Co-op UK Totally Explained

Everything about Co-op Uk totally explained

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-operatives^UK 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-operatives^UK.

Consumers' Co-operatives

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've 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'd merge with a neighbouring society. Today, there's 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 Raunds Co-op.

List of Societies

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	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		Food, Funeral, Travel, Post Offices, Car sales and service, Petrol, Banking, CIS
East of England	eastofengland.coop	1858	≈350,000
Heart of England	heartofengland.coop	1832	179,657	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			Food (52)
Midcounties	midcounties.coop			Food (147)
Midlands	midlandsco-op.com			Food (160)
Moulton				Food (1)
Musselburgh & Fisherrow
Penrith	penrithco-op.co.uk			Food (10), Non-Food (1)
Plymouth and South West	psw.coop			Food (71)
Radstock				Food (6)
Raunds				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)

Credit unions

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)
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 the offices of Co-operatives^UK.
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.

Housing Co-operatives

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.

Food

Worker

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-operatives^UK has information is over £100 million and they employ almost two thousand members.
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're 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's 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.

Agricultural

Local Exchange Trading Systems

Further Information

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