (14)
Wooldale wooldale.coop Food (3)

[edit] Credit unions

For more details on this topic, see Credit Union.

Credit Unions are a loan and savings co-operative. Members normally have a 'common bond' to make them eligible for membership. Commons bonds are usually that all members live in a certain locality, work for a common employer or belong to the same trade union, church or association. Because of the need for a common bond, most credit unions remain rather small. Credit Unions are run in a not-for-profit way. This means they use their money to run their services and reward their members - not to pay outside shareholders. They must set money aside each year to ensure they don't go bust. They use any leftover money to provide better services to members or share evenly among savings accounts (a dividend)[5]

In Great Britain, Credit Unions are regulated by the Financial Services Authority who set certain standard and approve the people who hold important positions within a credit union. All credit unions must have the words 'Credit Union' in the title, or in Wales they can have 'Undeb Credyd'. The main trade association for credit unions in Great Britain is the Association of British Credit Unions Ltd (ABCUL). ABCUL is based in Holyoake House, a Grade One listed building in Manchester owned by Co-operativesUK.

In Northern Ireland, the Companies Registry of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investments are responsible for the regulation of credit unions. The main trade association for credit unions throughout the island of Ireland is the Irish League of Credit Unions.

[edit] Housing Co-operatives

For more details on this topic, see Housing cooperative.

Housing co-ops are owned and democratically controlled by its member-tenants. The Confederation of Co-operative Housing is the UK's national body for housing co-ops.

[edit] Food

For more details on this topic, see Food cooperative.

[edit] Worker

For more details on this topic, see Worker cooperative.

A worker co-operative is a co-operative owned and democratically controlled by its employees. There are no outside- or consumer-owners in a worker co-operative. Only the workers own shares of the business. It is estimated that there are approximately 358 worker owned and controlled co-operatives in the United Kingdom, 55 of which have started up in 2003 and 2004. The combined turnover of the 163 worker co-operatives for which Co-operativesUK has information is over £100 million and they employ almost two thousand members.[6]

The largest employee-owned company in the UK is the John Lewis Partnership. However, John Lewis is listed as a public limited company but its shares are held in trust on behalf of the employees rather than being traded on the London Stock Exchange. Each employee (referred to as "partner" within John Lewis) has a say in how the company is run and each year they are awarded an equal percentage share of the profits based on their salary. In the past ten years, this has amounted to between one and two months' salary for partners. The John Lewis Partnership operates twenty-six department stores and a webstore under the John Lewis division and 187 (Dec 2007) supermarkets in the Waitrose division. The company's presence is more marked in the south and east of England though it is gradually expanding to other areas of Great Britain.

Suma is the largest independent wholefood wholesaler-distributor in the United Kingdom and a workers' co-operative. Suma specialise in vegetarian, Fairtrade, organic, ethical and natural products.

[edit] Agricultural

Agricultural marketing and supply co-operatives are owned by farmers. Mole Valley Farmers is a larger example of a supply co-operative founded by farmers. The late twentieth century saw the demutualization of several large co-operatives, including the giant Countrywide Farmers, which is a joint stock company owned by 11,000 farmers.[7] The break-up of the Milk Marketing Board in the 1990s formed several large dairy marketing co-operatives.

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[edit] Local Exchange Trading Systems

For more details on this topic, see Local Exchange Trading Systems.
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[edit] Retailers' co-operatives

Retailers' co-operatives provide marketing and wholesaling services to retail businesses.

  • Independent retail consumer co-operatives are corporate members of The Co-operative Group, a secondary co-operative. The Co-operative Group manages the Co-operative Retail Trading Group, servicing 3200 food stores, including its own and those of its corporate members.[8]
  • Members of the Arizona hoteliers' marketing association, Best Western, have 280 hotels in the UK, as of 2008.[9]
  • UK retailers' and wholesalers' association, Nisa-Today's, organizes along co-operative lines. As of 2008, Nisa-Today's represents 300 wholesalers and 674 retailers, with 5000 convenience stores and small supermarkets, including the Costcutter symbol group.[10]
  • The Dutch association of retailers and wholesalers, SPAR, is very similar to Nisa-Today's, but its UK membership is smaller. As of 2008, SPAR members have 2500 outlets in the UK.
  • Most retail florists are members of Interflora, a former co-operative that demutualized in 2006 (when it was acquired by its United States affiliate, Florists' Transworld Delivery.)
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[edit] References

  1. ^ Annual Report and Financial Statements, Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society, 2007-01-27, pp. 5, <http://www.chelmsfordstar.coop/common/pdf/Star07R&A.pdf>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008 
  2. ^ As Norwich Co-operative Society
  3. ^ As Lockhurst Lane Industrial Co-operative Society
  4. ^ Annual Report and Financial Statements, Heart of England Co-operative Society, 2007-01-20, pp. 8, <http://www.21stcentury.coop/pdf/report07_Pt2.pdf>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008 
  5. ^ Financial Services Authority, Just the facts about Credit Unions, pp. 2-3 
  6. ^ Ethos Public Relations (2005-6-13), Worker Co-operatives with the Wow Factor, Co-operativesUK, <http://www.cooperatives-uk.coop/live/cme652.htm> 
  7. ^ Countrywide - supplying the rural community
  8. ^ About CRTG. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  9. ^ About Us. Best Western Hotels GB. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  10. ^ About Us. Nisa-Today's.

[edit] External links