About the project
UK retail co-ops are enterprises owned and controlled by their own members. These are the shops you see on the high streets that sell food, funeral, travel and many other services.
To be a member of your local co-op you can join for £1 and be part of a democratic business and have your say, e.g. through attending meetings, electing representatives to the board of directors or even standing for election. The UK retail co-ops work together, through a buying group called the Federal Retail Trading Services Ltd (FRTS), to purchase their food and goods on larger scales, but also provide local produce and services in their communities.
These retail co-ops use their profits (surpluses) to provide community activity and reward members with dividends, social and recreational activity. They all have one thing in common. They are all signed up to the ICA co-operative identity Values and Principles. Check them out in the useful links. How many co-ops could you be a member of?
www.centralcoop.co.uk – Central Co-op is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK, with a heritage stretching back over 175 years. With over 400 trading outlets, a family of around 7,700 colleagues, and more than 330,000 regular trading members.
The Society is independent of The Co-operative Group, but is part of the wider co-op movement, working together to provide all sorts of benefits for their members and customers. In the true spirit of co-operation they work with each other so that, as part of a larger unit, they match the buying power of much bigger companies through economies of scale.
Central Co-op trades across 20 counties including East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, ranging from food to funeral, floral, coffin factory and property investment.
Retail food stores are their main core business, but they want to make a difference with modern funeral homes too. They invest a percentage of their trading profit into local communities through the Community Dividend Fund.
Central Co-op has launched an innovative Co-op International Trading Development Fund to help move global communities out of poverty. Its Malawi Partnership sells a range of products to support producers and farmers to help strengthen trading capacity in Malawi. https//malawi.centralengland.coop
Central Co-op offers a wide range of roles and careers across their retail stores, funeral homes and Support Centre in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Through their Difference Maker Academy colleagues can join and progress their careers along a variety of structured career paths, gaining on-the-job training and professional apprenticeship qualifications at the same time. They have a huge focus on early careers and supporting young people, offering work experience to young people, and working with schools and colleges delivering a range of employability workshops to young people. There’s something for everyone and where you can reach your potential and shape your career.
Working for Central Co-op has a range of exciting benefits including; personalised learning and development, enhanced family-friendly policies, colleague assistance programme, contributory health cash plans, colleague discount, paid time off for volunteering, annual awards, colleague share of the profits, pension scheme, retail discounts, colleague recognition, holiday buy scheme, cycle to work…and lots more!
Visit our careers website at Careers – Central Coop.
www.co-operative.coop – One of the world’s largest co-ops. Owned by millions of members and the 5th biggest food retailer in the UK trading over 7,000 locations. Also, a major general insurer and a legal services business. Employs over 70,000 colleagues. Based in Manchester but trading across the British Isles.
Recognised as a leader for social goals and community led programmes such as modern slavery, gender pay gap, ethnicity pay gap, ethical policies and sustainability reporting.
They exist to meet members’ needs and stand up for the things they believe in. The more successful they are, the more they give back to its members and the local community.
The Group Group also managers the Federal Trading Services which sources and promotes goods for food stores of the co-op movement of the UK.
They support projects that help make communities fairer for everyone through their local causes. The more members that shop with them and choose to support these projects, the more funding they will receive.
www.midcounties.coop – Is one of the largest independent UK Co-op societies with over 640,000 members and 7300 colleagues. It operates the ‘Your Co-op family of businesses’ which spans Food, Travel, Childcare, Utilities and Post Offices.
The Society trades nationally through some of its businesses, including Travel, Utilities and Childcare, with its heartlands in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Wiltshire and Worcestershire.
The Society’s purpose is simple: To be a successful consumer co-op working towards creating a better, fairer world and to enhance the lives of the colleagues, members, customers, and the communities it serves.
It’s co-op values are at the heart of everything it does, and this means that the decisions it makes are driven by the democratically elected board and always informed by members.
In the year, it has paid out £200,000 to organisations and charities across its community and colleagues have volunteered over 25,000 hours.
www.heartofengland.coop – An independent reginal business that has been trading for over 190 years with the Head Office based at the heart of their community in Foleshill, Coventry.
The Society is nearing 40 food stores and 16 funeral homes trading within local communities across Coventry, Warwickshire, South Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
The Society is delighted to be working in partnership with Bewiched and have opened their first coffee shop next to the Balsall Common food store in Coventry, West Midlands.
The Society has 172,000 active members and continues to grow, and is a family of around 670 colleagues.
The Society is passionate about protecting their communities they serve and the planet and this is demonstrated by offering compostable carrier bags, packaging free zones, electric vehicle charging points and is working towards zero food waste.
The Society donates more than £50,000 each year through the Helping Hearts scheme.
All co-ops live by a set of values and principles that guide their everyday business and re-affirms their commitment to their members. These are listed below along with examples of what these could mean as part of your everyday life.
Useful links
COOPS UK
Look for a Co-op near you and be part of the Co-op Economy. There are over 7,000 Co-ops in the UK with sales of £39.7bn. Co-ops distribute their power through one member, one vote.http://www.uk.coop
International Cooperative Alliance
The ICA was established in 1895 to promote the co-operative model. http://www.ica.coop
