April 2017

APRIL 2017
news
RESPONSIBILITY
Setting your sights
on becoming a
responsible
business
Plus... Planning a
holiday? Go sustainable
... Next steps for CSR ...
Why going hyperlocal
puts people in control
ISSN 0009-9821
01
9 770009 982010
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news
CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND
CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP
MOVEMENT SINCE 1871
Holyoake House, Hanover Street,
Manchester M60 0AS
(00) 44 161 214 0870
www.thenews.coop
editorial@thenews.coop
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Anthony Murray
anthony@thenews.coop
DEPUTY EDITOR
Rebecca Harvey
rebecca@thenews.coop
EDITORIAL
Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop
Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop
DIRECTORS
Elaine Dean (chair), David Paterson
(vice-chair), Richard Bickle, Sofygil
Crew, Gavin Ewing, Tim Hartley,
Erskine Holmes, Beverley Perkins and
Barbara Rainford.
Secretary: Ray Henderson
Established in 1871, Co-operative News
is published by Co-operative Press Ltd,
a registered society under the Cooperative
and Community Benefit Society
Act 2014. It is printed every month by
Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton,
Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Membership of
Co-operative Press is open to individual
readers as well as to other co-operatives,
corporate bodies and unincorporated
organisations.
The Co-operative News mission statement
is to connect, champion and challenge
the global co-operative movement,
through fair and objective journalism and
open and honest comment and debate.
Co-op News is, on occasion, supported by
co-operatives, but final editorial control
remains with Co-operative News unless
specifically labelled ‘advertorial’. The
information and views set out in opinion
articles and letters do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of Co-operative News.
Co-operation is driven by a
desire to change – so what
difference are we making?
In everything that we do, the co-operative impact upon the world is
always considered.
Co-op principles ensure a better way of business for the benefit of people
and community.
But, while co-operatives do make economical sense for members by
pooling resources and saving costs, there’s more behind the desire to
co-own a business.
Dirk Vansintjan, president of energy co-op body REScoop, sums it up
perfectly in an article for Co-op News. “People join up,” he says, “not
just because of competitive energy prices and investment returns, but
also their desire to fight climate change, develop co-operation with their
neighbours, and support the added value of community projects towards
the local economy.” Read more on page 30.
It is this desire for change that unites people and creates co-operation.
It is why people put selflessness behind them and work together for the
greater good.
Day in, day out, this greater good is practised by a billion members of
co-ops around the world through a million co-operative businesses.
Co-op impact spreads far and wide. This edition looks at the many
examples of people pushing for change, which includes:
uCo-operators discussing how co-ops can create a post-carbon world
uAn initiative from credit unions, which is making loans more accessible
online
uInvesting over £10m in sustainable tourism when shoppers buy a Co-op
holiday
This is just a snapshot of the co-operative movement. And today, the
world needs a strong focus on co-operative principles based on the
values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and
solidarity for all.
@coopnews
cooperativenews
ANTHONY MURRAY - EXECUTIVE EDITOR
APRIL 2017 | 3

holiday? Go sustainable
... Next steps for CSR ...
Why going hyperlocal
puts people in control
ISSN 0009-9821
01
9 770009 982010
THIS ISSUE
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT
We look at the options for ethical tourism
(p32-35); Howard Brodsky gives advice
to retailers on how to innovate to get
ahead (p44-47); Southern Co-operative’s
Gemma Lacey shares her co-op experience
(p22); and economist James Walton of IGD
discusses the impact of Brexit (p26)
news Issue #7282 APRIL 2017
Connecting, championing, challenging
news
APRIL 2017
RESPONSIBILITY
Setting your sights
on becoming a
responsible
business
Plus... Planning a
COVER As the UK prepares for
Responsible Business Week from
24-28 April, we look at how co-ops
rate when it comes to looking after the
planet, their workers, suppliers and
communities Read more: pages 38-43
£4.20
www.thenews.coop
20-21 SHARE OFFERS
Details of two share offers from the
Ecological Land Co-operative and New
Internationalist magazine.
22-23 MEET… GEMMA LACEY
The director of sustainability and
communications at Southern Co-op tells
us her priorities and proudest moments
24-26 CO-OP RETAIL CONFERENCE
The Co-operatives UK event looked at how
buying groups can help retailers, and how
Brexit will affect the industry.
28-29 ABCUL CONFERENCE
The Association of British Credit Unions
looked at how to attract customers from
the millennial generation.
30-31 COMMUNITY ENERGY
Dirk Vansintjan of REScoop asks how
Europe’s new energy directive will affect
renewables and the community energy
sector on the continent.
32-35 ETHICAL TRAVEL
The tourist industry is booming – and
an important part of the world economy.
But how can travellers make sure their
holiday isn’t harming the environment or
exploiting workers where they visit?
36-37 ETHICAL ADVERTISING
Campaign group Stop Funding Hate wants
the Co-op to rethink its advertising policy.
38-43 RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
UK retail co-ops are taking innovative
approaches to ethical working – including
a high-tech suit that lets staff experience
the physical effects of old age.
44-47 RETAIL INNOVATION
Expecting the unexpected and the power
of being hyper-local.
REGULARS
6-13: UK updates
14-17: Global updates
18: Letters
18: Membership updates
48-49: Reviews
50: Diary
4 | APRIL 2017

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NEWS
POLITICS
Co-op movement reacts to measures in Hammond’s spring budget
Small co-operatives will benefit from
legislation to reduce regulatory burdens,
in a decision announced by chancellor
Philip Hammond in the spring budget.
The government will increase the
turnover threshold for which co-ops are
required to conduct a full audit from £5.6m
to £10.2m, and the assets threshold from
£2.8m to £5.1m. The measure is expected
to save co-operatives affected between
£5,000 and £10,000 a year.
Co-operatives UK, which campaigned
for the reform, welcomed the news.
Secretary general Ed Mayo said: “It
is very welcome to see the chancellor
helping to level the playing field for
smaller co-operative businesses. There
are 7,000 co-ops up and down the country
giving people ownership of the things that
matter – their work, their homes, their
local areas. We have been arguing for the
reform announced today. Its introduction
will make life easier and provide a
significant saving for a range of co-ops.”
In his budget speech, Mr Hammond
said local pubs with a rateable value of
less than £100,000 would receive a £1,000
discount on business rates bills in 2017.
The government will also provide local
authorities with a £300m fund to deliver
discretionary relief to help those hardest
hit by business rate rises.
Labour/Co-op MP Adrian Bailey, who
has been campaigning for the change,
also said: “I was delighted to see this
commitment in the Budget. It reflects the
strength of the co-operative cause and
the increasing awareness of the vital role
that co-ops play in driving our economy.
It is also a reflection of the strength of
the close working relationship between
the movement and its parliamentary
representatives.”
Peter Holbrook, chief executive of
Social Enterprise UK, said the budget was
“relatively safe... featuring some welcome
steps, but one which won’t deliver the
radical change the economy needs.”
He welcomed the discretionary business
rates relief fund, reduced regulatory
burden and discounted rates for pubs.
He added: “The action to fund
broadband for local groups is vital to
Plan to double co-op start-ups by 2030
Over the next decade the number
of co-op start-ups will double and
membership will rise 15%, under
targets in a draft National Co-operative
Development Strategy. The final stage
of the strategy was launched by Dame
Pauline Green, former president of the
International Co-operative Alliance, who
chaired its drafting panel.
The vision:
One day most businesses will be run in
a participative way. The best of these
will form the foundations of a different
kind of economy, over which people
have control. These will be co-ops.
2030 targets:
u Double co-op start-ups
u Increase the number of co-op
members by three million to 20 million
u 50% increase in public perception of
co-ops as modern and innovative
create the digital infrastructure required to
ensure more balanced regional growth.”
But he warned it was a “worrying
sign” that there was no mention of social
investment, inclusive business, shared
society or mutuals, and barely a mention
of charities.
Dame Pauline told delegates at the
Co-operative Retail Conference to
respond to the final three-month
consultation before the strategy’s
launch on the International Day of
Co-operatives (1 July).
She said co-ops need to look at
how they work to support the strategy.
This includes choosing co-ops to do
business with and being open about
new forms of co-operation.
“This means new conversations,
looking for new ways to act as a co-op,
encouraging people to talk about what
your co-op is doing, be open to talk to
new people,” she added.
She advised co-ops to look at
ways to involve members – such as
supporting the Worker Co-op Solidarity
Fund, or dealing with issues in their
communities through co-op models,
rather than by supporting charities.
u Respond to the draft strategy online:
www.uk.coop/doit
“The government may have completely
lost sight of the value of the social
economy,” he said. “We hope it’s not
too late before the government comes to
realise the power and potential of social
enterprise to create opportunities and
reduce inequalities.”
6 | APRIL 2017

BANKING
Co-op Bank reports
£477m loss and warns
of more branch closures
ENERGY
Co-op Energy sets new
community targets
The Co-op Bank has reported an annual
loss of £477m. This is lower than the
£610.6m loss of 2015, but marks the fifth
year in a row it has lost money and brings
the total accumulated loss to £2.6bn.
In its 2016 annual report the bank, in
which the Co-op Group still has a 20%
stake, claimed the loss is due to legacy
issues, citing a lower net interest income,
an “increase in the fair value amortisation
associated with the merger with the
Britannia Building Society” and “higher
remediation and strategic project costs”.
“2016 was a year of progress and
challenge, culminating in the board’s
decision to commence a sale process and
consider other options to build capital,”
said chair Dennis Holt.
He said the bank had only been able
to consider these options because of
the progress on its turnaround. “These
options would simply not have been
feasible before,” he said.
Although the bank is only a few weeks
into the sale process, new CEO Liam
Coleman said the organisation was
“pleased with the interest to date” and
was engaging with potential bidder.
As a back-up alternative, the bank is
exploring plans to raise an additional
£750m, and is to close an additional 10
branches by the end of 2017, bringing the
number down to 95.
The bank is still separating from the Coop
Group and continues to rely on it for
critical IT, personnel and assets services.
It completed the transfer of its core
mainframe system to a new IBM managed
environment in February, but warns
that “this ongoing separation project is
complex and may be more costly and take
more time than currently contemplated.”
The bank stated that part of its focus for
2017 would be on “continued investment
in the brand and development of products
and services which reflect the bank’s
customer-led Ethical Policy”.
Mr Coleman added: “We believe there
is value in our distinct position in the
market and that the relationship we have
with customers, centred on our values and
ethics, distinguishes us and remains a key
reason why four million customers choose
to bank with the Co-operative Bank.
“The board and management team
believe there is strong potential to build
the franchise.”
But the bank’s use of its current brand
has an uncertain future. The Co-operative
Bank trademark belongs to the bank, but
the Group has objected to an application to
register ‘The Co-op Bank’ as a trademark.
The bank’s co-operative nature is also
monitored quarterly by Co-operatives UK.
“With its shift in ownership in 2013,
the Co-operative Bank sought to embed
its co-operative values and ethics in its
vision, its constitution and its guiding
documents,” said Ed Mayo, secretary
general of Co-operatives UK. “To assure
that the bank is operating in line with
these, Co-operatives UK worked with the
International Co-operative Alliance to
develop a set of criteria and we assess the
Bank’s activities regularly
“The Co-operative Bank, though no
longer a member-owned co-op, is without
question a business that promotes cooperatives
and works in line with the
movement’s values and ethics and all
those who wish to see that continue
should wish it well.”
Laura Carstensen, chair of the bank’s
values and ethics committee, added:
“We stepped up our support for the cooperative
sector through our sponsorship
of The Hive, a new business support
programme for people wanting to start or
grow co-ops or community enterprises.
“I am delighted that the partnership has
already been able to help 77 co-operatives
and other groups.”
Co-op Energy has announced a new
range of targets for community energy
development in the UK.
The supplier, part of the Midcounties
Co-operative,has 40 power purchase
agreements in place with community
energy generators, up from nine in 2014.
It wants to increase that to 60 over the
next three years.
It is also supporting trials of innovative
new ‘time of use’ and ‘local energy’ tariff,
has pledged to work with schools and
local groups to demonstrate the positive
impacts of community energy and will
continue the lobbying of policy makers
for a more balanced regulatory regime.
The new commitments form part of a
new Community Energy Strategy that
will be reviewed annually, with progress
reported in Midcounties’ annual Social
Responsibility Report.
DEVELOPMENT
Co-operatives UK opens
election nominations
Co-operatives UK has opened
nominations for its board and worker
co‐op council elections.
Five categories will be contested this
year – consumer-owned; federations;
mixed ownership; enterprise-owned;
and retail consumer. Four seats are also
available for the worker co-op council.
Nomination forms must be received by
13 April. If elections are contested, voting
will open 2 May–19 June and results
announced on 23 June.
u For eligibility criteria and election
resources, visit s.coop/elections2017
APRIL 2017 | 7

COMMUNITY
p Claire Davison (left), Emily Wade (top right) and Bryony Moore, directors of Manchester clothing co-op Stitched Up, get ready for
the six-garment challenge to raise awareness of working conditions in the fashion industry. Directors and members will wear just six
items of clothing over six weeks. The co-op, formed as an alternative to high street retailers, works in garment making and upcycling
workshops, clothes-swap parties and sewing machine hire. Read more: s.coop/sixitemchallenge
CO-OP GROUP
Responsibility initiatives at Group focus on environment and community
Co-op Insurance has launched a scheme
to offset 10% of its new customers’ motor
and home carbon emissions for the first
year of their policy by backing carbon
reduction projects in Ghana and Kenya.
For each motor policy it will offset 10%
of customers’ cars carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions in the first year by supporting
the provision of cookstoves in Ghana,
which are up to 50% more efficient than
the stoves they replace.
For each home policy, Co-op Insurance
will offset 10% of customers’ home CO2
emissions in the first year by buying water
filters, to offer safe drinking water to
families in Kenya. Produced by LifeStraw,
the filters save energy because they do not
require electricity or boiled water.
The initiative will help protect families
from waterborne diseases, a leading cause
of death among children and adults.
Co-op Insurance is part of the Co-op
Group, which sources 99% of its electricity
from renewables and has reduced its
direct carbon footprint by 43% since 2006.
Mark Summerfield, chief executive of
Co-op Insurance, said: “We were one of the
first businesses to recognise and respond
to the impacts of climate change. Since
then we have reduced our greenhouse gas
emissions from our operations, purchased
renewable electricity and have offset more
than a million tonnes of carbon since we
first introduced carbon offsetting on our
products 10 years ago.
“We are now offering a carbon offset as
standard on all home and motor policies
in the first year, at no extra cost to our
customers, and are making sure to choose
projects that are checked to a stringent
standard and have added benefits in the
developing world.”
Other announcements from the Group
include an extension of its funeral
policy for children. For the past 30 years,
Funeralcare has not made any charge for
funeral director services for families who
have lost a child under the age of 16.
Now this will be extended to cover 16
and 17 year olds, with increased options
available to families under the policy.
The company, which has also committed
to online transparency over costs, says
this will help families hit by unexpected
costs at an upsetting time.
The Group has also announced a joint
venture to create an online platform
to create sustainable supply chains for
brands, manufacturers and retailers.
It joins Mars, WRAP and the Carbon
Trust on the Manufacture 2030 project,
which helps companies draw up plans
and share information on supply chains.
8 | APRIL 2017

COMMUNITY
CAMRA awards for
village pubs saved by
their communities
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has
given its National Pub of the Year award to
the a small local saved from closure by its
village community.
The George & Dragon pub in Hudswell,
North Yorkshire, closed in 2008 but was
renovated and reopened two years later
by Hudswell Community Pub Ltd, formed
by locals to buy the site. The pub now also
serves as a meeting place, venue, village
library and local shop.
Paul Ainsworth from Camra said: “The
George & Dragon is a great example of
how a pub has been resurrected as a true
community asset.
“It goes to show that in the right
hands a closed pub can become viable
and successful. We are very impressed
with the work the community group has
undertaken to save their local.”
Landlord Stu Miller added: “We are
truly thrilled to have been recognised by
Camra. We’re a small Yorkshire Dales pub,
owned by the community and run by me
and my family, I’m extremely proud of
what our little pub has achieved.”
James Alcock, general manager at
Plunkett Foundation, which provided
support for the George & Dragon,
added: “Community-owned pubs are an
exceptional example of how a community
can succeed in running an enterprise.
“Within a short space of time, a
community has rallied together in order to
save a vital village resource and have now
been rewarded for all their hard work.”
Camra honoured another community
pub, naming the King’s Arms, in
p Camra’s Ken Davies presents the award to
George & Dragon landlord Stuart Miller (right)
and his wife Melissa
Top: The George & Dragon pub
Shouldham, its West Norfolk Pub of the
Year for the second year running. The 17th
century pub was saved from closure by
locals after it was put up for sale in 2012.
They set up a community company,
Shouldham Community Enterprises (SCE),
and after a fundraising appeal reopened it
September 2014.
Landlord Ian Skinner said: “A big thank
you must go to our fantastic team, to our
customers, to the breweries who supply us
with great beer and of course to drinkers
and CAMRA members who voted for us.”
u Plunkett holds its More Than Pub
Conference, for anyone involved or looking to
start up a community pub, on 18 May at Coin
Street Conference Centre, London. Details at
s.coop/25u0h
p The King’s Arms in Shouldham
p The Triple Hop, Golden and IPA beers
RETAIL
Co-op calls on members
to write beer notes
The Co-op Group has been working to
engage its members’ voice – and now that
voice has been given an unusual forum,
on the retailer’s new bottled beers.
In a tasting trial, 100 cases of the
Group’s new Golden Ale, Triple Hop and
IPA beers were sent to members, and
three of their comments were chosen to
go on the labels.
The tasting notes for the Golden Ale
came from Michael Gibbons from Luton;
the Triple Hop was written by Sam
Dineley from Bristol, and the IPA was
written by Tom Packman from Essex.
As a thank-you, the trio were invited
to Frederick Robinson’s Brewery in
Stockport, where the ales are made, to
watch the first Triple Hop bottles coming
off the line. They were also given a
brewery tour and beer tasting.
p Richard Dennett (left) with the three beer
tasters at Robinson’s Brewery
Richard Dennett, senior buyer for
beers, ciders and spirits, said members
were “thrilled to be asked to taste our
new ales and took to Twitter to share
what they were doing”.
The top rated beer was the 5.5% ABV
Triple Hop, scoring a 3.8 out of five.
The project follows a member voice
exercise in Holmfirth where bottles of
wine were given to members for a tasting.
APRIL 2017 | 9

OBITUARIES
Michael Jones (1932-2017)
Turned family jeweller into
a co-op and founded the
Daily Bread Co-operative
Michael Jones, who handed over his
jewellery business as a co-operative to his
staff in 1970, has died aged 85.
He founded Northampton and Banbury
firm Michael Jones Jeweller and cofounded
the Daily Bread Co-operative – a
Christian workers’ co-op specialising in
packing and selling wholefoods – in 1976,.
He died on 5 March, 18 days after
collapsing at his home from a stroke.
Friends and relatives remembered a man
guided by kindness and faith.
Mr Jones took over the family business
– formed by his parents in 1919 as a
pawnbroker – when his father died in
1960. Three years later he decided to turn
it into “one of the best jeweller’s in the
county” and then, in 1970, turned it into a
co-op, with his workers as shared owners.
It is still thriving with a turnover of £5m.
He later said: “In my business life my
best decision was to turn the company
into a co-operative, owned and managed
by those who worked in it.
“I did this because I believed the
scriptural teaching that those who lead
are the servants of those who are led
and that the enterprise in which people
worked is at its best when it is owned and
managed by those who work in it.”
Daily Bread was the first co-op to
register under a set of worker co-op model
rules later used by hundreds of other coops,
and is listed as ‘Co-op No.1’ under the
Industrial Common Ownership Movement
(ICOM), now part of Co-operatives UK.
Co-founder Roger Sawtell said: “We
were friends and co-operative colleagues
for almost 50 years. We registered Daily
Bread Co-operative as a trial run for the
ICOM Model Rules, with Michael, myself
and five others as signatories and founder
members. These rules were subsequently
used by several hundred co-ops.”
Daily Bread was part of Mr Jones’ efforts
to translate his Christian beliefs into a
business environment, selling ethical,
organic and Fairtrade products.
Its aims were to provide employment
people with mental disability or those
rehabilitating into society; to run the
business in an ecologically friendly
manner; and to donate a proportion of
income to help communities.
Mr Sawtell said: “He could have been
a millionaire several times over and
would not describe himself as an obvious
co-operative pioneer, but his life-long
deep-seated Christian beliefs challenged
him to transform the business.”
Pam Walker (1953-2017)
A leading light of co-operative education
Pam Walker, who died on 28 February
from a stroke, was a gifted teacher and a
natural co-operator whose talents came
together when she became the member
education officer for the Ipswich and
Norwich Co-operative Society, write Bill
Knowles and Richard Bickle.
During the 1990s, as partnership
manager with the Suffolk Education
Business Partnership, Pam came into
contact with the co-op movement.
Working with the Ipswich Co-operative
Society’s education officer, Richard
Risebrow, she arranged for some teachers
to be seconded to the society to develop
the ‘Co-op 125’ project marking the 125th
anniversary of the Ipswich Co-op in 1993.
This included a mocked-up 1940s
grocery at the Ipswich department store,
learning resources for schools and the
training of a group of co-op pensioners
to deliver lessons. Following the merger
of the Ipswich and Norwich Societies,
the schools work expanded with the
development of a programme which
included a delegation to the Co-operative
College’s annual education conferences.
In 2000 Pam was elected to the
society’s education committee. When
Mr Risebrow retired the following year,
she was appointed his successor, a role
she pursued with characteristic vigour,
enthusiasm and good humour. Her role
saw her help form First Question, a worker
co-op of trainers used by the society and
other clients.
When the Co-operative College ceased
its annual conferences, Pam stepped in
and organised nine consecutive events.
After Ipswich & Norwich became part
of the East of England Co-operative,
the agenda for member and community
engagement moved away from education
and Pam took a job with Rural Action
East. She kept her link to the movement
through Co-operatives East and First
Question. These years were not easy for
her but her adventurous spirit led her to
travel to India stay for several months
with a pen friend.
Despite health challenges, Pam
remained one of the driving forces of First
Question and at the time of her death was
Chair of Co-operatives East.
Her legacy can be seen in the work of
groups at the Education Centre in Ipswich
and the recent research for another society
which shows that for every £1 spent on
member groups and classes, there is a
social benefit to the wider community of
more than £20.
10 | APRIL 2017

Tamworth Co-op supports charities with bag scheme
Tamworth Co-op is using the 5p charge
on plastic shopping bags to support local
charities, and has handed out £20,000
to four organisations in its trading area.
Starfish, Heart of Tamworth, Community
Together and Tamworth Sea Cadets have
each received £5,000 through the society’s
newly launched Cash in the Bag scheme.
Paul Bull (1957-2017)
Co-op Party councillor,
delegate and activist
Paul Bull, a long-standing activist for the
Co-operative Party, has died aged 60.
He sat as South West delegate to the
national executive committee since 2014
and represented the Party on Exeter
City Council, where he was the lead for
communities and culture.
He died from cancer on February 19,
with his wife Rachel – also a councillor for
Exeter – at his side.
In the last weeks of his life, he continued
his duties, chairing of a meeting of the
Exeter Board and taking to the pitch
during an Exeter City FC match during
half-time to sign the council up to the
Exeter Dementia Action Alliance.
Luke Pollard, who stood for the Party
in the seat of Plymouth Sutton and
Devonport, said: “His death leaves us
poorer as a region and as a movement.”
Writing on the Party’s website, he
added: “The ever-present smiling gent,
encouraging and supportive, he will be
remembered not just as a good, decent
man, but as someone who campaigned
for and represented his community and
his beliefs with true humility.
“The memories and tributes speak to
a man held in high regard by all those
who met. A kind patient man, Paul was
rarely rushed, taking time to speak to and
understand all those around him.
“His participation in local groups, in
co-operatives, the Exeter Pound local
currency and community causes marked
him out as one of the co-op movement’s
heroes: quietly and passionately getting
on with the task of making the world a
better place one person at a time, giving
everyone the time they deserved and each
cause the attention it deserved.”
East of England Co-op regeneration plan for Ipswich
East of England Co-op has revealed plans
to regenerate important parts of Ipswich
using its extensive property portfolio.
The society is going through the planning
process to develop new school, health
centre, stores and housing, and has
invested over £4million in its retail centre
at Rosehill, Ipswich.
Shelagh Hancock replaces Mike Gallacher at First Milk
Mike Gallacher is stepping down as CEO
of British dairy farmers’ co-op First Milk,
after leading a two-year revamp which
drove a £30m improvement in its financial
performance. Replacement Shelagh
Hancock has over 25 years’ experience in
the food and agricultural supply sectors,
most recently as MD at Medina Dairy.
Channel Islands trolleys for children with special needs
The Channel Islands Co-op has ordered
trolleys with seats big enough for to carry
older children with special needs after an
online campaign. The society is taking
delivery of eight of the trolleys, which
have seats big enough for older children,
with four each to be placed in its St Helier
and St Peter Grand Marché stores.
The Hive supports 100 groups in its first year
A £10, 000 donation from the Southern
Co-operative helped Hampshire & Isle of
Wight Wildlife Trust buy 31-acre farm
Hockley Meadows Farm, near Twyford,
Hants. The farm, on a floodplain, is
home to rare species such as the water
vole, otter and southern damselfly. The
society’s Gemma Lacey is pictured at
work on the site.
APRIL 2017 | 11

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT
UK retail co-ops spread the message with Fairtrade Fortnight events
p Heart of England Co-operative paid a visit to Hinckley
Library, where children were given Fairtrade bananas and
cookies while their parents were told about the plight of
produces in developing countries. The society has also
donated tea, coffee and biscuits for all coffee mornings
held at the library over Fairtrade Fortnight. Pictured: Philip
Lindley, from Hinckley and Bosworth Fairtrade Committee;
local mayor Richard Allen; and Jo Dyke, community and
membership adviser at Heart of England
p Scotmid Co-op backed the Edinburgh Fairtrade Festival on 11 March.
Held at the Eric Liddell Centre in Morningside, it drew hundreds of
people to hear about the importance of Fairtrade. The day featured talks
from international speaker Lousi Albadawi, Lord Provost Donald Wilson
and Scotmid’s head of corporate communications, Malcolm Brown –
all underlining the importance of Fairtrade and promoting its values.
Edinburgh has been a Fairtrade City since 2004.
FAIRTRADE
Survey finds we don’t think about who
produces the food on our plate
A poll by Atomic Research shows that
nearly a quarter of adults in the UK never
think about the people producing their
food and drink.
The research, which came as organisers
of Fairtrade Fortnight looked to raise
awareness of the exploitation of smallscale
farmers, found a quarter of British
people never consider the farmers and
workers who produce their daily cup of
tea. And almost two in ten (17%) have
never thought about whether their
food has been produced in exploitative
conditions where producers do not receive
a fair deal for what they grow.
According to the Fairtrade Foundation,
the average cocoa farmer in Ivory Coast
lives on less than 40p a day. In Kenya, one
in three coffee and tea growing regions live
in poverty. Furthermore, over two million
farmers work in hazardous conditions in
Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The foundation expects 2017 to be an
uncertain years in terms of international
trade, particularly with the UK having to
renegotiate more than 50 international
trade deals once it exits the EU.
Chief executive
Michael Gidney said:
“Fairtrade is bringing
lasting change to the
lives of 1.6 million
farmers and workers
around the world and
it’s wonderful to see p Do you think about the people growing your tea?
Fairtrade bucking the
market trend with strong growth.
“Yet too many companies still do not
publish what they pay their producers. It’s
time to really push the direct connection
between the food we buy and their impact
on farmers’ livelihoods. If people really
knew, and thought about it, would they
still make the same choices?”
foods without necessarily questioning
what lies behind them – seduced by
nice packaging, or attractive products
and brands – we may be unconsciously
feeding exploitation,” added Mr Gidney.
The foundation produced a short film
for the fortnight, presenting the realities
of exploited farmers and showing how
The poll, which surveyed 2,000 buying Fairtrade can make a difference.
British adults, reveals that once told
about the difference their purchasing
power can make, over 70% of people
said they wanted to make sure their
food and drink is not produced in
exploitative conditions. Three quarters
said they would look for an ethically
sourced product.
“When we reach for our everyday
“If we all put Fairtrade into our shopping
baskets, that would be an incredible
opportunity to reach more producers
with even more impact, but it would also
be a powerful signal to companies, and
to government, that there are millions
of people who do not want their food to
come at the cost of exploiting farmers,”
added Mr Gidney.
12 | APRIL 2017

p East of England Co-op visited local schools to raise awareness
of Fairtrade. Pupils at the Gilberd in Colchester, Cobholm Primary
School (pictured) in Great Yarmouth and Sir John Leman School in
Beccles found out how Fairtrade has a positive effect on farmers
and producers across the world and held Fairtrade breaks with
goods donated by the society.
p Central England Co-operative organised a series of classes in
schools to teach children about the movement. An assembly for
140 children at Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School, in Alfreton,
taught them about Fairtrade and healthy eating. The society
organised Healthy Choices workshops offering the chance for
children to get hands-on with a range of activities, including how
to make fun fruit kebabs, understand food labelling and get meal
portion sizes right so that no food goes to waste.
u Channel Islands Co-operative set nine
students from Guernsey’s College of Further
Education the challenge of cooking a chocolate
cake recipe using only Fairtrade ingredients. A
delicious range of cakes, desserts and gateaux
were created by the students and judged by
food lecturer at the college, Julie Hyde and chief
marketing officer for the Channel Islands Cooperative
Society, Greg Yeoman. The winner was
17-year-old Liam Torode who took away a prize
of £150 worth of Co-operative vouchers, whilst
Georgina Watson took second place winning
herself £50 worth of vouchers.
p A wine tasting at Chelmsford Star’s Quadrant store heard
testimonials from farmers in Argentina, South Africa and
Guatemala on how Fairtrade wine helps producer villages build
education facilities, buy ambulances and employ doctors.
The society’s membership committee, mayor’s escort Graham
Moulds, Chelmsford mayor Patricia Hughes, and Malcolm Wallace
from Chelmsford City Fairtrade Campaign are pictured sampling
wine with Essex Wine School owner Neil Bull.
p Staff at Midcounties stores turned their shop floors into
Fairtrade classrooms for the fortnight, with sampling sessions,
treasure hunts and events for schools. Children who visited stores
like Hazlemere (above) received a free Fairtrade banana as part
of the relaunch of Free Fruit Friday, and the society introduced its
first Fairtrade Shopping List recipe booklet.
APRIL 2017 | 13

GLOBAL UPDATES
GLOBAL
2017 International Day of Co-operatives will celebrate inclusion
The world’s co-operators will celebrate
the global movement on 1 July – and this
year the theme is inclusion.
The theme for the United Nations
International Day of Co-operatives
was chosen by the Committee for the
Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives
(COPAC), currently chaired by
the International Co-operative Alliance.
Inclusion is a reflection of the peoplefocused
nature of co-ops, and is also
intrinsic to the movement’s principles
of voluntary and open membership,
democratic member control and member
economic participation.
The Alliance says: “Co-operatives
provide a space where all people,
regardless of race, gender, culture, social
background or economic circumstance,
can meet their needs and build better
communities.”
The theme will be addressed further at
the Alliance’s Global Conference in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia on 15-16 November,
which will discuss “Putting people at the
centre of development”.
COPAC will continue the International
Day celebrations at the UN at the Highlevel
Political Forum for Sustainable
Development, from 10-19 July.
The forum brings together governments
and UN officials to review implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
u Those interested in attending the UN
celebration should contact Fran McCrae at
mccrae@ica.coop.
u The Alliance will release more details
about the International Day, and tools for
co-ops, at www.coopsday.coop.
USA
Leisure co-op REI and Navy Federal Credit Union among Fortune 100
best companies to work for
Leisure co-op giant REI and armed forces
credit union Navy Federal have been listed
as two of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to
Work For.
Navy Federal Credit Union entered the
rankings at 47 – its seventh year on the
list. Founded in 1933 to serve members
of the armed forces, it is the world’s
largest credit union, employing 14,153
people across 273 sites, with revenues of
$4,720.4m.
Retailer REI – which sells sporting,
outdoor and camping gear and offers
outdoor holidays and courses – is placed
28 in the ranking. The 6 million-member
co-op scooped the accolade for its 20th
consecutive year, and is one of just 12
companies to be included since the
annual list began in 1998.
“This is an amazing honour and we
are all very proud to be recognised for 20
straight years,” said chief executive and
president Jerry Stritzke. “Our placement
on this list for the past two decades is a
reflection of our employees throughout
the country, so I want to thank all of them
for making REI a great place to work.”
He added: “We put our purpose above
profits and I think that’s a huge reason
why people love working here, stay
here for a long time and do such great,
impactful work.”
Fortune compiles its list through an
extensive survey of more than 276,000
employees at companies with more than
1,000 employees. Surveys at REI – which
is based in Washington state and has
12,000 employees – found engagement
levels routinely exceed 85%, while 93%
of co-op employees believe in the co-op’s
vision. Its combined pay and benefits lead
the industry, retail turnover is almost half
the industry standard and retention of
full-time employees is 90%.
REI announced record revenues for
2016 and highlighted how it gives back
nearly 70% of its profits to the outdoor
community. It reported annual revenues
p Colleagues at REI’s flagship Seattle store
celebrate the co-op closing its stores for
Black Friday (Photo: Suzi Pratt/Getty Images)
of $2.56bn in 2016, a 5.5% increase from
2015. The co-op invested a record $9.3m in
nonprofit partners in 2016 and opened the
country’s most sustainable distribution
centre. This year, REI members received a
record $193.7 million in annual dividends
and credit card rebates.
14 | APRIL 2017

USA
US credit unions
hit out at Trump
budget plan
President Trump has unveiled a $1.15
trillion budget plan which hikes defence
spending by a $54bn while proposing huge
cuts to domestic programmes – including
several that support and develop co-ops
in the US and abroad.
Trump’s ‘America First’ plan – a nonbinding
outline of budget priorities –
includes $4.7bn in cuts to discretionary
spending at the US Department of
Agriculture. This would axe the Rural
Cooperative Development Grant, which
offers rural development support.
Judy Ziewacz, president and CEO
of the National Cooperative Business
Association, said the plan “appears
to directly and negatively impact
co-operative business of all sizes.
“On behalf of the over 120 million
members of co-operatives and 40,000
co-operative businesses throughout the
nation that inject over $600bn back into
the economy, we express strong concern
about the direction of this proposal.”
The Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund (CDFI), which includes
more than 280 credit unions, also faces
potential cuts.
“The administration’s dramatic
reduction of funding to the CDFI Fund
will negatively impact its stated goal
to invest in America’s infrastructure,”
said Cathie Mahon, CEO of the National
Federation of Community Development
Credit Unions. “CDFIs are one of the most
effective mechanisms to channel capital
into under-resourced communities.”
The fund was established in 1994 to
give under-served communities access
to financial services. Officials from the
Credit Union National Association and
the National Association of Federally-
Insured Credit Unions said they will fight
to protect its funding.
There is also a $1.7bn (5.6%) cut for
energy, with three research programmes
cut in favour of private sector research.
But Jim Matheson, CEO of the National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association,
said: “This is only the first step in the
budget process. We will continue to work
with the White House and Congress.”
Coop Switzerland launches Jamie Oliver line
Coop Switzerland has launched a range
of barbecue products with TV chef Jamie
Oliver. The launch is accompanied by a
loyalty scheme, Trophée Coop Jamie Oliver,
which gives shoppers a stamp for every ten
francs spent. The chef’s association with
the retailer began in 2007 when it stocked
his kitchen kit and food ranges.
Co-operative law under review in Singapore
A new set of laws is being considered
to improve the governance of co-ops in
Singapore, with a review of the country’s
Co-operative Societies Act. The move was
announced by Grace Fu (left), minister for
culture, community and youth, who said
the measure was particularly important
for co-ops within the financial sector.
Philippines looking to remove co-op VAT tax exemptions
The Philippines’ Department of Finance
is proposing a comprehensive tax reform
that threatens to leave co-operatives
worse off. The reform is aimed at lowering
personal income taxes, but would see
taxes introduced on sales by co-ops to
their members, sales of co-op produce,
and lending by credit unions.
The Co-operators backs Newfoundland social project
A community cafe in St John’s, on
Newfoundland, Canada, is offering work
to marginalised people thanks to 10 years
of funding worth $200,000 from insurance
group The Co-operators. The Hungry Heart
Café was set up by charity Stella’s Circle
which supports adults with problems such
as addiction, poverty and homelessness.
New store concept and online trade boosts Coop Sweden
Coop Sweden has seen a rise of SEK 70m
in operating profit before exceptional
items to SEK 236m (£21.57). Throughout
2016 the retailer converted 53 stores to
its new store formats, Stora Coop, Coop
and Lilla Coop, which helped boost sales.
Online sales also increased by 51% in a
market that has seen a 30% increase.
APRIL 2017 | 15

SOUTH AFRICA
African women look to co-ops to create leadership network
The Africa for Africa Women’s Organization
marked International Women’s Day with
a conference focused on the role of co-ops
and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
in women’s empowerment.
The event featured experts, entrepreneurs
and relevant ministers from Africa and
representatives from global organisations.
Already in its second edition, the conference
took place on 7-9 March at Feather Market
Centre in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
One of the keynote speakers was Ms
Pumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, the UN undersecretary-general
and executive director of
UN Women.
The conference explored the role of
women co-ops and SMEs in meeting the
African Union’s Agenda 2063, a framework
for the socio-economic transformation of
the continent.
“Annually, thousands of events are held
throughout the world on 8 March to inspire
women and celebrate their achievements,”
said conference convenor Bea Hackula,
herself a business leader.
AAWC2017 is not only about the
commemoration of the international
women’s day, but the kick start of intra
and intercontinental collaboration towards
p Participants attending the first Africa for Africa International Women’s Day Conference, 2016
the realisation of Vision 2063 through case
study and round table engagements.
The conference explored how to grow
local economies and ensure sustainable
livelihoods through effective women cooperative
structures and analysed trends
in particular sectors such as agriculture,
manufacturing and textile, hospitality and
tourism and finance.
Organisers hope the conference
will provide a platform to create a
dynamic network of women leaders and
entrepreneurs to champion the cause of
women emancipation.
p Massachusetts Mutual has developed a
financial education programme for young
people
GLOBAL
Mutuals make list of world’s ethical business
Several mutuals and customer-owned
businesses have been placed on a list of
the world’s most ethical companies.
The list is compiled annually by
the Ethisphere Institute, which rates
companies on ethics and compliance;
corporate citizenship and responsibility;
culture of ethics; governance; and
leadership, innovation and reputation.
The list includes US mutuals Cuna
Mutual Group Financial Services, TIAA
Financial Services, USAA Insurance, and
Massachusetts Mutual Life.
Australia’s Teachers Mutual Bank also
made the list, as did US worker-owned
engineering company CH2M.
A number of customer owned
organisations made the list, including US
mutual legal reserve company Health Care
Service Corporation and US healthcare
company Vizient. Two Christian fraternal
benefit societies, including Thrivent
Financial – which operates a US credit
union – were also listed.
A total of 124 companies were included,
from 52 industry sectors headquartered in
19 countries.
Steve James, CEO of Teachers Mutual
Bank – listed for the fourth consecutive
year – said: “To be one of only three banks
recognised tells us we are achieving our
aim of setting the standard for ethical
practices in banking.”
Massachusetts Mutual is on the list
for the third consecutive year. It has
provided financial education for more
than 30,000 young people as part of its
FutureSmart programme.
It teamed up with NBA teams to launch
interactive seminars at basketball arenas
to promote the importance of savings and
career choices.
16 | APRIL 2017

ITALY
Coop Alleanza
launches online
food shopping for
10,000 products
p Simon Bridges, New Zealand minister for economic development, transport and
communications, and associate minister for finance, at the Cooperative Business Leaders Forum
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand minister highlights role of
co-ops in country’s economy
Co-operative business leaders from across
New Zealand met in Auckland for a
national forum on 3 March.
Organised by Cooperative Business New
Zealand, the event let co-operators share
successful stories and learn from each
other, and saw a speech by Simon Bridges,
minister for economic development,
transport and communications, and
associate minister for finance.
“[Co-operatives are] a really big part
of the economy and you’ve stayed very
strong for a long time. You’re responsible
for 20% of our GDP and those profits and
value stay local,” said Mr Bridges.
Delegates also heard from Dr Lisa
Callagher from the University of
Auckland’s Business School and Dr
Elena Garnevska from Massey University,
who discussed their recent report, The
New Zealand Co-operative Economy.
“This independent survey, the results
of which can be found on our website,
provides a much-needed glimpse into a
sector of significant economic and social
importance to New Zealand,” said Craig
Presland, chief executive of CBNZ. “Our
top 30 co-operatives and mutuals generate
annual revenues of more than NZD
$42.3bn which equates to 17.5% of New
Zealand’s GDP, while being responsible
for 1.4 million memberships and the
employment of 48,500 Kiwis.”
He added: “We now have the opportunity
to extend this research further into such
areas as what makes the co-operative
business model one of sustainability
– economically, environmentally and
socially.”
Mr Presland said he also hoped to see
“further comparisons internationally
including why there is almost a complete
lack of co-operatives within the New
Zealand public sector”.
Italian retailer Coop Alleanza 3.0 has
extended its range of ecommerce services
by launching a home delivery service. A
member of Coop Italia, the retailer will
be offering customers an online choice
of 10,000 products, including 3,000 fresh
products.
The online portal, www.easycoop.com,
will enable consumers making orders of
over €50 to arrange home deliveries for
€2.90 or more, depending on delivery
time. The platform is currently available
to customers in the Greater Rome area
but the co-op aims to extend it to other
parts of the country.
The EasyCoop site will be accessible
from any device and will give customers
the option to make orders at any time
choosing delivery slots. Once orders are
placed, customers are notified of the
delivery time, the name of the driver and
an identification code via text 30 minutes
before the actual delivery.
For this project Coop Alleanza is
working with Milkman, an Italian home
delivery enterprise. The portal was
developed and managed by Digitail, a
subsidiary of Coop Alleanza.
In your next issue ... Governance
How do co-operative customers become members? And how do members get involved in the governance of their co-op?
In your May edition of Co-op News we’ll be looking at the path to becoming a director, showing how different co-ops
approach the issue and speaking to directors with some very different backgrounds ...
Would you like to share your story? Email editorial@thenews.coop
APRIL 2017 | 17

YOUR VIEWS
BUILDING SOCIETIES V CREDIT UNIONS
(Responding to: Credit unions are the
original challenger banks, but can they
take collective action?)
A commenter above said it was ‘odd that
you don’t mention building societies here’.
Building societies are technically
mutuals, but for me often fail to meet some
of the Co-operative principles.
“Co-operatives are democratic
organisations controlled by their members,
who actively participate in setting their
policies and making decisions.” –
Nationwide occasionally send me a list
of besuited white men who I am told to
approve. There are no options for me to do
anything but approve them. Meanwhile, if
I wish to stand for election, or even submit
an idea to an AGM, I need the support
of 250 or 500 members respectively.
Democracy feels like something of an
inconvenience to them.
Building societies also do not support
the wider co-operative movement in
the way that the Bank traditionally has
done (and, as things stand, continues
to do so – though we shall see how long
that continues for). They are not really
spiritually part of the movement.
Building societies are also increasingly
closing down their day-to-day banking
options. I’m aware of the Coventry,
Norwich & Peterborough, Yorkshire and
others closing down their current accounts
recently. As far as I’m aware, in fact,
Nationwide is the only one that remains
– and Nationwide operates very much
like a bank. It isn’t a radical alternative
in many senses – although I believe in
mutual ownership and am a member of
Nationwide, it continually disappoints me.
I would love for the Co-op Bank board to
come up with a radical plan. They could, if
they wanted to, ask for current customers
to become members by investing. They
could invite credit unions to become
corporate members. They could work with
other co-operatives and retail societies
to offer banking benefits in exchange
for investment. The current board seem
to want to hold onto the co-operative
branding without really understanding
what a co-operative rescue of the bank
could look like if they set their minds to it.
John Jennings
Via Website
CO-OPERATIVE GENEROSITY
(Responding to: Co-op Group extends free
child funeral service to 16 and 17 year olds)
When I lost my only child shockingly
suddenly in 2010 my world turned upside
down. The emotional devastation of not
being able to protect him, no longer being
able to hold him, was unbearable and
bewildering. Facing a stream of practical
decisions about how to even begin to
arrange to celebrate his life, facing choices
over whether to cremate or bury him was
excruciating.
So I want to applaud the generous spirit
and leadership of the Co-op Funeralcare
in announcing this extended support. I
personally know bereaved parents who, on
top of deep grief, have struggled to afford
to fund their unexpected funeral of their
child. No loving parent should have to bury
their child but this will alleviate some of
the added pressures.
Fiona
Via website
A DEMONSTRATION OF CO-OPERATIVE
LOYALTY?
With inspiration from demonstrations
around the world against President Trump,
is it time for co-operators to hold one
outside the Co-op Group’s Angel Square
head office?
Will the members’ council come together
with a banner stating “Invoke the 6th
principle!” and help save the Co-op Bank?
The 6th principle means “working with
other co-ops” and, in this case, we should
work with our kindred banking partners
around the world, in the earnest hope of a
friendly bail out.
The Save the Bank group contacted
the International Co-operative Banking
Association in Paris which agreed to assist,
if asked. No such request was received.
Council members like the old board still
think it is nothing to do with them. “Time
to let go,” one senior member told me.
Some perspective required, first the
experts say the bank isn’t a basket case with
4.3 million loyal customers and significant
assets. Second, in contrast, the World Coop
Monitor says the co-op financial sector
controls $800bn worth of assets. The
Co-op Bank at best needs £800m (£45m
to buy off the shares at market price and
Have your say
Add your comments to our stories
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letters@thenews.coop
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Co-operative News
£750m to act as a financial cushion as per
the Regulatory body).
If we are to disappear from yet another
high street business, it will reflect poorly
on all positions of influence we still have
worldwide. We are presently hanging in
relegation position, but loss of the bank
could see us drop more down the leagues.
Leslie Freitag
Harpenden
18 | APRIL 2017

CO-OPERATIVE PRESS MEMBER UPDATE
At Co-op News we provide a service for
our readers: this service is independent,
relevant, knowledgeable journalism
about the co-operative movement – both
in the UK and abroad.
But to deliver this service, it’s important
that we have an engaged membership.
Our members are organisations and
individual people – however, previously,
readers were not always members, and
members were not always readers.
Happily, the relationship between
member and reader has already been
strengthened through a rule change
last year that ensures membership and
subscription are the same thing. The
rule change, voted for by members at
our AGM, signs all subscribers up to
membership. This is open to individuals
and organisations. (See right to find out
how this affects you.)
As our membership grows over the
coming months, we’ll be launching a
dedicated space for members online to
share and vote on themes and story ideas
for us to cover.
In the meantime, if you wish to speak
to our directors or have any queries/
suggestions about membership, please
email: members@thenews.coop.
news
CO-OPERATIVE PRESS MEMBERSHIP:
WHAT IS IT AND WHAT’S CHANGING?
Co-operative News is run by Co-operative Press,
a multi-stakeholder co-operative owned by its members. Those members are made
up of organisations and individual members.
THERE ARE TWO LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP: digital and print. Digital membership
(£30 a year) means you will receive a digital version of Co-op News each month.
With print membership (£60 a year) you will receive a printed copy of the magazine
as well. Both levels of membership will support our independent co-operative
journalism. As a member-owner, you can also take part in elections, receive
updates from the board and join our open editorial meetings.
ARE YOU A MEMBER? If you’re a direct subscriber to Co-op News, ie you pay for
your own copy, then you are now a member. Once our dedicated member area
launches online, we’ll be in touch with access details.
ARE YOU A CORPORATE SUBSCRIBER? If you do not pay for your copy of Co-op
News, it’s likely that your subscription is being paid for by another organisation.
That organisation will be the member of Co-operative Press. But if you want to
support us by signing up to digital membership you can find out more online at:
www.thenews.coop/join.
WHAT HAPPENS TO CURRENT MEMBERS? Since the change in membership
structure, only direct subscribers can be members. For members who joined before
this year, we’ll be providing a free membership extension based on your share
capital. We’ll be in touch directly this month with further details.
2017 Elections: Individual members are invited to submit nominations to stand for election to the Co-operative Press board.
To take part, visit: www.thenews.coop/nominate
Meet Elaine Dean, Co-op Press chair
Corporate member representing: Central England Co-operative
I AM INVOLVED IN CO-OPS BECAUSE...
of my family, who imbued me with a
passion for this business model as a
way of working together. Collectively,
my family has around 230 years
service to the former Derby Co-op. I’m
a member of seven co-ops.
I AM ON THE BOARD... as I am a lifelong reader and with my
passion for written words and co-operation; I feel a perfect fit
in this role. An independent Co-operative Press is vital to the
wellbeing of the movement internationally and I wanted to
support the change to a dynamic journal style paper as printed
newspapers declined in sales.
MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IS... that I’ve been a continuously
elected member of my local society since 1980 and I was proud
to co-chair the former Co-op Union’s first Anti Racist Working
Party and to chair the Midlands Section Education Council. I
was especially proud to be a member of a movement that took
sanctions against apartheid South Africa and which is now
embracing the cause against modern slavery.
ON MY FIRST DAY IN CO-OPS I WISH I KNEW THAT... co-operatives
create lifelong friendships among like-minded people. Plus, if
you campaign for something honestly and fairly with enough
passion, it can usually be achieved.
CO-OPS ARE SPECIAL BECAUSE... they encourage people to
achieve together rather than to be in competition all the time.
THE OBSTACLE CO-OPS NEED TO OVERCOME IS... the ‘woolly
minded liberals’ image they have. They must break free of this
and become modern community organisations working for the
benefit of everyone, not just a select few and offering business
opportunities based on sound ethics and fair trading.
APRIL 2017 | 19

A co-operative solution for Real Farming
SHARE OFFERS
BY PHIL MOORE
of the Ecological Land
Co-operative
q Chickens at Elder Farm
(image: Walter Lewis)
and produce from the
Steepholding family
Land banking is a popular game for entrepreneurs
that sows rich rewards. Land is bought by any
private investors, from housing developers to
supermarkets, and held onto while the value of the
land grows. This is then held onto as an asset or sold
at an inflated price.
But land banking is not the co-op way. At Ecological
Land Co-op we support the communal acquisition
of land, done with the express purpose of creating
opportunities for new entrants to agriculture and
access to land for sustainable uses. We take on land
and manage it in an ecological way – and also act as
a meeting point between planning authorities and
those in need of land: future growers.
The average age of a farmer is 59, according to
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, and modern farmers also face increasing
pressures from a globalised market. This kind of
agriculture is synonymous with the industrial,
broad-scale market place.
We believe there are other ways to grow, and
work the land, such as small-scale farming, organic
management, working towards bio-diversity and
‘complex’ farming that is varied, poly-cultural and
needs human labour care, skill and intelligence.
It is an ethic which a number of young people,
who want to grow good food without the use of
fertilisers and pesticides, hold. As a recent UN report
concluded, the notion that hazardous pesticides are
essential to feed a global population is a convenient
fiction billed by global corporations with little
bearing on the growth of voluminous crops.
In England the odds are stacked against you if
you’re wanting to start off, ecologically speaking, on
the right foot, and accessing land in the first place is
a huge issue. Taking a principled stand alone can be
a daunting and expensive task, but done together,
there’s hope. The Ecological Land Co-operative
buys parcels of marginal agricultural land and
splits it into smallholdings applying for planning
permission for residential use. For those who can’t
afford land due to high prices or who are unable,
often unequipped, to sustain years-long planning
battles to get permission to live and work on the
land, the ELC makes possible what for many would
otherwise be impossible.
Centred on the development of ecological
smallholdings, our work demonstrates a cooperative
model of collective ownership protecting
and enhancing the land, based on the ideas of
conservation alongside a working country(side)
— not a marginal activity, but as part of the social,
cultural and economic fabric of rural communities.
Based on the success of our first cluster of small
farms at Greenham Reach, Devon, and currently
awaiting planning permission for second site in
Arlington, in east Sussex, we plan to create around
22 new ecological smallholdings by 2020.
To do this we need to raise funds. We’re excited
to have teamed up with Ethex, experts in helping
investors make positive investments simply and
securely. From April we’re inviting members of the
public to invest in our project. It’s investment in more
land for a common good, and also an investment
in a future. A future for ecological agriculture,
sustainable land use and for the creation of living
and working communities.
u For more info on the share offer, visit ecologicalland.
coop or email sonia@ecologicalland.coop
20 | APRIL 2017

Why did the New Internationalist change
its legal structure?
Staff at the New Internationalist are celebrating
their 500th edition, almost a year after they decided
to convert the trust which owns the magazine from
a company to a co-operative society.
The decision, taken last April after discussions
with advisory trustees, will enable supporters of the
magazine to become members.
“It was always going to be a big decision to
change structure,” says co-editor Hazel Healy. “This
idea of opening up to become a global co-op was a
big transfer of power and something we had to think
about carefully before going down this road.”
The conversion process took a “surprisingly long
time”, she added. The team started working on
governance changes in June 2016 and the society
was registered by the FCA at the end of February
2017. Asked what advice she would give to other
businesses looking to go through a similar process,
she said: “Don’t underestimate the time it takes to
think these things through and make sure somebody
with contracts and legal language expertise is
leading on it.
“On one level it is a big cultural change because we
are used to being run as a worker co-op, where you
make your own decisions. But that also means we
are used to operating using co-operative principles,
so involving our readers and supporters is a natural
step in some ways. It’s uncharted territory. The
real challenge is working out the mechanisms to
make a global co-op work while keeping editorial
independence.”
Ms Healy says the new structure enables investors
to be responsible for the custodianship of the
publication. “The wider group of new members will
make sure the publication is keeping up its mission,
much as our trust did in the past.
“The governance will be based on our new rules
(drafted using a Somerset Rules template for a multistakeholder
co-op, with the help of Alex Lawrie,
development worker at Somerset Co-operative
Community Land Trust) as well as a charter.”
The rules allow for two classes of members –
user members who are the workers, and non-user
members who are investors and supporters. Any
changes to the charter will need the approval of both
worker members and investors. Those members
wishing to be more actively involved will be able to
join the Common Council, which will act as a forum
to engage the new stakeholders.
On 1 March, the New Internationalist launched
a share offer to raise £500,000. “At the end of this
share offer we should have thousands of investors
but we don’t yet know what proportion will want to
be actively involved,” adds Ms Healy.
The share offer will support investment in
designing, launching and marketing a new-look
publication as well as increasing multimedia
content and developing the company’s ethical shop
social enterprise.
“The magazine is still our flagship but it needs
investment, rethinking and relaunching to appeal
to as wide as audience as possible,” said Ms Healy.
The organisation also plans to invest in digital
journalism, build the capacity to produce videos,
increase our reach, invest in its ethical shop and its
publishing arm, and return to profit.
“The challenges are bigger than ever with
Trump in White House and nationalists spreading
and misinformation. Meanwhile a broken media
model makes it harder than ever for independent
publications like us to survive,” says Ms Healy.
“Our journalism is needed more than ever but it
is harder than ever for independent journalism to
stay afloat in this climate. Our journalism and fresh
perspectives can bring people together. There has
never been a better time for it.”
SHARE OFFERS
BY ANCA VOINEA
p New Internationalist’s
500th edition. For more
information about
the share offer, which
finishes on 6 April, visit
factsandheart.org
APRIL 2017 | 21

MEET...
... Gemma Lacey, co-operative
sustainability expert
Gemma Lacey is director of sustainability and communications at Southern
Co-op. She talked to us about her priorities and the proudest moments of her
four years in the role.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL DAY?
No two days are the same – one minute I can
be discussing the future strategic direction
of our business with other leadership team
members or exploring aspects of our new local
community engagement programme, ‘Love Your
Neighbourhood’, with my team – or looking at
our latest marketing campaigns. The next day I
could be out and about visiting the local Wildlife
Trust, developing our sustainable management
plans for our crematoria or natural burial ground.
The sustainability aspect of my role covers three
pillars around the environmental side of things and
protecting the environment; everything we are doing
as a business to enhance our operations through
energy saving and reducing waste. Our aim is to limit
the impact on our environment while supporting
local people. The Love Your Neighbourhood
programme, for example, specifically aims to meet
the needs of and invest in the local community.
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE
IN SUSTAINABILITY AT SOUTHERN?
My coming in with a particular focus on sustainability
has made sure it is part and parcel of everything we
do as a business – pushing that down right through
the organisation and business planning. It has also
been about making a significant shift in the way we
do things, who we are as Southern Co-op and what
we stand for to build a stronger narrative around
the business. In the four years I have been here my
role has expanded and I now have much broader
responsibilities as part of the leadership team, also
looking after marketing and digital activity.
“”
BEING REGIONAL IS REALLY
IMPORTANT – AS IS THE FACT
THAT WE ARE OWNED BY LOCAL
PEOPLE FOR LOCAL PEOPLE
WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THE JOB?
Having a great team is important to me as they are
the ones that give me real energy and purpose. I
also like that fact there is such variety in my role
given the different areas I have responsibility for
(marketing, comms, digital and sustainability and
community). The breadth of what I do also means I
get to work with a broad range of people both inside
and outside our society.
WHAT’S THE HARDEST THING ABOUT THE JOB?
There always seems so much to do and never quite
enough hours in the day! That’s great because I
can really see the potential for our organisation,
but it’s always a challenge to balance the day-today
demands, particularly when your main area
of business is so competitive and undergoing so
much change. But it is important to take that time
out to do the future thinking, so we make sure
our business plans maximise those longer-term
strategic opportunities.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT CO-OPS
THAT YOU WISH YOU KNEW ON YOUR FIRST DAY?
I had some inkling of how things would be having
worked previously for the John Lewis Partnership;
although it’s an employee-owned business, there
are clear synergies. What I don’t think I quite
appreciated was how many independent co-ops
there are and the diversity this brings. I don’t think a
lot of people generally understand these differences,
and that there isn’t just one national co-op.
WHAT IS SOUTHERN’S CO-OPERATIVE DIFFERENCE?
Being regional is really important to us, as is the
fact that we are owned by local people for local
people. This brings a certain level of knowledge
and understanding of our region especially in areas
22 | APRIL 2017

where we have been trading for over 140 years. Our
size is also key; we are a large company now – we
have grown significantly over the last five years and
opened 209th food store in 2016 – but we are still
small enough to care. Through colleagues, we can
work at a local level to build genuine relationships
with our community partners and through them
the wider community. The same can be said of the
relationships we build with our local producers
and suppliers for Local Flavours, our local food
and drink range. Our dedicated local sourcing team
works with them in a way that a larger business just
couldn’t do.
join our journey
be a member
WHERE WILL YOUR CO-OP BE IN FIVE YEARS?
Given the level of uncertainty in our world today
that’s quite a tough question, but we have worked
hard over the years to build our business resilience
so we have better systems and ways of working;
we’ve expanded into new markets and we’ve built
a steady pipeline of new store and funeral home
opportunities. We’ve also really thought about
our purpose as a co-op, who we are and what we
stand for as a business. 2023 will also be the 150th
anniversary for our co-op so that’s a celebration
opportunity we definitely won’t be missing out on!
IF YOU COULD SET UP A BRAND NEW CO-OP
TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I was talking to someone at a local food and drink
event and we were discussing how important food is
to the elderly, particularly those in care. In the same
way school meals have been turned on their head,
there is perhaps an opportunity to do something
similar to fundamentally improve the quality of
food for those in care. Food plays such an important
part in our lives at every stage and is so important
for our health and well being as well as socially. This
feels like something that would be a good fit with
the co-op model and way of working.
WHICH ACHIEVEMENT ARE YOU PROUDEST OF?
Where we have got to with our community
programme. We launched it last August following
a short pilot scheme. It’s about making it simpler
and easier for everyone to get engaged and slowly
building momentum. For us the real focus is to
build on that level of engagement and make sure
it is really embedded into the business. We have
taken that to a different level and are really making
sure our support is visible to local communities and
businesses. That’s fundamental to our business
and brand as the Southern Co-op and we integrate
community thinking into everything we do.
news
We’ve relaunched our membership,
offering member-owners more opportunity to
help us plot the future of our independent coverage
of the co-operative movement.
Find out more at:
thenews.coop/join
APRIL 2017 | 23

Can buying groups help consumer co-ops
address market challenges?
CONFERENCE
ANCA VOINEA reports
from the Co-operative
Retail Conference
With competition from discounters, online retailers
and potential trade tariffs post Brexit, co-op
retailers are exploring how working together could
enhance selling margins and enable affordable
prices. In a separate session at the Co-operative
Retail Conference, organised by Co-operatives UK,
delegates looked at opportunities for collective
buying within the UK and abroad.
In 2015 UK consumer co-operatives formed
Federal Retail Trading Services Ltd (FRTSL), as
a successor to the Co-operative Retail Trading
Group, which formed in 1992. The buying group is
collectively owned by independent societies and
the Co-operative Group.
Adrian Digby, director of strategy and change at
FRTSL, revealed the buying group was looking to
make annual savings of £100m this year through
range optimisation, promotional effectiveness and
improved buying – and that the programme of
savings would continue over the next three years.
LEARNING FROM CO-OPS IN ITALY AND DENMARK
In 2016 FRTSL agreed terms of reference for a
project to explore potential co-operation with other
European co-operative buying groups. “We decided
to explore with caution, focusing the exploration
on areas where we, collectively as FRTSL, had
opportunities to improve and learn,” said Colin
Macleod, chief executive of the Channel Islands
Co-operative and director of FRTSL.
As part of the project, members of the FRTSL
team visited Denmark and Italy last summer to
explore key opportunities in the areas of non-food
products in food stores, investment goods, entry
price points and own brands.
With 1,100 stores and a 37% market share, Coop
Denmark is a leader in food and non-food. The coop
invested in a non-food category to support the
message of its food range. Mr Macleod thinks that
UK co-op retailers could adopt a similar approach
to fill unprofitable space in larger stores.
Coop Denmark forms part of Coop Trading, a
buying group which it co-owns with Coop Norway,
Coop Sweden and SOK Group in Finland. Coop
Trading negotiates purchase agreements with
suppliers on behalf of its partners & customers.
FRTSL is exploring the potential to buy a partner
share in Coop Trading or to become a customer
with a fee structure based on volumes purchased.
Coop Italian Food is a new company established
by Coop Italia to offer knowledge to the export
market. It aims to be the most qualified and
reliable link between Italian food producers and
24 | APRIL 2017

HOW TO RUN HIGH-PERFORMING CO-OP STORES
OF DIFFERENT SIZES?
u Local outlets that are part of larger retail societies
or independent village shops all face similar
challenges. Chris Matthews, manager of East of
England Co-operative’s supermarket in Hamblin
Walk, Woodbridge, explained how a key aspect of
the co-op’s approach is to focus on local produce.
East of England members spend significantly more
than non-members, he said, and are also more
likely to receive communication from the co-op and
learn about special offers and discounts.
u At the Midcounties Co-operative’s shop
in Chipping Norton, colleagues are given the
opportunity to share ideas via the society’s
colleague council and through a colleague
development review process. The society launched
a Customer First programme last year, which uses
international buyers, and to support the export
of Italian food. As a result of the visit, FRTSL is
considering including Coop Italian Food in its
tendering process as it reviews existing contracts.
EURO COOP AS AN EXCHANGE FACILITATOR
Another key player in facilitating better
relationships among European consumer cooperatives
is Euro Coop, a sectoral body of the
International Co-operative Alliance representing
over 5,000 member co-ops from 19 countries.
Euro Coop is looking at establishing a European
consumer co-operative Erasmus Programme to
enable staff members to work in different co-ops
in Europe. As well as engaging with EU bodies,
the apex body is also preparing a tool to share
information on consumer co-ops in Europe, which
members will be able to receive for free.
Massimo Bongiovanni, president of Euro Coop
and vice president of the National Association
of Consumer Co-operatives (ANCC), which has
merged with Coop Italia, also contributed to the
session. “Innovation is vital for future of co-ops.
The ability to explore new options, doesn’t always
guarantee success but it’s the only way to put in
practice,” he said.
the results of two customer surveys to simplify
operational routines for staff and deliver improved
customer experience.
u Alison Macklin told the story of her village store,
the Brockweir and Hewelsfield Community Shop
in Gloucestershire, registered as an industrial and
provident society. More than 30% of products sold
come from the local community. Customers can
also benefit from reverse credit and receive a bill
for their shopping at the end of the month. The
environmentally friendly shop, which includes a
café and a post office, is entirely staffed by over 40
volunteers – the oldest is 89. “We do all sorts of
little things for the community. Our main aim is to
put back any surplus into the community,” said Ms
Macklin. But, she told delegates: “More and more
retailers are using local food. The important things
remain colleagues and customers. Our challenges
are very similar to yours.”
CO-OP BOOSTS MEMBERSHIP AFTER THE LAUNCH
OF NEW OFFER FOR MEMBERS
u Rufus Olins, chief membership officer at the
Co-op Group presented some of the first results of
the organisation’s new membership strategy and
looked at potential opportunities for the future.
Since launching its new membership proposition
in September, the Group has seen 627,000 new
members joining it. The retailer has an active
membership of 4.26 million members, who account
for 30% of its sales. Since the launch, members
have received £27.39m in rewards.
u Mr Olins said: “Membership gives distinct
values and value-led offers in the market place. It
is a movement for change not just a loyalty card.
Our authenticity creates a brand loyalty. We have
a proposition that people trust. Our scores in trust
continue to rise.” u
Co-operative
Retail
Conference
ORGANISERS:
Co-operatives UK
WHEN: 3-5 March
WHERE: Stratford
Manor
SPEAKERS: James
Walton (IGD), Michael
Gidney (Fairtrade),
Rufus Olins (Co-op
group), Dame Pauline
Green, Howard
Brodsky (CCA Global
Partners), Unai
Elorza (Mondragon
University), Adrian
Digby (FRTSL), Colin
McLeod (Channel
Islands Co-op),
Massimo Bongiovanni
(Euro Coop), Chris
Matthews (East of
England Co-op, Adam
Quinton (Midcounties
Co-op), Alison
Macklin (Brockweir
and Hewelsfield
Community Shop)
OPPOSITE: Delegates
at the 2017 Co-operative
Retail Conference
ABOVE: The Brockweir
and Hewelsfield
Community Shop in
Gloucestershire
LEFT: Rufus Olins, chief
membership officer at
the Co-op Group
APRIL 2017 | 25

What will Brexit mean for co-op retailers
in the UK?
“”
ECONOMY
Co-operative retailers have several reasons to be
concerned about Brexit, according to James Walton,
chief economist at research charity IGD.
Mr Walton, a keynote speaker at the Co-operative
Retail Conference, believes that while Brexit is the
most immediate challenge for co-op societies, it is
concealing other challenges that will have to be
faced regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.
One important factor in determining the future
of co-op retailers is market access. “The whole
supply chain is a product of our involvement in the
EU,” he said, adding that it was not certain that
Brexit negotiations would be made in two years.
Mr Walton thinks that all possible post-Brexit trade
deals would be less favourable than the current free
trade deal.
Other Brexit-related factors affecting the retail
sector would be the depreciation of the pound,
potential constitutional changes in Scotland and
Northern Ireland, the end of Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) direct payments for British farmers
and the increasing public dissatisfaction driving
political change.
WE NEED A POLITICAL
MOVEMENT FOR THE LONG-
TERM SUCCESS OF THE CO-OP
WHAT COULD THIS MEAN FOR CO-OPS?
Mr Walton explained how most businesses had been
created with the idea in mind that globalisation
would last. In an interdependent sector such as
grocery, the end of globalisation could pose a great
challenge. The UK imports one third of its food.
In terms of retail trends, he identified a main
tendency for the UK sector – consumers drifting
away from supermarkets, favouring discounters,
convenience stores and online shopping.
SOLUTIONS
With food and drink inflation returning the role of
buying groups such as Federal Retail and Trading
Services Limited (FRTSL) will be crucial in driving
organisations to hold prices back, said Mr Walton.
Co-op retailers can respond to these challenges
by focusing on the tangible aspect of products and
developing shopper interest and affection.
According to Mr Walton, IGD research shows
that convenience stores score highly in terms
of emotional engagement but online shopping
outperforms them.
“Shoppers are not loyal to convenience store
concept, as long as something else comes along,”
he warned, adding that co-op retailers should
support the younger generation, which has been
the most affected by the financial crisis.
u Related: Howard Brodsky on the power of
providing the unexpected (page 44)
26 | APRIL 2017

The end of oil – a co-operative
opportunity?
Now in its 10th year, this year’s Future Co-ops
conference – ‘Post Carbon Co-ops’ – addressed
life after oil. The event was organised by Cooperative
Futures, a business development
consultancy specialising in co-operative, mutual
and community led businesses.
Participants from various sectors of the cooperative
movement met in Cheltenham to look at
how co-operation and collaboration could help in
the non-fossil fuel economy, which, delegates were
told, inevitably has to follow our dependence on
crude oil.
A FUTURE OF IMAGINATION
Keynote speaker Rob Hopkins, from the Transition
Network, emphasised the need for more imagination
in local decision making. He said the current ‘clone
towns’ are a result of economic planners who seem
to “have had an imagination bypass”. Transition
towns, on the other hand, start from the point of
looking at the history and successes of the town’s
local economy and work from there to develop
more resilient economies, many without the need
for oil dependent energy.
Another keynote speaker, Mark Simmonds from
Culture Co-op, set the scene for a post-carbon
world by explaining how humans’ attitude to their
current dependence on oil and fossil fuels was akin
to winning the lottery. “We need to see how lucky
we are as humans,” he said. “Millions of years of
sunlight are stored up in fossil fuels and it was like
winning the lottery when we worked out to harness
the power.”
But, he warned, as the chances of winning again
are so remote, the challenge is to build resilient
systems that can provide a way of life that has the
smallest take from the environment as possible.
Co-operatives in their various forms are in pole
position to provide the answers to post carbon
questions, but that can only happen if decision
making faces this new reality.
Post Carbon Co-ops addressed a number of key areas which are currently very
carbon (crude oil) dependent and where change is bound to happen once oil
becomes even more difficult and uneconomic to extract.
u ENERGY: Mark Billsborough of Co-operative Energy forecast a situation
where customers of Co-operative Energy were able to choose where their
energy comes from and highlighted some innovative ways in using customers
as a resource to smooth out peaks and troughs in energy demand.
u FOOD: Helen Woodcock from the Kindling Trust explained how for every
10 calories of food on the average plate, 7 calories of oil input are needed.
“In a post carbon economy, food will have to become more local and less
intensively produced,” she said.
u TRANSPORT: Currently, transport is almost wholly fossil fuel dependent,
said Dhara Thompson of the Sail Boat Project. The project has a mission to
bring communities together through sail cargo and is working with partners
to reintroduce commercial cargo services powered by the wind. Post carbon
travel and transport might be slower but has a much lower carbon footprint.
u ENERGY: Private businesses are failing in the energy market, according to
Jonathan Atkinson of Carbon Co-op. In a post-carbon scenario, the focus is
certainly going to be on carbon free-energy generation, whether that’s wind,
tidal or solar, but equally important is a real focus on using much less energy.
Long range transportation of electricity suffers from significant losses, he said,
so co-ops, municipalities and communities will need to move towards a more
flexible, distributed renewable energy grid to meet their needs in the future.
u HOUSING: The National Community Land Trust Network‘s Stephen Hill
explained how various forms of co-op and co-housing offer more ecologically,
economically and socially sound housing solutions.
Future Co-ops Conference
p Rob Hopkins
ORGANISERS: Co-operative Futures
WHEN: 3-4 February
WHERE: Cheltenham
SPEAKERS: Rob Hopkins (Transition Network), Mark Simmonds (Culture Co-op),
Mark Billsborough (Co-operative Energy), Helen Woodcock (Kindling Trust), Dhara
Thompson (Sail Boat Project), Jonathan Atkinson (Carbon Co-op), Stephen Hill
(National Community Land Trust Network)
APRIL 2017 | 27

CONFERENCE
ANCA VOINEA reports
from the Association
of British Credit Unions
(Abcul) Conference
Credit unions and online lending
innovation
Online lending – a market worth £23bn in 2016 – is a key challenge for credit
unions in the UK, delegates at the 2017 conference of the Association of British
Credit Unions heard.
As well as having to provide a seamless user experience, they must
compete against payday lenders, who set the benchmark on frictionless loan
applications.
But credit unions can be limited by their common bond – based on living
or working links, or on membership of an association. This means that only
people meeting the common bond criteria can become members and gain
access to their financial services. In an online, universal, world this common
bond can act as a barrier when it comes to attracting new members.
To address this, two online lending models have been developed to serve
credit unions.
AN ONLINE LENDING PLATFORM, OPEN TO ALL CREDIT UNIONS
Fiach Maguire from Culoans.co.uk talked about the online lending platform,
which is open to all credit unions and covers 75% of the country. Participating
credit unions are charged for completed loan applications, the charge reflecting
the economic value of the loan. Funding credit union members do not have to
pay a joining fee but future credit unions may have to.
Through Moneysupermarket, the CULoans site can instantly process loan
applications. Since launching, the platform has had 15,000 visits, with an
application rate of 47%. Around 73% of these were completed on mobile
devices. While the rejection rate is 96%, the total volume of new loans reached
£850,000, with an average loan of £5,600 for 45 months. CULoans is currently
negotiating with other price comparison websites.
A COLLABORATIVE MODEL DESIGNED BY CREDIT UNIONS
Keith Rivers from Affordable Loans provided another example of a collaborative
model that can help credit unions reach a national, online audience.
Designed by credit unions, Affordable Loans includes credit unions, CDFIs
and charities, aiming to create full user service and coverage. To join, they
must pay a £7,000 fee for the cost of technical changes to the portal, as well
as legal, marketing and insurance expenses. In addition, credit unions pay a
£5,000 annual running cost.
The group teamed up with Asda to build their own version of a comparison
website. Asda is hosting the portal, enabling customers to go directly to the
Affordable Loans website to get a quote via Asda Money.
“Affordable loans went to Asda because customers tended to shop there –
Asda was a trusted brand,” said Mr Rivers.
The website has over 1,000 views per week growing at 10% per week. One
in four customers accessing the Asda Money website make contact with their
recommended community lender.
Both platforms are continually being improved to respond to users’ needs, a
particular emphasis being placed on being mobile-friendly.
“If it’s not mobile, it’s not online. If it’s not simple and instant, it won’t
deliver,” added Mr Maguire.
28 | APRIL 2017

Abcul
Conference
ORGANISERS:
Association of British
Credit Unions (Abcul)
WHEN: 10-11 March
WHERE: Manchester
SERVING YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE TECHNOLOGY
CHALLENGE
According to recent research by BNY Mellon
in collaboration with the University of Oxford,
millennials want to interact with financial providers
through a range of channels, with websites and
emails being the most popular choice (40%)
followed by face-to-face contact (23%) and
telephone (18%).
Millennials – born in the 1980s and 1990s – were
among the worst hit by the 2008 financial crisis.
A 2016 survey by YouGov revealed that a third of
young people aged 18-24 had debts of almost
£3,000 and experienced “significant concerns”
about money. Ms Bain’s book, Spare Change, looks
at how people could save more, regardless of their
background or income.
CAMPAIGNS BASED ON ISSUES – NOT PRODUCTS
Personal finance journalist Iona Bain (founder of
the Young Money Blog, dedicated to young people’s
finances), told the conference that while “credit
unions could act as an alternative to financial
advisers ... What’s missing is information about
what is a bank and what is a credit union.”
Ms Bain added that credit unions “need to get
out there more and explicitly market these products
to young people and say ‘this is your safety net’.
They have to embrace technology but not just do
it as a box ticking exercise.” She also said credit
unions should engage with young people by
starting campaigns focused on one key issue rather
than on the products they are offering.
CREDIT UNIONS AND THE FINTECH LANDSCAPE
Another speaker at the conference, Emanuel
Andjelic, looked at how credit unions could stay
relevant in today’s fintech landscape.
Mr Andjelic is co-funder of Squirrel, a fintech
which has designed an app to help people
create and stick to a budget. Squirrel works with
businesses that want to offer the service as a
benefit to employees, as well as local authorities
and housing associations that may have issues
with rent collection.
“We save and collect money at the source,” said
Mr Andjelic, who does not perceive tech companies
as competition for credit unions. “Tech companies
want to build cool technology that works. As credit
unions you are good at saving and lending. We
could work together.”
He gave examples of micro-saving tools
emerging in the financial market, such as Plum,
the first artificial intelligence powered Facebook
chatbot, which enables people to start saving small
amounts of money. The tool connects people’s
current account to its artificial intelligence to learn
their spending habits, so it can automatically
deposit small amounts of money into the Plum
savings account every few days.
Similarly, Digit, a mobile app, connects users’
accounts to its platform to analyse their income
and spending in order to find money it can set aside
for them.
SPEAKERS: Gwyneth
Nurse (HM Treasury),
Alison Carpenter
(FCA), Roger Marsh
(PRA), Ed Sarama
(Fiserv), Bill Hampel
(CUNA), Marshall
Boutwell (Peach
State CU), Iona Bain
(finance journalist),
Emanuel Andjelic
(Squirrel), Matt Bland
(Abcul), Fiach Maguire
(culoans.co.uk), Keith
Rivers (Affordable
Lending)
ABOVE: Iona Bain
OPPOSITE: Emanuel
Andjelic (top) and Bill
Hampel
SUCCESSFUL CREDIT UNION GROWTH: LESSONS FROM THE USA EXPERIENCE
u Bill Hampel chief policy officer at the Credit Union National Association
(CUNA) in the USA, explained how USA credit unions have continued to grow in
spite of a two main challenges. His top three tips for credit unions were: make
money; stay solvent; and grow.
u CUNA set up a Small Credit Union Committee to discuss issues of concern
for smaller credit unions. Following consultation, their recommendations were:
Differentiate; Strive to be consultative; Price for your market; Lend; and Use
available resources
APRIL 2017 | 29

ENERGY
BY DIRK VANSINTJAN
President, REScoop
A version of this piece
has previously been
published on Euronews
In its recently released Clean Energy Package, the
European Commission finally acknowledged that
energy communities – such as co-operatives – have
a major role to play in Europe’s energy transition.
On 30 November, 2016, the Commission
published a series of proposals to reform the energy
market. Referred to as EU’s “winter package” the
new rules outline plans to put efficiency first and
maintain the EU as a global leader in renewables.
Significantly, this includes placing consumers at
the centre of Europe’s energy market.
We can question whether, as a whole, the package
is capable of achieving all of these goals. In fact, it
is far from perfect. But one thing is undeniable: it
establishes building blocks for a dedicated legal
framework so that renewable energy co-operatives
can participate in the energy system without being
encumbered by rules that were made for old,
centralised and dirty fossil fuels. This could be a
potential game changer for renewable energy cooperatives
(REScoops) across the EU that want to
co-operate with each other in order to change the
energy system.
And it could not come fast enough. Communities
in countries like Denmark, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Germany have been pioneering the
clean energy transition since the 1970s. Over the
past decade or so, more and more citizens have
been coming together to produce and supply
themselves with clean renewable energy, and the
trend is likely to continue.
According to a study by CE Delft, by 2050,
about 187 million EU households – around 83% –
could contribute to renewable energy production,
demand response and/or energy storage.
People join up, not just because of competitive
Europe, renewables and the future of
community
energy
30 | APRIL 2017

energy prices and investment returns, but also their
desire to fight climate change, develop co-operation
with their neighbours, and support the added value
of community projects towards the local economy.
There is also a clear correlation between
participating in a renewable energy co-operative
and self-empowerment: over 40% of the members
of Belgian renewable energy supplier Ecopower
have also installed solar panels on their roofs.
It’s not just about renewables. Some REScoops
own and operate their own local grids and they
provide services to their members to help them use
less energy.
It’s not stopping there either – the movement
has its sights set on providing storage and demand
response, and in setting up micro-grids. It is
through these activities that REScoops will lead
the transition towards a clean decarbonised and
decentralised energy system.
At the moment, however, European energy
legislation does not even mention community
participation in energy production. This means
REScoops must play by the same rules as large,
centralised players, essentially placing REScoops
at a competitive disadvantage.
With the Commission’s proposed Clean Energy
Package, that would change. This is encouraging
news, because the old energy system can no longer
support the growth of REScoops. In many ways it
is even attacking community participation, as if it
were a virus.
Faced with unwanted growing competition,
‘dinosaur’ energy companies have lobbied their
governments, many times with success, for new
laws that make it more difficult for citizens and
their energy communities to compete.
And that’s not all. While in western European
countries the number of community energy projects
has steadily increased over time, in most eastern
European countries it is still virtually impossible
for citizens to do the same. This is not for pure lack
of desire by citizens there to set up projects – policy
frameworks play a big role in allowing or even
helping them.
The Commission’s proposals address some
of these issues. Perhaps most importantly, they
guarantee that REScoops are entitled to participate
in the energy market, not just through generation
and supply of renewables, but throughout the
entire energy system.
They will ensure member states have legal
frameworks in place to support REScoops, simplify
over burdensome regulations, and ensure they are
not discriminated against. In particular, they will
help ensure that REScoops are not excluded from
tenders simply because they have less financial
and human resources than larger players with big
portfolios of projects.
There is still a need to go further. National
regulators need to be encouraged to better
understand the REScoop model, but there is no
strong push at the moment to change this.
Renewable energy co-operatives also need to
be ensured a seat at the table as further European
energy regulations and guidelines are developed,
particularly through a potential new DSO body.
REScoops need guarantees that they will be able
to input into national plans that member states
develop in order to contribute to the achievement
of the EU’s 2030 climate and energy goals.
Overall, the Commission has demonstrated that
it understands the success of the energy transition
hinges on ensuring local citizens can exercise their
right to choose. This extends to citizens generating
and supplying themselves – both individually and
collectively – with renewable energy.
The outcome on the details is far from certain. It is
now time for national and EU politicians, decision
makers and regulators to jump on board with the
idea. One thing is certain though: REScoops should
continue to trail blaze the energy sector to make it
more democratic and beneficial for citizens.
u Community
Energy Fortnight
2017, which
showcases
inspiring examples
of communities
who are sharing
their resources to
generate renewable
energy and waste
less, takes place
from 24 June – 9 July
What is the Energy Directive – and how does it affect co-ops?
The 2012, the European Commission’s Energy Efficiency Directive
established a set of binding measures to help the EU reach its
20% energy efficiency target by 2020. The directive said that
saving 20% of the EU’s primary energy consumption by 2020
[compared to projections] would:
u improve the EU’s security of supply
u help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective
way and thereby help mitigate climate change
u shift the EU to a more energy-efficient economy, and so
accelerate technological solutions and improve competitiveness
u boost economic growth and create high quality jobs in several
sectors related to energy efficiency.
WHAT IS IN THE UPDATE?
On 30 November 2016 the European Commission proposed an
update to the Energy Efficiency Directive, including a new 30%
energy efficiency target for 2030 to keep the EU competitive as the
clean energy transition is changing global energy markets: “The
Commission wants the EU to lead the clean energy transition, not
only adapt to it.”
The proposals have three goals:
u putting energy efficiency first
u global leadership in renewable energies
u providing a fair deal for consumers.
APRIL 2017 | 31

TOURISM
BY SUSAN PRESS
Co-ops and sustainable tourism
Every year, over one billion international tourists
pack their bags to go on holiday, creating millions
of jobs and investment for national and local
economies. But decades of ever-expanding mass
tourism are taking their toll on the environment.
According to figures from the UN’s World Tourism
Organisation, tourism is responsible for about
5% of CO2 emissions – with increased storms
and heatwaves, desertification, fresh water loss,
rising sea levels that threaten coastal resorts, and
diminished snowfall in alpine skiing areas. Almost
25 years since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
first floated the idea of sustainable tourism, it is
clear to world leaders that a fundamental change is
needed in the way we approach the whole concept
of travel. This is one of the reasons why 2017 has
been designated by the UN as the International Year
of Sustainable Tourism.
Bodies like UN’s World Tourism Organisation are
doing their best to help change the lives of local
communities, but as tourist demands grow, it is
increasingly recognised that a more robust and
environmentally friendly infrastructure is needed to
support the needs of both the tourism industry and
local communities without causing more damage to
the planet.
A GLOBAL COMMITMENT
In 2010 the European Commission officially
committed itself to promoting the development of
sustainable, responsible and high-quality tourism.
That commitment is now a global one.
The World Tourism Organisation is working
with governments, public and private partners,
finance institutions, UN agencies, NGOs and
other international organisations to build a more
sustainable tourism strategy – combining policies
for inclusive and sustainable economic growth,
employment and decent jobs with real concern for
fragile ecosystems increasingly at risk.
During the 70th Session of the UN General
Assembly in 2015, 154 heads of state agreed the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along
with 17 Sustainable Development Goals – an
ambitious far-reaching framework designed to ease
poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity
for all – particularly those in low-income tourist
destinations.
From its first tentative steps in the 1990s,
the concept of sustainable tourism has been
wholeheartedly supported by the co-operative
movement. CECOP–CICOPA Europe, the European
32 | APRIL 2017

anch of CICOPA (the international confederation
of industrial and service co-operatives), is one of the
most vocal champions of sustainability.
In December 2013, more than 1,000 worker and
social co-operatives from the CECOP–CICOPA
Europe network involved in activities linked to
tourism celebrated European Tourism Day. Their
vision for a more sustainable and responsible
tourism was founded on the co-operative business
model, offering a more sustainable and responsible
tourism combining economic competitiveness with
solutions to social and environmental needs.
CO-OPERATIVE SOLUTIONS
One of their most innovative ideas was Cooproute
– a travel itinerary mapping the rich field of cultural
and industrial co-operative tourism in various
European countries. Aimed particularly at young
people, the route highlights important destinations
illustrating the history of co-operative culture and
values, from artisan co-ops producing traditional
textiles to iconic locations such as the Rochdale
Pioneers Museum on Toad Lane. Cooproute has the
ultimate ambition to be recognised as a European
Cultural Route by the Council of Europe.
In October 2016, Bruno Roelants, secretary
general of CECOP, took part in the World Social
Tourism Congress organised by the International
Social Tourism Organisation in Zagreb.
“Given its potential, tourism should develop its
capacity to generate benefits for the whole society
in fields such as employment, wealth generation,
culture, sustainability and environment,” said Mr
Roelants, who is also secretary general of CICOPA.
“Thanks to their enterprise model, Cooproute
destinations are already offering a sustainable and
innovative tourism experience in Europe.”
The co-operative business model is also
particularly suited to challenges and changes which
respect and reinforce the local community in tourist
areas as well as the stronger involvement of all
citizens in tourist initiatives, building environmental
sustainability and accessibility for everyone.
Across the world, the co-operative tourism market
is offering a growing variety of more responsible and
sustainable experiences for tourists. These range
from real adventure in little-known destinations to
volunteering in local communities and helping them
build on their local heritage be it farming, industry
or artisan crafts unique to local communities.
MIDCOUNTIES AND THE TRAVEL FOUNDATION
Midcounties, the largest independent co-operative
in the UK with gross sales of over £1.4bn, still
operates a travel business under the Co-operative
Travel brand. Despite challenging times for the
industry, it is the third largest travel agent in the
UK, with 56 shops, 150 home-based personal travel
agents and 40 independent agents who are part of a
consortium set up several years ago.
Group manager for travel services, Alisdair
Rowland, says: “Midcounties did not join the joint
venture between Thomas Cook and the Co-operative
Group five years ago. What we have been doing is
building and increasing our share of the market
from a £70m to a £350m turnover.”
Mr Rowland explains how the travel business
is a run in a “very ethical way” – in part through
operating to a set of goals they have set around
social responsibility.
“We do a lot of work with the Travel Foundation
charity, which in the last 10 years has raised over
£10m for sustainable tourism. We support it in a
number of ways. For instance, through support of
many of the projects they carry out across the world,
through advice on business growth, for example.”
Mr Rowland, who is a director and trustee of
the foundation, as well as chair of the finance
committee, says that it is also about doing practical
things that are real to local communities. “It’s quite
a complex area. For example, lots of the sustainable
tourism work that is carried out in a typical resort
is quite political – such as how a hotel deals with
its waste, which may involve local government,
or NGOs who try to do the best for travellers while
growing sustainable tourism in a resort.” u
OPPOSITE: The Travel
Foundation supports
projects around the world,
including Montego Bay,
Jamaica
BELOW: Alisdair Rowland,
Group manager for travel
services at Midcounties
Co-op. Midcounties’
Co-operative Travel
works with G-Adventures,
a social enterprise
which specialises in
sustainable travel (Images:
G-Adventures)
APRIL 2017 | 33

BELOW: Members of
the Much Kaab Mayan
women’s co-operative,
which has launched a
range of honey-based
products through support
from the Travel Foundation
One of the Travel Foundation’s most successful
initiatives is Much Kaab in Mexico, a co-operative of
Mayan women, who produce honey-based products
while looking after the endangered Melipona bee.
The co-op has launched a new range of natural
toiletries and after-sun products for sale in exclusive
hotel rooms, souvenir shops and other outlets, with
a three-year business plan for growth.
“It started with a small group of local beekeepers
in a rural village, says Mr Rowland. “The Travel
Foundation helped them form a co-operative and
provided business and marketing training. The
women have developed a brand and successful
beauty products, which have taken them into 11
resort hotels. This is a great project which started
small but has now enabled new phone lines and
internet to be installed in the village, meaning they
can start developing the product even further.”
Another Travel Foundation project in Turkey aims
to help local farmers supply fruit and vegetables to
all-inclusive hotels.
In Montego Bay, the first group of Jamaican
craft traders has completed a training programme
helping locals increase their income and improve
the visitor experience by changing the way they
sell their goods. There is also invaluable work
going on to preserve the threatened marine bays
around Fethiye in Turkey – with an educational
map for tourists around best practice – reducing
the environmental impacts of boat trips and coastal
tourism on important habitats for turtles and other
marine life.
AN ADVENTURE IN SUSTAINABILITY
The team at Midcounties is keen to monitor its
contribution to increasing sustainability while
offering customers different kinds of holidays.
“We compare the environmental impacts of
different types of holiday, from adventure tourism
to beach holidays, all-inclusive to self-catering,”
says Mr Rowland. “We also measure our financial
performance on a steering wheel looking at all our
ethical areas.”
Midcounties also offers the opportunity to travel
on trips with G-Adventures, a social enterprise
which has specialised in sustainable travel for over
20 years and financed a raft of projects including
community-operated restaurants in Cambodia
and a business school run by a women’s co-op
in Tanzania. Opportunities include stays with
local families, desert trips and the chance to help
build schools and other much-needed facilities in
developing countries.
Midcounties also aims to raise awareness of
sustainable travel – recently publishing a leaflet in
a scrapbook format for young travellers focusing on
the need to conserve energy and how to do it in farflung
holiday resorts.
“We are a retailer with a conscience and want to
spread the message,” says Mr Rowland.
“In our energy business we have a green tariff
which benefits recyclable energy and one of the
things that we do with that is make a contribution to
the Travel Foundation.
“We are also promoting a member offer where we
will get a number of members together to take them
on a G-Adventure holiday.”
He believes that co-ops are in a good place
to champion the idea of sustainable travel.
“Sustainable tour operators are out there but
sometimes they are not easy to spot. Our place
here at Midcounties is to aggregate all that on our
website and have a proper presence for sustainable
tourism as one of our points of real difference. It is
about getting the message in front of the consumer
and maximising the offer so we are the agent of
choice when it comes to ethical travel.”
34 | APRIL 2017

Co-ops working in sustainable tourism
LUPINE ADVENTURE
Lupine Adventure Co-op offers walkers,
youth workers, schools and community
groups the chance to learn expertise and
safe techniques with qualified mountain
guides. There are affordable courses
in everything from rock-climbing, basic
hill walking and map reading to tuition
for Duke of Edinburgh award schemes
at all levels. It was started some years
ago by individuals with a background in
environmental and social justice projects.
A member of Co-operatives UK, Lupine
is keen to promote the use of public
transport and lift sharing in all its outward
bound courses. If possible, all Duke of
Edinburgh Award expeditions start and
finish at railway stations. Interestingly, it
no longer promotes the Three Peaks event
in Yorkshire because of the adverse effect
on the environment. Lupine gives its time
free to organisations like the Woodcraft
Folk. It has six full-time members based
in North Wales, Yorkshire, Cumbria and
Scotland as well as a team of freelance
mountain guides. Members also take part
in conservation projects such as treeplanting.
SENINTER
One of the newest and most unusual
initiatives in sustainable tourism is
SENINTER, a joint project from several
organisations (including co-ops) from
Slovenia, Italy, Belgium and Spain. Under
the first travel initiative, grandparents and
grandchildren from Slovenia will travel
to the coastal resort of Rimin, in Italy,
where they will meet Italian grandparents
and children who will show them the
beauties of the coastal region and share
very different experiences and cultures.
The stated aim of the new project is intergenerational
empowerment, building
community bonds and links with other
countries. Its mission is ‘not just a journey
but also a legacy’ which young people will
always remember. Grandparents will be
travelling with their grandchildren during
the low and medium season in Europe.
Other partner organisations in Belgium
and Spain are also set to take part in this
innovative idea that is designed to build
bridges across generations. It has been
funded by the financed by the European
Commission and if successful it will be
rolled out across Europe.
ECOINSTITUT
Barcelona-based Ecoinstitut was set up
as a co-operative in 1999 and has played
a leading role in several major projects
designed to promote sustainable tourism.
Since 2000, the Catalan government
has worked with local government
and tourism organisations, as well as
hotels and local businesses, to improve
the sector’s environmental impact
through eco-certification and Ecoinstitut
contributed to that. A major project
was the implementation of the Catalan
Ecolabel quality standard, preparing case
studies and conducting the evaluation of
youth hostels and rural accommodation
facilities. Ecoinstitut also works with
leading PR and advertising companies to
raise awareness and develop information
material for tourist facilities. In 2008,
to help advance the implementation of
Barcelona’s Agenda 21 eco-initiative, they
were tasked with developing a guide to
sustainable hotels with the collaboration
of Barcelona Tourism and Barcelona Hotels
Association. Other projects include guides
to ethical surfing in the beaches around
Barcelona.
Co-funded
by the COSME programme
of the European Union
APRIL 2017 | 35

UNETHICAL
ADVERTISING?
The time is now for ethical advertising
OPINION
BY COLIN BAINES
Former ethics adviser
and campaigns manager
for the Co-operative
Group and adviser to
the Stop Funding Hate
campaign
Co-operatives have an opportunity to be innovative
leaders in corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Over the past year, a spotlight has been shone on
issues that should be of concern to co-operatives,
providing the impetus to once again break new
ground in corporate social responsibility (CSR).
As recession and austerity gave rise to the CSR
issues of fair tax and a living wage, today, fake news,
post-truth politics and an increase in xenophobia
and racism are setting the scene for another big
emerging CSR issue: ethical advertising.
True to its values, the co-operative movement
has played a vital role in the Fair Tax campaign in
recent years. It should now do the same thing for
the Stop Funding Hate campaign, which is calling
on advertisers to avoid the Daily Mail, Daily Express
and the Sun; three publications specifically
criticised by the United Nations.
The need for action in the UK is great, with the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad
Al Hussein, stating: “Asylum seekers and migrants
have, day after day, for years on end, been linked
to rape, murder, diseases, theft, and almost every
conceivable crime and misdemeanour imaginable …
Many of these stories have been grossly distorted and
some have been outright fabrications.”
He goes on to warn: “History has shown us time
and again the dangers of demonising foreigners
“”
TO FUND THE PROMOTION
OF HATE AND DIVISION IS TO
HOBBLE CO-OPERATION
and minorities … it is extraordinary and deeply
shameful to see these types of tactics being used …
simply because racism and xenophobia are so easy
to arouse in order to sell newspapers.”
Last year, the Daily Mail and Daily Express printed
1,768 pages that included a story on immigration, the
vast majority negative. That’s an average of three per
issue for the Daily Mail, two for the Daily Express and
one for the Sun.
Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain,
started challenging inaccurate stories about Muslims
last November and by January alone had secured 20
significant corrections, including forcing The Sun to
admit that its front page “one in five British Muslims’
sympathy for jihadis” was “significantly misleading”.
Experts from the University of Cambridge and
University of Leicester have found such reporting is
leading to increased hostility against Muslims.
There has been a groundswell of public support
for action and leadership on ethical advertising. Stop
Funding Hate already has hundreds of thousands of
social media followers and its video views number in
the millions, including over 600,000 for one aimed
at the Co-operative Group, which advertises with the
Daily Express and Daily Mail. A letter (above right)
signed by 365 members of the Co-operative Group
shows the appetite for co-operative leadership.
This comes at an opportune moment for the Group,
which is undertaking a review of its policies via its
‘Co-op Way Committee’. The Co-op is a pioneer of CSR
and business ethics, whether product related, like
fair trade and animal testing, or business function
related, such as clean energy procurement and fair
tax. The situation now calls for ethical advertising
procurement – a continuation of ‘the Co-op Way’.
36 | APRIL 2017

Recently, the Group has pre-empted its ‘Co-op
Way’ review with the publication of an ‘update
on our advertising policy’ and frankly I find it
disappointing.
There is a very welcome suspension of advertising
with YouTube until the Group is “satisfied that
our digital advertising will only ever appear next
to appropriate content” but nothing comparable
for the Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Sun. But
rather than pulling its frequent advertising with
these publications, it has committed to engage and
challenge them on coverage “which we and many
of our members believe are incompatible with our
values”.
I hope the Co-op Group appreciates what this
commitment means. It means disclosing how it is
challenging these publications and their responses.
It means disclosing how effective its engagement
has been and how it is changing behaviour. It means
having an escalation process and a commitment to
walk away if engagement fails.
The commitment to look at using advertising in
these publications in support of issues like fair trade
in developing countries is of little consequence when
those adverts sit alongside and fund stories that
amount to xenophobia and racism. Does the Group
realise it is opening itself up to be constantly asked
“what are you going to do about story X?” and to
criticism when nothing changes?
The Group (and all other co-operatives) should
take the opportunity to just walk away and stop
advertising in publications that promote hate
and division, or to put it another way – to align
advertising procurement with the co-op ethics,
values and principles.
The Phone Co-op was one of the first to rule
out advertising in these publications, which was
promoted by Stop Funding Hate in a social media
campaign urging fellow communications companies
Tesco Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone to
#BeLikePhoneCoop.
Co-operatives believe in the ethical values of
honesty, social responsibility and caring for others,
which are incompatible with enabling irresponsible
and divisive journalism via advertising revenue.
The 7th co-op principle of concern for community
requires a response; the constant stream of “grossly
distorted” stories and “outright fabrications” about
immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and other groups is
extremely damaging to community cohesion.
The adoption of ethical advertising is an
opportunity for the whole co-operative movement
to be seen to be leading the way again on a key
emerging CSR issue, and to show the superiority
of the co-operative model in being able to respond
quickly to today’s societal challenges. Ultimately
though, co-operatives should take action because to
fund the promotion of hate and division is to hobble
co-operation.
“We the undersigned 365 Co-operative
Group Members ask our co-operative to Stop
Funding Hate by procuring advertising in The
Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Mail.
“By paying these newspapers to put our brand
in their pages and on their websites, we are
taking the conscious decision to associate
ourselves with their content. Our adverts sit
alongside divisive stories about immigrants,
refugees, Muslims and other groups. These
often turn out to be ‘grossly distorted’ or
even ‘outright fabrications’ according to the
United Nations, which has specifically cited
the Sun and the Daily Express in a statement
on ‘hate speech’ and ‘extremist media’, and
called out the Daily Mail over its ‘unique’
hostility to migrants.
“Advertising in media that promotes fear,
division and intolerance is the antithesis of
what we should be doing. There simply must
be more appropriate advertising channels and
brand partnerships for the Co-op to associate
with.
“We look forward to hearing more about ‘the
Co-op Way’ policy review at this year’s AGM
and urge that this opportunity is taken to
re-establish the Co-op as a pioneer of ethical
business, including by aligning our advertising
procurement with our ethics, values and
principles.”
HOW HAS THE GROUP RESPONDED TO THE LETTER?
A blog from Nick Crofts, president of the Co-op Group’s members’ council
says that “for any business rebuilding itself and looking to grow in very
competitive markets, using advertising to attract new customers is really
important”. Mr Crofts says the Group:
u has suspended paid advertising with YouTube until it is “satisfied that
our digital advertising will only ever appear next to appropriate content”.
u took the request to stop advertising in a small number of newspapers
seriously, launched an internal audit of its activity, analysed its payback,
and talked to members about it at a National Members’ Council meeting.
u is using its contacts with publishers at every level to make the case for
change, telling them why the stories they have published challenge the
relationship it has with them. Mr Crofts says the Group has already had
meetings with senior executives at the Daily Mail and the Sun.
u has committed to use its advertising in these titles “to tell their millions
of readers about some of the things our Co-op is doing to tackle issues that
we feel strongly about, such as modern slavery or water poverty in Africa
and promoting Fairtrade programmes in developing countries”.
u is extending the ongoing review of its advertising policies, which began
earlier in the year, to look at all the platforms it uses.
APRIL 2017 | 37

HOW ARE
CO-OPS
RESPONSIBLE
BUSINESSES?
On 24-28 April, enterprises across the UK will be celebrating
Responsible Business Week. Business in the Community (BitC), the
organiser of the campaign, is calling on various businesses to use
the week to share and exchange ideas for responsible business.
According to BitC, responsible business is not about philanthropy
or good causes, but how businesses look after the planet, their
employees, suppliers and communities. How are co-ops doing this?
Co-ops and responsibility: education
RESPONSIBLE
BUSINESS WEEK
BY ANCA VOINEA AND
REBECCA HARVEY
q Staff at Southern
Co-operative’s Reigate
Store, and chief executive
Mark Smith
According to BitC, one area in which businesses
can make a difference is education. Education and
training is one of the seven co-op principles – but
does the type of education offered make co-ops
uniquely responsible businesses?
Mark Smith, chief executive of the Southern
Co-operative, is a member of the Advisory Board
of Business in the Community for the South East
region. On 27 April, Mr Smith will be speaking at the
Responsible Business Week Conference organised
by Portsmouth Business School, in collaboration
with Business in the Community.
Set up over 140 years ago, Southern Co-operative
runs more than 250 community food stores
and funeral homes in southern England. At the
conference Mr Smith will be talking about using
responsible business to engage with young people
from challenging backgrounds.
“We know that responsible businesses contribute
towards more resilient communities, stimulate
local economies, help to create skilled and healthy
workforces and tackle environmental challenges,”
he says.
“There is also a real benefit for those businesses
and the people in them. As HRH the Prince of Wales
Business in the Community Responsible Business
Ambassador for the south east of England, I am
looking forward to helping grow the responsible
business network in the region. Working with
BitC we will be looking to help drive company
engagement in education with a particular focus
on encouraging aspiration and achievement of
personal potential among young people from
challenging backgrounds.”
BREAKING BARRIERS AT SOUTHERN
Mr Smith explained how the Southern Co-operative
itself had been working to break down the
barriers to work, particularly for the vulnerable or
disadvantaged in its communities.
38 | APRIL 2017

“Over 100 people took part in our work experience
placements last year and we are working with BitC
to develop a new toolkit for managers to ensure
students receive structured, hands-on experience
and leave with new skills to support their chosen
career path,” he added.
“A partnership with the Shaw Trust saw 120
long-term unemployed clients attend monthly
employability sessions that gave them the
opportunity to practice their interviewing skills,
learn about the current employment market and
receive feedback on their CV.”
Southern also continued its partnership with
Portchester Community School through BitC’s
Business Class programme, which connects
employers with schools. Last year the society
organised a range of events for pupils at the
school, including an employability day, mentoring
partnerships, careers talks and a ‘women in
leadership event’.
The Responsible Business conference will also
hear from students who have been following
business leaders in their day-to-day roles. This will
provide a platform to understand how these leaders
develop solutions, which inspire change, creating a
fairer society and a more sustainable future.
INSPIRING CHANGE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING
As part of the programme Gemma Lacey, director
of sustainability and communications at Southern,
was shadowed by Anne Helmholz, a student
from Portsmouth University studying business
administration.
Ms Lacey says: “Anne fitted in really well with the
business; she was bright, enquiring, and was really
up for getting the most she could from the day. She
shadowed meetings, spent time with my team and
our chief executive and attended a leadership team
briefing with our new Lakeside fundraising partner
Homestart.
“Being part of a programme like this supports the
Southern Co-operative’s organisational values and
demonstrates our commitment to nurturing young
talent. It also gives us valuable insight into what
makes our business attractive to future recruits.
Now that I am 15 years into my career it was a great
tonic to spend time with someone who is just at
the start of theirs. Anne brought with her a fresh
and enquiring perspective that comes with no preconceived
expectations.”
u READ MORE FROM GEMMA LACEY ON PAGE 22
The Southern Co-operative has also worked
with KPMG, Southampton Solent University and
Business in the Community on an event to mark
International Women’s Day. On 8 March 36 girls
aged 14 and 15 from Oasis Academy Lords Hill,
Woodlands Community College and Portchester
Community School went to Southampton Solent
University to meet the career women, who shared
their experiences and worked with them to help
them prepare for their own future careers. The u
p Pupils at Woodlands
Community College with
businesswomen (L-R)
Zoe White, Georgianna
Rustell, Gemma Lacey,
Kate Hibbert, Bev Wyatt
and Loanna Creese
APRIL 2017 | 39

event was organised by the Southern Co-operative
and included a speed networking session where the
pupils were able to ask the women professionals
how they built up their careers and a session
looking at the skills that employers look for, as
well looking at how their academic studies would
support them in the world of work.
Kate Hibbert, local sourcing manager at the
Southern Co-operative, says: “We had such a
fantastic day and it was a humbling experience to
talk to these girls. I was an incredibly shy teenager
and wouldn’t even pick up a phone, I hope to
inspire kids who may be suffering from confidence
issues to realise their full potential – and to feel the
fear and do it anyway, to quote a famous book.”
Jane McMaster, assistant headteacher at
Portchester Community School, adds: “This kind
of event is important as it enables young women
to engage with successful females who inspire,
motivate and reassure them about who they are
and what they can achieve. The experience will
remain with them for a long time.”
STAFF EDUCATION AT MIDCOUNTIES
“”
WE RECOGNISE THAT AS A
LOCAL EMPLOYER WE HAVE A
RESPONSIBILITY TO DEVELOP
STRONG COMMUNITIES FOR
THE FUTURE
p A staff training session at Midcounties Co-operative
Another co-op actively engaged in education, the
Midcounties Co-operative is promoting values
and principles among members and staff. Tarra
Simmons, group general manager for co-operative
social responsibility at Midcounties explains:
“Some years ago we created a programme that
brought to life the traditional co-operative values
and principles in an easy to understand format.
We identified four key values that fully sum up our
co-operative business and help guide all of our
business practices. These are the DOES values and
they stand for Democracy, Openness, Equality and
Society Responsibility.
“Each new colleague completes a ‘Welcome to
Team Midcounties’ programme before joining the
business where we bring to life the vision for the
business and explain how we demonstrate our
Co-operative difference.
“We use these inductions to give new colleagues
the chance to share their ideas and identify how
they can put the DOES values into practice both in
and outside the workplace.”
The co-op is running a variety of development
opportunities to enable employees to “reach their
full potential”.
“Each trading group provides a bespoke training
and education programme that is appropriate to
their industry and operational needs,” adds Ms
Simmons. “As part of the Midcounties learning
and development strategy, we offer apprenticeship
and graduate programmes to drive and plan
for succession, fostering an environment that
recognises and develops talent,”
Throughout 2016 the co-op engaged with a total
of 9,000 young people.
Midcounties collaborates with schools and
educational organisations and offers work
experience placements and provides support for
building employability skills such as CV writing,
interview techniques and work-ready programmes.
“We recognise that as a local employer we have
a responsibility to develop strong communities for
the future. We do this by recruiting local people
and providing all our colleagues with access to life
long learning.
“We’re committed to developing young people,
which forms part of our CSR agenda, and recognise
the opportunities that we have to support young
members of the community as they prepare for the
world of work,” says Ms Simmons.
Last year colleagues at Midcounties volunteered
over 23,000 hours in their local communities. The
co-op is also focusing on raising awareness of
environment issues.
“Through our environmental strategy, we also
raise awareness to our colleagues and members
about taking action to reduce energy consumption
and increase recycling. Furthermore, we encourage
our partner school to get involved by promoting
campaigns such as Earth Hour,” adds Ms Simmons.
40 | APRIL 2017

Co-ops and responsibility: community
In 2015 East of England Co-operative announced
an ambitious community engagement mission: to
become the leading dementia-friendly retailer.
There are over 50,000 people diagnosed as living
with dementia in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and
in a survey carried out by Alzheimer’s UK, 23%
of participants said that they have had to stop
shopping as a result of living with dementia.
East of England joint chief executive, Minnie
Moll, is HRH the Prince of Wales Business in the
Community Responsible Business Ambassador in
East Anglia. As part of her role she is looking at
how the retailer can improve local awareness of
what dementia is – and how becoming a ‘dementia
friend’ can truly help those living with the disease.
BECOMING A DEMENTIA FRIEND
“As the largest independent retailer in the region,
we’ve pledged to become dementia friendly, and
have embarked on a programme of colleague
training and awareness-raising throughout our
stores and office,” says Ms Moll.
“As a community retailer it is incredibly
important to us that all of our customers, including
those with age related conditions or dementia,
are able to comfortably shop in our stores – and
that our colleagues are able to provide them with
support and assistance when they need it.”
So far 3,964 East of England colleagues have
completed the voluntary training, which aims to
create a better understanding of what dementia is,
how it affects people and how to identify dementia
in a retail environment.
The training includes online learning or face-toface
sessions, and colleagues can also take part in
a workplace challenge called ‘Shopping in their
Shoes’, which involves gathering items from a basic
shopping list and paying for them, while wearing a
GERontolic Test (GERT) – or ageing – suit.
GERT suits age the wearer by approximately
30 years, by replicating a number of age-related
conditions, distorting the senses through reduced
eyesight and hearing and making movement
more difficult with weights fitted to joints. East
of England purchased its own GERT suit so that
p Minnie Moll (right),
East of England joint
chief executive, prepares
to take part in the
‘Shopping in their Shoes’
challenge
APRIL 2017 | 41

colleagues have the opportunity to take part in
Shopping in their Shoes. Other local businesses
have also tried the suit as part of their dementia
training and elements of the suit have been taken
to county fairs and shows as part of educating the
local community on the impact of dementia.
Darren Wash, manager at East of England’s
Felixstowe store, took part in the challenge in
October 2014. “I’m more aware as a result of the
experience – not just about the physical challenges
of shopping, but also the importance of connecting
with other people,” he says. “For some of our
customers, we might be the only human interaction
they’ve had all week.
“It also made me think about the practical ways
that we can make the shopping experience better
for all our customers – whether it’s customer
service or the process of paying and packing.”
INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY
East of England is one of only 33 businesses
nationally to have been awarded a Princess Royal
Award for its training, which was created in
partnership with the Norfolk and Suffolk Dementia
Alliance and the Essex Alzheimer’s Society. East of
England also conducted its own research around
the subject.
Ms Moll explains how the society ran several
community research groups in one of its Ipswich
stores, with people living with dementia and their
carers, as well as people living with other kinds of
disabilities or challenges for shopping.
“They went round on a mission shop and
afterwards we asked what the challenges were.
One of the things that came up was that a black
“”
FAR REACHING,
WHAT STARTED AS
OUR OWN MISSION
HAS BECOME
AS WE WORK IN
PARTNERSHIP WITH
OTHER BUSINESSES
32 | APRIL 2017

mat – which is very often at the entrance – can be
perceived as a hole. It recedes away.
“So sometimes you will find someone with
dementia not going over a threshold, or being very
tentative about the mat.”
Another issue raised was mirrors, as the person
they see may not be the perception someone with
dementia has of themselves.
As a result of this research, East of England
looked at various physical changes it could make
to stores, while still maintaining health and safety
standards. Using the feedback, the number of
mats used in stores has been reduced by 40%. In
some stores, the retailer removed the mirrors from
freezers and fridges, and put arrow signs onto
sliding freezer doors. Lighting was also looked at,
and these changes will now be incorporated into
new stores as they open.
As well as over 120 food outlets, East of England
operates funeral services, travel stores, pharmacies
and opticians – all of which bring their own
challenges for those with dementia and their carers.
The society has done a lot of work with Roger
Fern, the Mayor of Ipswich, whose wife is in late
stages of dementia, and he brought further insight
about the challenges of involved.
“Roger’s wife still loves to read – but going to get
a glasses prescription with her was a challenge:
how does she explain to the optician if things are
getting clearer? How do you get the prescription
right if – even if they are lucid later – they are not
able to engage at that moment?” says Ms Moll.
“One of the key things was absolute patience and
the ability to adapt and change the way you frame
the have the conversation: ‘Which ones do you like
most? Which ones do you think will help you?’”
Roger Fern made dementia his high profile
campaign for 2016 and, with East of England,
launched the Ipswich Dementia Action Alliance to
help make Ipswich a dementia-friendly town.
CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING
One challenge of the mission has been measuring
its impact, says Ms Moll. “How do you know you’re
doing the right thing? How do you know you’re
impacting? How do you measure it?
“A lot of the measuring is simply the number of
people who get in touch saying ‘you did this kind
thing for my mother the other day, you phoned
me up and told me she was in there at 9 o’clock at
night’,” she says.
“Another told us how her mother, who had
Alzheimer’s but wished to stay in her own home,
would continually visit her local co-op store – the
staff called her directly if they were concerned about
her mum and kept her updated on her behaviour.”
East of England is making their training
available for free to businesses across Great Britain
– including co-operatives, and there has already
been interest shown from a company in Northern
Ireland, a hotel group in Suffolk and local shopping
centres – and the co-op has completed training
with stewards at Ipswich Town Football Club.
“What started as our own mission has become
far reaching, as we work in partnership with
other businesses and organisations to address the
challenges of dementia,” says Ms Moll. “We’re
so proud of our colleagues who make the real
difference each day by supporting people living
with dementia to retain independent and still feel
part of their community.”
OPPOSITE: Minnie
Moll taking part in
the ‘Shopping in their
Shoes’ challenge, which
involves gathering items
from a basic shopping
list and paying for them
at the till, while wearing
an ageing suit
Four ways co-ops can become more dementia friendly
Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease of the brain that slowly
causes impairment in memory and cognitive function. Dementia
is an overall term used to describe symptoms that impact memory,
performance of daily activities, and communication abilities.
East of England shares four tips for other businesses looking to
become more dementia friendly...
u LISTEN AND LEARN
There is far more to living with dementia than many of us truly
understand. Take the time to listen and learn from those with
more knowledge than yourself, whether a health professional, a
carer or family member, and most importantly the people living
with dementia, to really understand what would make a positive
impact on their lives.
u ENGAGE AND INSPIRE
Delivering dementia friends sessions alone does not guarantee
a dementia-friendly business. To be a true dementia-friendly
business you need every member of the business to connect
with your vision rationally and emotionally. Make sure
everyone know it’s critical for business and create meaningful
opportunities to get involved – storytelling, volunteering,
fundraising, or engaging with people living with dementia
through local alliances and support groups.
u SHARE LEARNING AND INFLUENCE OTHERS
This is the co-operative way! Working in partnership with other
organisations and businesses has created huge impact. So
much more than we had worked alone.
u IT’S A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT
Becoming a Dementia Friendly Business is not a quick fix,
tick box exercise. It’s a long term investment to improve
business sustainability and positively shape the future for your
customers, colleagues and communities.
APRIL 2017 | 43

Innovation through providing the
unexpected
RETAIL INNOVATION
44 | APRIL 2017
To win in today’s competitive world, co-ops must
provide the unexpected to their customers, says
Howard Brodsky, co-founder and co-chief executive
of CCA Global Partners.
Speaking at the Co-operative Retail Conference,
he outlined the key steps co-operatives can take to
achieve this. “There is an enormous opportunity to
take it to a new level,” he told delegates at the Cooperatives
UK event, held in Stratford-Upon-Avon
on 5 March.
He gave the example of Zappos, a US shoe
company aiming to provide fast online services.
In 2015 the e-retailer sent 1,900 boxes with Zappos
accessories and winter goodies to people in the
town of Hanover, New Hampshire. The initiative
was documented on film to remind customers that
the business sold more than just shoes, drawing
100,000 views on YouTube.
Smaller companies have more scope to deliver
the unexpected, said Mr Brodsky. “World-class
p Howard Brodsky
service is delivering the expected; unexpected
service is delivered with creativity,” he added.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
To encourage this, co-ops should give people
on the frontline the authority to do “something
unexpected” and surprise customers, he said.
Similarly, co-ops should offer the unexpected
to their employees, leading to a higher staff
retention levels. “Employees expect good wage and
pensions,” he said. “So at CCA Global we take our
people to movies – we rent an entire movie theatre.
We do all kind of things that are unexpected and
they cherish that.
“If somebody does something unbelievable once
every three weeks, in social media today, that’s
your brand. We are not going to beat companies
by investing more money in publicity. You need to
outsmart them.”
Dating back to 1985, CCA Global Partners is a
purchasing co-operative comprising 13 affiliated
companies with aggregated sales of over USD
$10bn. Its businesses are active in the carpet
industry, as well as childcare, sport retail and
interior design.
Its success showed how co-operatives
should work together to achieve scale, he said.
“Individually, we can do great things but together
we can do unbelievable things.”
REAL WORLD CO-OPERATION
Co-ops could also save between 15% and 20% by
buying together, he said – and co-ops could work
together at different levels: local, national and
international.
At local level retail, co-ops could share IT
resources, warehouses or management and
provide joint offers to customers, said Mr Brodsky.
On a national and international scale, they could
collaborate on solutions for common challenges
such as how to attract millennials or share
technology to drive innovation.
“Individually it is difficult to put enough
resources towards innovation but, if combined
globally, resources could be enormous so that
we could be ahead of the game, not catching up,”
he added.
“At CCA we were able to bring a lot of services
we would never be able to have otherwise. We built

up a lot of internal resources, training groups, real
estate groups, insurance groups.
“Growing in scale is not just about getting larger
numbers but scaling up and having the services
that our members need to stay competitive and be
profitable. Our diversity of companies has brought
services to us and management talent.”
A CO-OPERATIVE BUYING PORTAL
Along with the International Co-operative Alliance,
CCA Global is exploring the possibility of an online
buying portal where customers can buy exclusively
from co-ops.
A platform co-op eco system already exists in the
USA and is looking to grow web-based marketplaces
that are collectively owned and democratically
governed.
Another area to work on, he said, is ensuring
that employees and members understand the
co-op model so they can spread the message. Mr
Brodsky founded a non-profit, CBW, with a mission
to raise awareness of the co-operative business
model through education and inspiration. This
organisation is working with the Alliance on the
Co-operatives for a Better World campaign, a global
marketing campaign to promote co-operative
identity launched in November 2015.
For the campaign, CBW produced the first What
If videos telling stories of co-operatives in different
countries. Since the launch of the first video, 14
countries have produced their own customised
versions of the film.
Asked about the next stage of the campaign,
Mr Brodsky said the natural extension of “What
if” would be “Why?” – with co-ops telling their
individual story of why they operate as a co-op,
what they stand for and what it means to them.
“People are inspired by great stories, we need to
gather and share those stories,” he said.
But he said it was also crucial for co-operatives
to take risks if they want to succeed. For instance,
in 2015 CCA Global launched a new guaranteed
waterproof, stain-resistant carpet, which stops
spills soaking through.
“We came out with the first guaranteed stainproof
carpet – no one else had done that in the
industry,” he said. “We did it because we felt it was
important to do. It was a risk.
“With successful companies the greatest risk is
not to risk. You have to risk smartly but you have
to risk.”
This focus on retail innovation is authored
by Co-operative News, with support from
Celtech (www.celtechgroup.com). Celtech is a
world-class retail technology company that is
renowned for inventing the true real-time retail
business solution.
Co-op retailing in real-time
The ultimate co-op management system
Stand-alone components or one
integrated real-time solution across:
• Membership
- Dividends and loyalty
- Pricing and promotions
- ‘Smart’ coupons
• In-store
- POS and store operations
- Loss prevention
• On-line
- Click-and-collect / delivered
• Warehouse
- Bulk / Picking / Packing / Ship
• Enterprise
- Master data management
- Stock and replenishment
- Live insights and reporting
Celtech’s proven co-op transition
service to real-time that:
• Preserves existing co-op
capabilities and data feeds
• Improves data and information
accuracy across the business
• Provides a singular view of what is
happening across the balance, as
it happens
• Provides the ability to react and
implement change, instantly
• Streamlines processes for
optimum efficiency and control
• Enables unique member
experiences
Mission-critical enterprise reliability and scalability
proven and trusted by co-ops, independent retailers
and wholesalers with billions of transactions
APRIL 2017 | 45

How to go ‘hyperlocal’ and connect
with communities
q Jason Shorrock,
vice president of retail
strategy EMEA at JDA
Software Group
Hyperlocal is a marketing buzzword to remind big
brands to connect with their communities – and
connecting with communities is one of the key
pillars of a co-operative.
Normally, this works best for a small co-op that is
fully embedded in a town or village – but how can
a large national or regional co-operative be local?
The Co-op Group is looking to address this
question by thinking hyperlocal. Over the past
few years, members have called for stores to stock
more local food. Logistics have prevented this from
happening on a large scale, but now the Group
is edging towards a strategy that will stock the
products that the community wants.
Putting the community and store managers in
control is the key change that co-operatives must
embrace, according to the Group’s retail innovation
partner JDA.
MAKING STORES SHOPPER-CENTRIC
The firm has been working with the Group for a
number of years to help the retailer with shelf
replenishment and store layout. Now they are
taking the partnership to the next level to help the
Group realise its ambition of becoming the UK’s
number one convenience retailer.
Jason Shorrock, vice president of retail strategy
EMEA at JDA, describes its range of retail solutions
as ‘shopper-centric’ – and believes this is especially
important factor for member-owned businesses.
“Traditionally retailers have thought largely about
which product they want to sell and how much
they want to sell it for,” he says.
“From our perspective, as customers change their
expectations, retailers have to think about which
customers are coming through the door, what do
they want to buy, and how we can make sure those
items can be provided in their local stores
“We help the Co-op to adapt the local range in
stores to the local customers in the area through a
combination of analysis of what has been sold in
the past and to who, and local knowledge through
input from store managers.”
Thanks to a selection of planning and assortment
solutions, Mr Shorrock says Co-op customers will
notice that the products they see in their local stores
are well matched to what they want to buy, whether
that’s fresh rood, food to go, food for families or
particular ethnic goods. Customers will also notice
fewer empty shelves – something he describes as
“a perennial problem for retailers”.
Alongside making sure that what is being offered
in different stores is “relevant and right for their
46 | APRIL 2017

communities”, JDA also encourages collaboration
with local and regional manufacturers, suppliers
and producers. “We will encourage a better way of
doing business by helping the Co-op do business
more efficiently,” says Mr Shorrock. “Taking away
some of the mundane tasks helps a business to run
more efficiently and gives employees more time to
engage with members and customers.”
JDA has also worked with co-operatives in
Denmark and Italy, as well as the UK’s Southern,
Channel Islands, Midcounties and Scotmid retail
societies, but they also work with manufacturers.
“The business of what to put in stores is a
collaboration between retailers, merchants, store
managers and manufacturers and producers,” he
says. And by working more cohesively along the
supply chain, it gives value at every point.
The Co-op Group has been working on store
ranges and layout stores, and is now getting to the
stage where every store and shelf is planned in
detail and linked into the replenishment process.
Mr Shorrock says that other retailers who have
done this have seen a typical range of uplift as 1-5%
of total revenue – with uplifts in some categories of
up to 30%.
FUTURE FOOD FOR THOUGHT
JDA has seen retailing change significantly over
the last three decades, especially through the rise
of the internet and in the way online shopping
has changed customer expectations: “People
expect anything to be shipped from anywhere
to anywhere. Consumers are more comfortable
with using their mobile devices in stores to look
up items, check reviews and order online,” he
says. “It’s increasingly common for smart devices
to be seen in the hands of colleagues as well
as consumers – and we are starting to see the
introduction of digital displays, and kiosks where
you can look up information. In the future, there
will be robots that do stock checks – used well,
technology can improve the customer experience
and remove mundane jobs.”
He explains how the British Retail Consortium
has been doing a lot of work on the impact of
technology. “The prediction is that there will be
fewer jobs in retail, but we believe there will be
better and more fulfilling jobs for staff – it will be
more about customer engagement and service. So
there are pros and cons.”
Mr Shorrock believes the future of retail is
“hassle-free and frictionless” shopping. “Shopping
will be really easy,” he says. “Technology will
remove all the awkward and annoying things
about shopping, and instead people will go out to
convenience stores to have culinary experiences,
talk to knowledgeable people and try and learn new
things. It will be about going to have an experience
and enjoy a different aspect of food and eating.
“Technology removes basic drudgery – that will
extend to shopping.”
p Food to Go and
baked goods at the
Co-op Group’s Monkton
Heathfield store
“”
TECHNOLOGY WILL REMOVE ALL
THE AWKWARD AND ANNOYING
THINGS ABOUT SHOPPING
APRIL 2017 | 47

REVIEWS
Another
Economy is
Possible
Edited by Manuel
Castells
(Polity Books, 2017)
As the dust began to settle after the 2008 financial
crisis, governments in the western world responded
by trying to restore business as usual. But, writes
author and academic Professor Manuel Castells,
“the economic, social and human damage inflicted
by the crisis has given rise to a reconsideration of
the inevitability of unfettered capitalism as a fact
of life”.
He explains how a number of economic practices
and organisations emerged in Europe and the United
States that embodied “alternative values: the value
of life over the value of money; the effectiveness of
co-operation over cut-throat competition; the social
responsibility of corporations and responsible
regulation by governments over the short-term
speculative strategies that brought the economy to
the brink of catastrophe”.
This book brings together international
researchers, designers, scientists and economists
to examine this blossoming of new ways of
organising work and life, from co-operatives,
barter networks, and ethical banking to community
currencies, shared time banks and solidarity
network. These experiments “paved the way for the
emergence of a sharing economy in all domains of
activity oriented toward the satisfaction of human
needs,” says Prof Castells.
As organisations with a strongly defined set of
values, co-operatives such as The Cooperativa
Integral Catalana (CIC) in Barcelona are used as
examples of how this can work.
With over 600 members and 2,000 participants,
CIC acts as an umbrella structure for independent
producers and consumers of organic food and
artisanal products, residents of eco communes
and occupied houses, co-operative enterprises
and regional networks of exchange that issue their
own currency. “CIC has its own conceptual mode of
the economy, consisting of five co-centric cycles,
with reciprocity and gift exchange at the core,”
writes environmental scientist Giorgios Kallis.
“This conceptual model is materialised into an
alternative economy.”
Prof Castells adds: “[Our] analysis develops an
important theoretical argument: that the economy,
as a human practice, is shaped by culture, and that
the diversity of cultures, as revealed in a time of
crisis, implies the possibility of different economies
depending on the values and power relations that
define economic institutions.”
THREE
READS
Simel Esim is a political economist, working in
social and economic development for the past 25
years. She has been with the International Labour
Organization (ILO) for the past 13 years including
eight years in the field. She is currently manager of
the Cooperatives Unit in Geneva. She shares three
of her recent favourites here.
1. The Corruption of Capitalism: Why rentiers thrive
and work does not pay by Guy Standing (Biteback
Publishing, 2016). This is the third in a series of
recent books by Guy Standing. In the first two, he
talks about the plight of the precariat, moving in
and out of precarious jobs and a vision of society
in which inequality is reduced. In this last book
he explains how the global economic system is
rigged weakening the security of the many while
strengthening the wealth of a few.
2. Yes Magazine (quarterly, yesmagazine.org).
Available online and in print, this is a nonprofit,
independent, reader-supported magazine. It
provides in-depth analysis, stories and tools for
citizen engagement on co-operatives and other
social and solidarity economy organizations. There
is a good balance in the magazine between sharing
of powerful ideas and practical actions for change.
3. Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) website
(www.geo.coop). Organised as a democratic
decentralised collective, GEO was founded by a
collective of educators, researchers and grassroots
activists. They work to promote an economy
based on democratic participation, worker and
community ownership, social and economic
justice, and ecological sustainability through
grassroots journalism, organising support, crosssector
networking and movement-building and
the publication of educational and organisational
resources.
48 | APRIL 2017

The Ethical
Careers Guide:
How to find the
work you love
Paul Allen
(New Internationalist,
2017)
An Alternative Labour History
Edited by Dario Azzellini
(Zed Books London, 2015)
An Alternative Labour History is an analysis of
workers’ self-administered production. Edited
by Dario Azzellini, the book looks at examples of
workers gaining control of the means of production
in countries like France, Argentina, Italy, Greece,
Canada, Chile or Australia.
Various models are examined across the book’s
10 chapters, each consisting of an essay written by
academics or activists. The authors also explore
the limits and contradictions of the co-operative
model, arguing that it fails to question private
ownership of the means of production.
“Most co-operatives see their ideals fading
away as their members age. Having to act in a cooperative
economy while not following its rules is
extremely difficult. Capitalism is a vortex,” writes Dr
Azzellini in the book’s introduction.
He believes that co-operatives in the field of
production constitute “a hybrid form in the midst
of capitalism”. The book also focuses on the idea
of building a workers’ economy.
Readers may recognise Paul Allan from the Guardian,
where he writes about the voluntary sector – or the
BBC, where he has run environmental projects. In
2007, he wrote Your Ethical Business, a start-up
guide to creating a socially and environmentally
responsible business – but here he’s concentrating
on helping people find jobs that make them happy.
“You will spend around 100,000 hours of your life
at work,” he writes. “It’s a long time to be doing
something you don’t like.”
This guide is aimed at anyone who wants to do
something meaningful with their working life –
doing something they love while making a positive
difference to the world. A good job, he believes, is
one that fits with your morals, makes you feel good
about going to work, and isn’t just about making
money. He understands that people’s individual
idea of a ‘meaningful’ job is different, though, and
as such the book is less of a manual and more of an
inspirational guide for job seekers (school leavers
and graduates) and career switchers.
There are interviews with people who have ‘been
there and done it’, useful case studies and lots of
practical information – including guides to social
enterprises, community interest companies and cooperatives
as business models that those leaving
education or looking to change jobs may not know
a lot about. “Co-ops are a big deal,” he writes.
“There are more member owners of co-ops (just
over 15 million) that there are direct shareholders
of businesses in the UK.”
Spare Change
Iona Bain
(Hardie Grant Books,
2016)
Author of the YoungMoneyBlog, financial blogger
Iona Bain has published a book exploring
personal financial issues and the challenges
faced by young people. The book includes
practical advice and tips looks at the psychology
of money and the reasons why people overspend
or fail to plan ahead.
A 29-year-old freelance writer, Ms Bain set up
the YoungMoneyBlog in 2011, for which she won
the Money Blogger of the Year at the Santander
Media Awards this year.
“Poor money management doesn’t just lead
to debt and hardship; it damages our health,
relationships and career,” she says. “But it’s
never too late to re-think financial attitudes that
hold us back. We can even learn to be happy with
money by using it to our advantage – without
letting it rule our lives.”
The book also touches upon longer-term
considerations, such as savings, insurance or
housing, explaining how people could act on
each week or month to improve our long-term
prospects. It also surveys the landscape of
ethical choices for spending and saving, linking
this original book back to its core values.
“We can all incorporate better habits into our
daily routine, starting with basics like ‘fridge
foraging’ and energy economies before moving
on to low-cost ways to enjoy the finer things in
life,” adds Ms Bain.
t
Iona Bain
APRIL 2017 | 49

DIARY
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT
Responsible business week runs from
24-28 April; Supporters Direct waves
the scarf for Co-operatives Fortnight
from 17 Jun - 1 Jul; the More Than A Pub
Conference offers advice to the co-op pub
sector on 18 May; and Dr Cilla Ross from
the Co-operative College is among those
looking at options for Wales on 8 April
4 Apr: An Introduction to Co-operative
and Community Benefit Society Law
UKSCS and Anthony Collins Solicitors event.
WHERE: 134 Edmund Street,
Birmingham, B3 2ES
INFO: secukscs@gmail.com
5-6 Apr: Co-operative Education
Conference
The Co-operative College’s annual
conference will focus on how co-operative
learning can challenge inequalities.
WHERE: Manchester Metropolitan
University
INFO: s.coop/24hqg
6 Apr: Robert Oakeshott Lecture
Sacha Romanovitch, CEO of Grant
Thornton UK LLP, looks at how “shared
enterprise” has the potential to leverage
opportunities for business.
WHERE: Chartered Accountants’ Hall, One
Moorgate Place, London.
INFO: employeeownership.co.uk
8 Apr: A Co-operative Education System
for a Co-operative Wales?
What opportunities are there for cooperative
education in Wales and
what form should such a system take?
Speakers include Dr Cilla Ross from the
Co-operative College.
WHERE: Cartrefi Cymru Co-operative,
Curran Road, Cardiff CF10 5NB
INFO: www.cooperatives-wales.coop
24-28 Apr: Responsible Business Week
The annual awareness week for
responsible business, run by Business in
the Community to inspire and challenge
more businesses to take action which
creates positive change in society.
27-28 Apr: Cooperatives Europe
General Assembly
General Assembly and elections for the
European region of the International
Co-operative Alliance.
WHERE: Koperattiva Malta
INFO: coopseurope.coop/events
2 May: International Workers’ Day
5-7 May: Worker Co-op Weekend
Practical sessions designed and run by
worker co-ops, with vegan-friendly co-op
food and drink, camping and campfires.
WHERE: Foundry Adventure Centre,
Derbyshire.
INFO: membership@uk.coop
18 May: More Than A Pub Conference
National conference organised by the
Plunkett Foundation with expert advice
and networking for pub co-ops.
WHERE: Coin Street Conference Centre,
108 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH
INFO: www.plunkett.co.uk
20 May: Co-op Group AGM
WHERE: Manchester Central
INFO: agm@coop.co.uk
17 Jun - 1 Jul: Co-operatives Fortnight
Nationwide celebration of the movement.
LOOKING AHEAD
5-17 Jun: ILO Labour Conference 2017
20-24 Jun: Committee of Co-operative
Research – International Conference
30 Jun - 1 Jul: Co-operative Congress
1 Jul: International Day of Co-operatives
4-5 Jul : Intl Fair Trade Towns Conference
5 Jul: Plunkett Foundation AGM
23-26 Jul: Woccu Conference
50 | APRIL 2017

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