MAY 2018

MAY 2018 

GOVERNANCE 

A spotlight on 

how co-ops do 

it differently 

Plus ... Sustainability 

reporting ... Co-ops in 

Westminster ... and 

society results updates 

ISSN 0009-9821 

9 770009 982010 

01 

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CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND 

CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP 

MOVEMENT SINCE 1871 

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DEPUTY EDITOR 

Rebecca Harvey 

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EDITORIAL 

Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop 

Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop 

DESIGN: Keir Mucklestone-Barnett 

DIRECTORS 

Elaine Dean (chair), David Paterson 

(vice-chair), Richard Bickle, Sofygil 

Crew, Gavin Ewing, Tim Hartley, 

Beverley Perkins and 

Barbara Rainford. 

Secretary: Ray Henderson 

Established in 1871, Co-operative 

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news 

cooperativenews 

Our view: Co-ops must play their 

part in building a future for work 

An increasingly complex and globalised business environment, coupled with the 

rise of a more ethically conscious set of consumers, means that good governance is 

more crucial than ever for co-operatives. 

It’s a question which runs throughout the global co-operative movement, 

from whether better governance could have saved some of the high-profile 

casualties among the big co-operative players (page 34-35) to calls for 

co-ops in emerging economies to adopt more rigorous principles to avoid 

malpractice scandals (page 21). 

Meanwhile, the rise of digital presents challenges and opportunities for the 

movement and has given birth to a new form of co-operation, the platform co-op – 

which, says Trebor Scholz in our Q&A (page 40-41), could use a governance code of 

practice of its own. Big data is even changing the ways even the most longstanding 

industries, such as agriculture, work, as Bob Yuill of the Scottish Agricultural 

Organisation Society explains (page 36). 

We also hear from Jim Watts, secretary of the Central England Co-operative, for his 

view on how good governance is vital for the running of a retail society (page 37). 

And, as pressure from a new generation of ethical consumers prompts other 

business models to adopt more socially responsible models, we are seeing the 

growth of other alternatives such as B Corps and social enterprise. What is it about 

co-operative governance that sets it apart, and what can it learn from these other 

players (page 38-39)? 

But, as Prof Johnston Birchall says in the second edition of his study of governance 

in the movement (page 48), co-ops have “a relatively good track record”. With that 

in mind, how do we promote the co-op model more widely? In an extract from his 

thought-provoking new book, Prof Martin Parker argues that we need a root-andbranch 

reform of education to teach a new generation about alternative forms of 

organisation (page 42-43). So is it time to “bulldoze the business school”? 

MILES HADFIELD - EDITORIAL TEAM 

Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based 

inks on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer 

waste) with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC 

certified sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process. 

MAY 2018 | 3

eporting ... Co-ops in 

Westminster ... and 

society results updates 

ISSN 0009-9821 

01 

9 770009 982010 

THIS ISSUE 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT 

Central England’s SROI Report shows the 

impact of community work (p30-31); Martin 

Parker makes the case for bulldozing the 

business school (p42-43); David Thompson 

looks at the co-op links to the CND; and how 

can co-ops compete with Brexit for space on 

the political agenda? (p44-45) 

22-23 MEET... NICK CROFTS 

President of the Co-operative Group’s 

National Members’ Council 

saved co-operatives in the past? 

36 Data and new challenges 

26-27 CO-OP GROUP MOTIONS 

AND ELECTIONS 

Twelve motions go before the Group’s 

AGM on 19 May, covering political 

funding, the use of plastics and ethical 

advertising 

28 WORKING TOGETHER - AN UPDATE 

Updates from the Co-operative Heritage 

Trust’s Working Together project launched 

in 2017 

37 The role of the society secretary in 

co-operative governance 

38-39 Governance and the co-op 

difference 

40-41 Trebor Scholz on governance 

for platform co-operatives 

42-43 Prof Martin Parker makes the 

case for bulldozing the business school 

news Issue #7295 MAY 2018 

Connecting, championing, challenging 

MAY 2018 

GOVERNANCE 

A spotlight on 

how co-ops do 

it differently 

Plus ... Sustainability 

£4.20 


30-33 SUSTAINABILITY 

30-31 CENTRAL ENGLAND AND SROI 

Central England Co-operative’s latest 

SROI report demonstrates the impact of 

its co-operative community work 

32 REI PRODUCT STANDARDS 

The retailer is raising the sustainability 

bar for the outdoor retail industry 

33 THE CO-OP WAY & ICA REPORTS 

The Group’s anual review of ethics and 

sustainability – and the ICA’s Guide to 

Good Reporting 

44-45 BREXIT 

How can co-ops ensure they are still 

on the political agenda with Brexit 

dominating it? 

44-45 CO-OPS AND THE CND 

David Thompson on the Co-op Paths to 

Peace and the Peace Sign 

REGULARS 

5-14 UK updates 

15-21 Global updates 

24-25 Letters 

COVER: How do co-operatives 

do governance differently? 

Read more: p28-41 

34-43 GOVERNANCE 

34-35 Could better governance have 

48 Reviews 

50 Diary 

4 | MAY 2018

NEWS 

ANNUAL RESULTS 

Co-op Group 

back in the black 

The Co-op Group’s annual results see 

it back in the black, as it announces 

a new plan for ‘Stronger Co-op, 

Stronger Communities’. 

Published on Friday, 6 April, the results 

show a profit before tax of £72m for 2017 

(2016: loss £132m), and an operating profit 

of £126m (2016: £148m). Stripping out 

one-off items, the underlying profit before 

tax was up 25% to £65m (2016: £52m). 

Since its rebrand and the relaunch of its 

membership offer in 2016, the Group has 

seen 1.2 million new members join up, and 

its active membership increase by 15% to 

4.6 million. Through the ‘5 and 1’ scheme, 

Group members received £61m in personal 

rewards in 2017, with £13m earned 

for over 8,000 community projects. 

“Today’s results show how much 

progress we have made,” said chief 

executive Steve Murrells. 

“All our businesses have performed 

well and we have increased profits and 

reduced debt, while continuing to invest 

for colleagues, members and customers.” 

Overall, revenues remained stable 

at £9.5bn (2016: £9.5bn) and debt was 

reduced to £775m (2016: £885m). Food 

core convenience like-for-like sales were 

both up (3.4% and 4.3% respectively), 

with wholesale sales to independent 

societies up 7% to £1.7bn. Funeral and Life 

Planning revenues were up 4% to £343m 

and Insurance gross written premiums 

were up 3% at £496m. 

Mr Murrells believes the organisation’s 

success “shows that the Co-op’s difference 

really resonates today”. 

“We’re delighted with our performance, 

but we’re hungry for more and ready 

to create the Co-op of the future,” he 

said. “That is why we are launching the 

Stronger Co-op, Stronger Communities 

plan. To really succeed as a Co-op 

we need to be even more successful 

commercially and our community efforts 

need to be concentrated on the things that 

matter to people.” 

He added: “It’s widely recognised that 

making communities stronger and more 

resilient is an urgent priority for the 

UK. Our member-owned business, our 

p CEO Steve Murrells says the results show “great progress” 

heritage, and community presence makes 

us uniquely placed to play a significant 

role in that work. Making this happen will 

be the outcome of our plans.” 

Stronger Co-op, Stronger Communities 

aims to “create the Co-op of the future”, 

driving growth “by creating a more 

commercial Co-op and sharing the greater 

value created with members and their 

communities”. 

The Group highlighted that the plan 

would focus on: greater interconnection 

between business areas; serving 

customers and members; convenience and 

relevance; and ventures in new markets 

with an “agile, capital-light, digital-first 

approach to disrupting markets”. 

In support of the plan, the Group 

says it has already begun a number of 

initiatives in 2018, including a £50m 

investment to reduce prices announced in 

January 2018, expansion of convenience 

store estate, and working with 

independent retailers to grow their 

businesses through the provision of 

Co-op own-brand products. 

In Funeral & Life Planning, the Co-op 

will continue to hold funeral prices and 

help tackle funeral affordability. 

A new “Co-op ventures programme” 

has been created, which is looking at 

initiatives in health and money. 

With significant investment being 

made in the Stronger Co-op, Stronger 

Communities plan, the Group says it is 

not expecting any surplus profits being 

available for distribution during 2018. 

Allan Leighton, independent nonexecutive 

chair of the Group, said: “We 

are stronger than ever before and ready to 

create a new, modern Co-op that is fit for 

the future. As we do that, we will remain 

true to our social purpose and continue to 

make the right decisions and campaign 

on the big issues where business really 

should have a voice.” 

Mr Leighton also acknowledges the 

news that the Groceries Code Adjudicator 

is investigating some of the Group’s 

practices related to suppliers. 

“We need to live our values in our dealings 

with suppliers and we know we’ve fallen 

short,” he says. “We’ve already been taking 

action and have a dedicated team making 

sure we have great supplier relationships. 

This area has great focus from our board 

and we’ll make sure you can be proud of 

our practices in the future.” 


ANNUAL RESULTS 

CENTRAL ENGLAND SCOTMID HEART OF ENGLAND 

In its annual report for the year to 

27 January 2018, Central England 

Co-operative recorded an operating 

profit of £16.6m, up £5.3m. 

Gross sales were £848.3m (up from 

£843,5m) and the society made £3.7m 

payments to stakeholders. 

The society said it had made capital 

expenditure of £36.6m under “an 

ambitious growth strategy”, opening 

seven new food stores and nine new 

funeral homes, and completing 

refurbishments at 30 food stores and 18 

funeral homes. 

CEO Martyn Cheatle said: “We 

achieved another very encouraging 

and resilient performance in 2017 from 

both a financial and non-financial 

perspective, underlining our strength 

as a modern, progressive, co-operative 

business. Trading conditions remained 

very challenging and highly competitive 

throughout the year in all the markets in 

which the society operates.” 

Increased sales in CEC’s convenience 

stores were partially offset by continued 

pressure on its large stores and 

supermarkets, while its funeral business 

experienced increased competition in 

both the pre-need and at-need markets 

but delivered a solid performance with 

sales above the prior year. The society’s 

travel shops also performed well during 

the year. 

The report said the society had cut its 

carbon footprint by 35.8% since 2010, 

and over the last year it continued to 

invest in new energy-efficient lighting and 

refrigeration equipment. 

The society’s work saw it awarded the 

maximum 5 stars out of 5 in Business 

in the Community’s 2018 Corporate 

Responsibility Index. 

Scotmid Co-operative has announced a 

£4.8m trading profit for the year to 28 

January 2018, “despite unprecedented 

external cost increases”. 

It says the figure, down from £5.3m the 

previous year, was helped by “solid sales 

growth and tight cost control”, which 

offset the majority of the £2m aboveinflation 

costs faced by the society. 

These include the National Living 

Wage, the Apprenticeship Levy, rates 

revaluation and pension costs, against the 

backdrop of “the perennially challenging 

retail market”. 

After the sale or closure of some lossmaking 

stores, turnover fell £2.5m to 

£374m, but Scotmid says underlying likefor-like 

turnover growth remained strong. 

Chief executive John Brodie said: “Over 

the past year, the society has faced an 

avalanche of cost challenges and difficult 

economic circumstances. 

“We have responded with a strong 

performance – driven by innovation 

underpinned by a continuous 

improvement philosophy in all our 

businesses. 

“The society’s retail businesses 

continue to overcome those challenges 

with Scotmid’s food stores adapting to 

the ever-changing needs of customers 

through a programme of differentiation.” 

Mr Brodie added that Semichem sales 

and cost initiatives helped to mitigate 

the pressure on margins from the weaker 

pound – and that the society’s property 

business had another good year. 

Scotmid’s funeral arm produced 

an improved performance over the 

second half of the year, and the society 

also extended its Community Connect 

initiative, which supports good causes 

from the carrier bag levy. 

Operating profits at Heart of England 

Co-op have risen to £5.5m for the year 

ending 20 January 2017, up from £1.7m 

the previous year. 

But the society said that the last 12 

months had been “one of the most 

challenging and difficult years in 

recent times” and had seen increased 

competition from discount supermarkets. 

“We face an extremely challenging 

and very uncertain 2018 and all the 

economic indicators are pointing towards 

a slowdown in the economy as it appears 

to be losing momentum amid Brexit 

concerns,” said the report. 

It added: “Despite the challenges, we 

have had a very successful year.” 

Group turnover for the year was £71.7m, 

up 2.4% on the previous year, and the 

society said it was implementing policies 

to “create a strong regional co-operative 

business which will withstand the 

economic challenges ahead. 

“We are delighted to have continued to 

operate with no borrowings,” said CEO 

Ali Kurji (above). 

“Indeed we are very well 

placed to continue with our redevelopment 

programme without 

having to rely on external funding. 

“We have £19.7m in the bank and 

the society continues to invest in its 

renewal programme, with a further £2.1m 

utilised on new projects during 2017.” 

During the year, the society disposed of 

“redundant non-food premises” at Rugby 

and Coventry and its distribution centre in 

Nuneaton. 

The funeral division, which won the 

Leamington Spa Business Award for 

Customer Service, saw like-for-like sales 

grow 12.2% on a like-for-like basis, and 

masonry sales up by 17%. 


EQUALITY 

What is the gender pay gap and how are co-op retailers performing? 

New regulations require thousands of 

firms to publish their gender pay figures 

this month and to report back annually. 

The legislation applies to employers in 

England, Scotland and Wales with 250 or 

more employees, and publishes gender 

pay gap information on a government 

website. Employers are encouraged to 

take actions to reduce or eliminate their 

gender pay gaps prior to publication. 

The data shows the difference in the 

average pay between all men and women 

in a workforce. The concept is different 

from that of equal pay, which deals with 

the pay differences between men and 

women carrying out comparable jobs. 

Men and women in comparable jobs are 

normally entitled to the same pay unless 

an employer can show differences are 

justified. Therefore, a gender pay gap does 

not equate to the existence of an equal pay 

problem, but may be a trigger for further 

investigation into why the gap exists. 

The Office of National Statistics says 

that between 2011 and 2017, men’s pay 

grew by 10.4% from £13.12 to £14.48 per 

hour, while women’s pay grew by 12.0% 

from £11.75 to £13.16 per hour. In 2017, men 

on average were paid £1.32 more per hour 

than women, which, as a proportion of 

men’s pay, is a pay gap of 9.1%. 

The pay gap has fallen from 10.5% in 

2011 to 9.1% in 2017. But how are co-op 

retailers performing? 

The co-op retailers to publish figures are: 

Co-op Group, 

 

Scotmid, Heart of England, 

Lincolnshire, Midcounties, Southern, 

Central England, Tamworth, Radstock, 

East of England, and Chelmsford Star. 

Women’s mean hourly rate, compared 

to men’s, is lower for all co-op retailers, 

varying from 29.7% lower at Tamworth to 

10% lower at Southern. 

The mean hourly rate is the average 

hourly wage across an entire organisation 

so the mean gender pay gap is a measure 

of the difference between women’s mean 

hourly wage and men’s mean hourly wage. 

Next, the figures consider the median 

hourly rate, calculated by ranking all 

employees from highest paid to lowest 

paid, and taking the hourly wage of the 

person in the middle; so the median 

gender pay gap is the difference between 

women’s median hourly wage (the middle 

paid woman) and men’s median hourly 

wage (the middle paid man). 

This is 3.1% higher for women at 

Midcounties – which means that, in 

median hourly terms, women employees 

at Midcounties earn £1.03 for every £1 that 

men earn. 

At Radstock and Chelmsford Star, 

women earn the same as men by this 

measure. For all other co-ops the rate is 

lower for women, varying from 1.1% lower 

at Central England Co-operative to 12.8% 

at the Co-operative Group. 

In terms of the proportion of women in 

the top quartile of jobs, co-ops reported 

different figures. 

Pay quartiles are calculated by splitting 

all employees in an organisation into four 

even groups according to their level of pay. 

Looking at the proportion of women in 

each quartile offers evidence of women’s 

representation in an organisation. 

Women occupy 60% of the top jobs 

at Tamworth and 58% at Scotmid and 

Midcounties, and 52% at Lincolnshire and 

Chelmsford Star. 

They also represent significant 

proportions of the lower quartile: 83% at 

Tamworth, 77.7% at Lincolnshire, 76.1% at 

East of England, 73.2% at the Co-op Group 

and 72.6% at Radstock. 

Apart from East of England, all paid 

Women’s mean bonus pay 

compared to men's 

52.8% 

Higher at Radstock Co-op 

Women's mean hourly 

rate compared to men’s 

Percentage of women 

receiving bonuses 

Tamworth 

0.40% 

Heart of England 

62% 

Midcounties 

74.7% 

bonuses to employees. Smaller societies 

such as Radstock and Tamworth paid 

bonuses to small percentages of women 

– 2% and 0.4% respectively and men 1.7% 

and 6.9%. 

Looking at women’s mean bonus pay 

compared to men’s, this varies from 

52.8% higher at Radstock to 80.5% 

lower at Central England and 72.9% at 

Midcounties. The Co-op Group has the 

lowest figure, with women’s median 

bonus pay being 3% lower than men’s, 

followed by Southern (18% lower) and 

Scotmid (23.1%). Tamworth has the 

biggest difference, with women’s median 

bonus pay 84.1% lower. 

Pete Westall, general manager, 

co-operative social responsibility at 

Midcounties, said: “As a co-operative, 

creating a better, fairer world is part of our 

purpose. We commit to being a diverse 

and inclusive employer. Pleasingly, this 

commitment and our work in this area 

has been recognised by Business in the 

Community, who have awarded us a 5 

star rating for our socially responsible 

business practices. Producing this 

report has provided us with a welcome 

opportunity to assess the gender equality 

within our organisation and outline how 

we plan to reinforce our supportive culture 

through further action.” 

Percentage of men 

receiving bonuses 

Tamworth 

6.9% 

Heart of England 

74% 

Midcounties 

62.3% 

-18.71% 


EDUCATION 

Co-operative College launches 

International Co-operative 

Development course 

The Co-operative College is launching a new training course 

on international co-operative development. 

Starting on 10 May, the course will consist of two webinars 

and a day school to 

show how co-ops can 

empower communities 

around the world. It will 

build on the College’s 

15-year experience of cooperative 

development 

training, which has 

covered countries such 

as Malawi, Sri Lanka 

and Rwanda. 

Participants will learn 

about the diversity and 

reach of the global cooperative 

movement and 

explore the similarities 

p Dr Benson with CEPEESM 

project manager John Mulangeni 

in Malawi last year 

and differences in how co-ops work in the UK and 

other countries. And they will look at the “co-operative 

difference” in international development and the role of 

education in this. 

The workshops will be delivered by the College’s Dr Sarah 

Alldred, project development manager, and Dr Amanda 

Benson, projects and research co-ordinator. 

FINANCE 

Ecology Building Society reports 

profit and growth in savings 

The Ecology Building Society’s results for the year ending 31 

December 2017 show record assets and growth in savings. 

The ethical finance provider, which supports green 

building practices, energy efficiency and sustainable living, 

reported record assets of £178.7m, up from £173.1m in 2016, 

and gross lending of £28.2m, down from £30.7m. In all, 

78% of mortgages were advanced on residential properties 

(including new builds, renovations and shared ownership) 

and 22% on community-led housing (including charities, 

community land trusts and housing co-ops) and nonresidential 

properties such as sustainable businesses. 

Savings balances grew to £167.8m, from £163.1m in 2016. 

Profit was £915,000, down from £920,000 in 2016, marking 

more than 30 years of uninterrupted profitability. 

Chief executive Paul Ellis said: “Recent initiatives such as 

the report of the government’s Green Finance Taskforce are 

positive signs of a growing interest in Ecology’s sustainable 

lending model, demonstrating how finance can support the 

transition to a low-carbon economy.” 

ECONOMICS 

First ‘Fair Tax Fortnight’ announced 

The UK’s first Fair Tax Fortnight has been announced for 9-24 

June 2018. 

Organised by the Fair Tax Mark, with support from the 

Friends Provident Foundation and the Joffe Charitable Trust, 

the event will be a UK-wide “celebration of the companies 

and organisations that are proud to pay their fair share 

of corporation tax”. 

The Fair Tax Mark was launched in 2014 to allow businesses 

that are paying tax in a responsible way to demonstrate this 

commitment to their customers, contractors and associates. 

Midcounties Co-operative, Unity Trust Bank and the Phone 

Co-op were the first businesses to be accredited by the new Mark, 

and since then the scheme has continued to be supported by 

co-operatives. Among the 1,500 shops and offices accredited 

are the Co-op Group and Revolver Coffee Co-operative, as 

well as AMT Coffee Bars and Richer Sounds. 

“Corporation tax is often presented as a burden, but it shouldn’t 

be,” said Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Mark. 

“Not when considered against the huge array of public services 

it helps fund – from education, health and social care, to flood 

defence, roads, policing and defence. 

“It also plays a crucial role in holding the whole tax system 

together – helping to counter financial inequalities and rebalance 

distorted economies.” 

To mark the start of the fortnight, a Fair Tax Conference will be 

held to explore key topics such as responsible tax planning; how to 

tackle tax avoidance; and the case for Corporation Tax. The event 

will be sponsored by SSE, the first FTSE 100 business to become a 

Fair Tax Mark organisation. 

The Fortnight will be also be supported by a dedicated 

online portal that will detail Fair Tax developments and events 

across the UK. 

“Too often, tax makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons,” 

added Mr Monaghan. “There is an almost daily stream of stories 

of evasion and aggressive avoidance – which not only distort 

our economy but also undermine the opportunity for business 

to compete fairly.” 

It is estimated that €600bn of corporate profits shifted to tax 

havens each year, with annual corporate tax revenue losses 

of €200bn globally. 

“Polls of consumers consistently reveal that one of their 

biggest concerns about business is the fair payment of tax,” 

said Mr Monaghan. “That’s why we’re committed to championing 

those organisations that recognise the need for business to play 

its part in contributing to these vital public services, operating 

on a level playing field and making a positive contribution to the 

economy and the communities they operate in.” 


RETAIL 

Midcounties Co-op announces a UK 

retail first on food source labelling 

Midcounties Co-op says Happerley certification on food 

ingredients is to become mandatory for all food suppliers across 

its Best of our Counties range. 

This will make the ingredient supply chains of over 200 ranges 

of food and drink fully transparent to the consumer, via a QR 

code, app and certification marque. The certification will roll out 

over the following months across 230 food stores. 

Enabling the consumer to connect to and validate the journey 

of their food in this way is a UK first, says Midcounties. 

Happerley advisory board member Adam Henson said: 

“Consumers should know where their food is from. Happerley 

enables the consumers to see in an instant exactly where the 

ingredients have come from. We all hope this will become a 

national game changer.” 

Midcounties chief executive Phil Ponsonby added: “We believe 

consumers increasingly want to know where the ingredients 

in their food and drink are from and I am delighted we are 

working with Happerley as their first multiple retailer to adopt 

this scheme.” 

p Singer-songwriter Leddra, the first featured artist in the deal, with 

SupaPass founder Juliana Meyer 

TECHNOLOGY 

Musical marriage for East of England 

The East of England Co-op has teamed up with Norwich-based 

technology startup SupaPass to bring free music to its customers. 

SupaPass is a streaming app which gives artists their own 

subscription streaming service, where they can earn 100% net 

revenue share, unlike the micropayments from other streaming 

models. The trial, launched in 16 food stores across Norfolk, 

Suffolk and Essex last month, offers free song download cards at 

till points, which give away a free song online from local artists. 

POLITICS 

Co-operative Party offers ‘radical vision’ of democratic public ownership 

p The paper includes proposals for a new 

generation of community-owned renewables 

The Co-operative Party has published a 

new paper in which it calls for alternative 

models of democratic public ownership 

for key industries including water, energy 

and rail. 

The report welcomes Labour Party 

plans to bring these industries and 

others into public ownership, but argues 

that democracy and accountability 

must be at the heart of new publicly 

owned models. It envisions services 

directly accountable to those who use 

them and have a stake in their success: 

customers, employees and taxpayers. 

Greater involvement of customers and 

employees will also lead to improved 

productivity, it argues. 

The Party believes the debate 

around public ownership goes beyond 

a basic argument about profits – 

being a question of governance 

and accountability. 

“The Co-operative Party believes the 

full potential of public ownership can 

only be achieved through the use of 

democratic, accountable and inclusive 

models. Public utilities and transport 

redesigned using co-operative values and 

principles would democratise key aspects 

of our economy,” reads the report. 

It stresses the need to create not-forprofit 

regional water companies, owned 

and run by accountable trusts made up of 

employees and consumers. 

The Party suggests the new employee 

and consumer trusts should have a role 

in scrutiny and decision-making at Ofwat 

by appointing a scrutiny panel which 

reviews the operations of the regulator 

and plays a role in board appointment. 

It also argues that Ofwat should work with 

HMRC and financial regulators to 

tighten the rules on tax arrangements 

for companies wishing to invest in UK 

public utilities. 

The report gives examples of public 

services run co-operatively, including 

Welsh Water (Glas Cymru), which 

became a not-for-profit company limited 

by guarantee in 2000 after “a people’s 

bid” to take it out of private ownership. 

Party general secretary Claire McCarthy 

said: “Those who want to continue to 

defend the failed privatisations of rail, 

energy and water will no longer be 

able to use the smokescreen that any 

alternative means a return to the past. 

What this document sets out is a radical 

vision for democratic public ownership 

for the 21st century.” 

She added: “Public ownership is now 

a mainstream political position backed 

by the majority. The time has come to 

focus on how it can be achieved, and how 

we maximise the benefits to consumers, 

employees and the taxpayer. 

“We offer the proposals in this report as a 

contribution to these discussions.” 


RETAIL 

What has been happening at the Co-operative Group? 

UK FESTIVAL BILLING 

This summer, four major UK music festivals 

will have their own Co-op Food stores on 

site, thanks to a partnership between the 

Co-op Group and entertainment company 

Live Nation. 

Download, Latitude, and Reading and 

Leeds festivals will each have a 6,000 

square foot shop, catering for 200,000 

festival goers. The festival stores will stock 

over 200 products, including food, water, 

beer and wine, toiletries, medicines and 

those festival essentials: sun cream and 

rain ponchos. Stores will be restocked 

each day and be open from 7am until 1am. 

“It shows our ambition to reach out to 

new and younger customers, providing 

essential and quality products,” said 

Amanda Jennings, director of marketing 

communications at the Group. 

“Co-op is all about being close to the 

customer and it doesn’t get much closer 

than being right outside your tent.” 

NEW ACADEMY SCHOOLS 

The Co-op Group has announced a multimillion 

pound plan to accelerate the rollout 

of its academy schools programme, 

with the ambition to more than treble the 

number of academies it sponsors to 40 in 

the next three years. 

The Group is already the UK’s largest 

corporate sponsor of academies, opening 

three in the last year to take its current 

total to 12 – five primary and seven 

secondary. Its existing strategy is to take 

over “predominantly weak schools in 

economically challenged communities 

in the North, putting in place ambitious 

turnaround plans”. 

IBM LEGAL BATTLE CONTINUES 

IBM has denied wrongdoing in a £130m 

lawsuit from Co-operative Insurance in a 

dispute over an agreement signed in 2015 

to provide an integrated service platform. 

And it has retaliated with a demand for 

£2.89m from Co-op Insurance, for what it 

says is an unpaid invoice. 

Co-op Insurance issued the lawsuit 

last December, claiming “intentional 

breaches” of contract by IBM. It says 

delays to the work mean it did not have to 

pay the invoice. 

The case is ongoing. 

NISA PURCHASE GIVEN GO-AHEAD 

The Competition and Markets Authority 

(CMA) has cleared the Co-op Group’s 

purchase of Nisa. 

The Group became the exclusive bidder 

for Nisa after Sainsbury’s dropped out, 

reportedly due to concerns that the CMA 

could block the acquisition. Nisa members 

approved the Group’s offer to buy the 

business for £137.5m last November, but 

the deal required regulatory approval. 

After examining the evidence, the 

CMA said it “found that the proposed 

merger does not give rise to competition 

concerns”. It concluded that the Group, 

as a groceries retailer, and Nisa, as a 

groceries wholesaler, “do not compete 

head-to-head”. 

However, since Nisa supplies over 

4,000 groceries stores, the CMA had to 

also consider the potential impact of the 

merger on competition between shops. 

The transaction remains subject to 

court sanction of the scheme on 4 May. 

The deal is expected to complete on or 

around 8 May. 

ENHANCEMENT OF PROBATE PROVISION 

The Co-op Group is in the process of 

acquiring Simplify Probate, the UK’s 

second largest probate provider, in a bid to 

transform the later life planning market. 

Simplify Probate has been a specialist 

provider of probate (the legal process 

for dealing with the estate of someone 

who has died) and estate administration 

for more than 25 years. It also runs an 

established Bereavement Advice Centre 

which provides access to practical 

bereavement advice online and by 

telephone. 

The acquisition supports the Group’s 

ambition to deliver bereavement services 

for customers and members, says Matt 

Howells, managing director of its Legal 

Services and Later Life business. 

RECYCLING 

The Group has announced plans to switch 

all its bottled water to 50% recycled 

plastic (rPET). The bottles, which will look 

greyer than those using less or no recycled 

plastic, will be sourced in the UK and be 

100% recyclable, says the Group. 

The change will be introduced for all its 

own-brand still, sparkling and flavoured 

water later this year. 

It is the first retailer to run this initiative, 

which it estimates can save almost 350 

tonnes of plastic annually. 


Lincolnshire Co-op raised more than £150k 

p West Street manager Mark (centre) with 

new colleagues Jackie and Karl 

COMMUNITY 

Southern Co-op raises 

funds for children’s A&E 

Southern Co-op food stores in 

Southampton have raised over £6,800 for 

a new emergency trauma ward for children 

at University Hospital Southampton A&E. 

All 13 Southern Co-op stores in the city 

came together following a suggestion by 

City Gateway store manager Dean Millar 

that the charity should receive money from 

the society’s Love Your Neighbourhood 

community engagement scheme, and 

from charity boxes in store. 

He said: “Both I and my three children 

have relied on the University Hospital and 

when we heard about the appeal to help 

set up a new children’s emergency trauma 

ward I thought it was time to take action. 

“Now our colleagues at Commercial 

Road have selected the charity as their 

Love Your Neighbourhood partner for the 

next 12 months and the fundraising efforts 

have really snowballed.” 

Meanwhile, the society’s store on West 

Street in Ryde, the Isle of Wight, has 

partnered with Solent charity Wheatsheaf 

Trust to help unemployed people into 

work. 

The store has recruited eight new 

colleagues in the last six months, with 

more expected throughout the year. 

Bridge2Work, funded by the European 

Social Fund (ESF) and the National 

Lottery, offers participants paid work, 

building their confidence and resilience. 

Store manager Mark said: “After a 

similar partnership we ran last year with 

the Shaw Trust, we looked to extend our 

work experience programme with another 

charity. We were lucky enough to link 

up with Wheatsheaf Trust to help clients 

back into a working environment.” 

The project aims to support people 

across the Solent area facing barriers to 

work, including disability, homelessness, 

long term unemployment and isolation. 

Charities and groups working with older 

people will share a £153,000 windfall 

from a fundraising campaign by the 

Lincolnshire Co-op. The fundraising drive 

will help 63 friendship groups and lunch 

clubs, at a time when loneliness and 

isolation is affecting health and wellbeing 

for many older people. More than 156,000 

members helped raise the total, as well as 

staff fundraising and the plastic bag levy. 

Chelmsford Star Co-op makes national awards shortlist 

Chelmsford Star Co-operative has been 

recognised in the national Business 

Charity Awards. The society recently 

reported that 33p in every £1 spent in 

their stores impacted the Essex economy 

in some way – through community 

donations; support for local food and 

drink producers; charitable fundraising; 

and the dividend for members. 

Radstock Co-op recognised as an Investor in People 

Radstock Co-operative has been awarded 

silver accreditation against the Investors 

in People Standard, in recognition of its 

commitment to high performance through 

good people management. Investors 

in People defines what it takes to lead, 

support and manage people effectively to 

achieve sustainable results. 

Scotmid backs efforts to help the homeless in Edinburgh 

Scotmid Co-operative is funding a 

community hub at the Social Bite Village, 

a project to help homeless people in 

Edinburgh. One key component of the 

project is helping residents learn life skills 

such as money management and cooking. 

It also offers a place to meet mentors or 

health visitors to help get their life back 

on track. 

East of England Co-op to sell fresh food beyond Best Before 

The East of England Co-op will be selling 

fresh food products after the ‘best before’ 

date. The initiative, part of the “The 

Co-op Guide to Dating” scheme to tackle 

food waste, saw items including tinned 

goods, packets and dried food go on sale 

for a month beyond the best before date. 

Products will be sold for a nominal 10p. 


UTILITIES 

Discounted energy for Midlands residents thanks to co-op partnership 

p Gary Fulford (CEO, WHG), Eddie Hughes 

(chair, WHG), David Bird (CEO, Co-op Energy) 

and Paul Dockerill (director of energy, WHG) 

Midlands landlord WHG has teamed up 

with Co-op Energy to provide its 40,000 

residents with discounted gas and 

electricity. The partnership will offer a 

new tariff, FuelGood Simplicity, to all of 

WHG’s 21,000 homes across the region. 

“WHG has developed this competitive 

tariff with Co-op Energy to encourage 

our customers to secure better energy 

deals,” said Gary Fulford, WHG’s group 

chief executive. 

“We are already seeing the benefit 

of this partnership, as a number of our 

customers have signed up to the tariff and 

are saving money on their energy bills.” 

The scheme guarantees WHG customers 

a discount on Co-op Energy’s standard 

variable tariff. It will cost customers £971 

a year, based on average usage, which it 

claims is cheaper than any of the standard 

variable tariffs offered by the UK’s 10 

largest suppliers. 

Customers who qualify for the 

government’s Warm Home Discounts can 

also save an additional £140 a year. 

David Bird, CEO of Co-op Energy, which 

is part of the Midcounties Co-operative, 

was at the launch event at the housing 

group’s offices in Walsall. 

“Partnering with WHG to offer this 

unique tariff is just one of the ways 

we are working with communities 

to alleviate fuel poverty,” he said. 

“Not only do residents get a reliable, 

competitive price for their energy – with 

100% renewable electricity as standard 

– but by taking up this tariff, they also 

help us support WHG’s work to reinvest in 

homes across the region.” 

Meanwhile Co-op Energy has also made 

an offer to acquire Flow Energy Limited. 

If accepted, the proposed deal will see 

the energy provider acquire 130,000 

more customers. 

“As part of the Midcounties 

Co-operative, Co-op Energy is a strong, 

independent supplier that is committed to 

acting in the interests of its customers and 

members,” said Mr Bird. 

“Our proposal to acquire Flow Energy 

Limited will continue to build our 

movement by welcoming a large number 

of new customers into what is already the 

largest member-owned supplier in the UK 

energy market.” 

ECONOMY 

Can you help to build a new economy? New crowdfunding campaign 

Not-for-profit community organisation 

Stir To Action has launched a 

crowdfunding campaign to support a 

national programme of workshops to help 

communities build a “new economy that 

works for everyone”. 

The organisation, which also publishes 

quarterly magazine STIR, runs technology 

accelerators, and supports community 

economic development, wants to 

raise £12,000 to cover the costs of the 

new programme. 

The year-long scheme will include 

practical workshops, three-day 

residentials, mentoring, and live 

crowdfunding. Participants will discover 

new economic tools and models and 

receive training from facilitators with 

decades of experience. 

The workshops will look at worker 

co-operatives and explore how 

community wealth building approaches 

could benefit local economies. They will 

look at understanding of racial justice and 

economic history, see the economy from 

a gender perspective, and enable you to 

develop your communication strategy for 

a new project, campaign, or organisation. 

Stir to Action says: “We talk about 

making ‘communities stronger’ and 

creating a ‘fairer economy.’ But these 

approaches are still struggling to 

significantly impact our society and 

economy – 80% of the UK’s freelancers 

are living in poverty, black African 

women earn 19.6% less than white British 

men, 27 pubs are closing every week as 

part of a wider decline in community 

assets, and local authority cuts are 

disproportionately affecting women and 

black and minority ethnic communities 

across the UK.” 

It hopes the new programme will 

continue its work to help build an 

alternative economy. Pledges to the 

campaign over the next five weeks will 

support subsidised workshop places, 

local workshop venues, programme 

design, a mentoring network, and provide 

resources to engage new communities. 

If it hits the target, its programme will 

train a 1,000 people in three cities — 

Bristol, Oxford, and London — and build 

a community of change-makers. 

There are also rewards to thank 

supporters – who can book an advance 

place on a workshop, or be an ‘enabler’ 

and pledge to create subsidised places. 

And there is the chance to have dinner 

with Carne Ross, a former British diplomat 

who resigned over the Iraq War, and 

whose film The Accidental Anarchist aired 

on the BBC’s Storyville. 

Or you could the Financial Heretic, Brett 

Scott, for pizza and to talk about activist 

hedge funds, blockchain technology, 

mutual credit, and the world of 

alternative finance. 


HOUSING 

Scottish Labour leader wants a workers’ 

right-to-buy option for threatened plants 

p Richard Leonard MSP 

Workers facing redundancy at Scottish 

factories Pinneys and 2 Sisters should 

be offered the chance to buy out the 

companies to save their jobs, says 

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard. 

Mr Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, 

told delegates from the Scottish TUC of 

his plans for a version of Italy’s Marcora 

Law, which allows redundant workers 

to use their unemployment benefit 

to buy their companies. 

He made the remarks after Young’s 

Seafood announced plans to shut its 

Pinneys plant at Annan, Dumfries, and 

move production south, threatening 

450 jobs. 

And another 450 jobs are at stake at 

food manufacturer 2 Sisters, which is 

consulting on the closure of its plant at 

Cambuslang, Lanarkshire. 

He said: “We need forward planning, 

economic planning and also environmental 

planning to tackle humanity’s greatest 

challenge – climate change. 

“We need democracy in our economy, 

not just when things go wrong, 

but to help things go right in the 

first place.” 

He added: “We need to look afresh 

at who owns the Scottish economy and 

why we are so vulnerable to external 

shocks – and why so much wealth leaks 

out from our country.” 

The Marcora Law, which was 

brought in by Italy’s trade and industry 

minister Giovanni Marcora in 1985, 

provides state backing for two 

funds to support co- ops, including 

one for new co-ops set up by 

employees who have been laid off 

when companies close or downsize. 

It also gives access to technical 

assistance and know-how, and has seen 

the creation of more than 250 workerowned 

firms, saving more than 9,000 jobs. 

OBITUARY 

Bruce Thordarson (1948-2018), former director general of the ICA 

Bruce Thordarson, who served as director 

general of the International Co-operative 

Alliance from 1988-2001, has died aged 

69 after a stroke and a fall. 

During his time at the Alliance, Mr 

Thordarson played a role in drafting 

the Alliance’s Statement on the 

Co-operative Identity, which was released 

in 1995. He and his team organised regular 

international and regional meetings 

that allowed some 10,000 people to be 

consulted on the document. 

Before taking on the role of director 

general, Mr Thordarson served as the 

Alliance’s head of development and 

associate director. 

In a letter to members, the current 

director general, Bruno Roelants, said: 

“Bruce Thordarson was associated with 

our organisation for many years and was 

an excellent person to work with. 

“He was a tireless, dedicated and 

enthusiastic co-operator even in the 

most testing times for the recognition 

of the global co-operative movement by 

international institutions.” 

Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, on 

14 April 1948, Mr Thordarson studied 

at the University of Saskatchewan, and 

later at Carleton University, Ottawa. 

He published books on Canadian political 

leaders Pierre Trudeau and Lester Pearson. 

He served as director of government 

affairs at the Canadian Cooperative 

Credit Society (1976-1979), before 

taking up the post of executive director 

at the Cooperative Union of Canada, 

(1979-1985). Prior to this he was special 

assistant at the Canada’s Parliamentary 

Centre for Foreign Affairs (1972-1974) 

and policy advisor at the Ministry 

of Manpower & Immigration (1974-1976). 

Later in his career, Mr Thordarson 

carried out consultancy work for the 

Canadian Co-operative Association 

in Indonesia and Vietnam. More 

recently, he volunteered to help the 

co-operative movement in Indonesia with 

various seminars and workshops. 

And he served on the board of the 

Funeral Co-operative of Ottawa from 

2012 to 2015. 

A statement on the co-op’s Facebook 

page said: “He will be remembered 

as a remarkably staunch advocate for 

co-operatives all around the world. 

Virtually Bruce’s whole career was spent 

working with co-ops. 

“A short service will be held at FCO this 

coming Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 10AM to 

mark the death of Bruce, and a memorial 

service will take place later this summer.” 

p Bruce Thordarson 


OBITUARY 

Jacqui Forster (1962-2018), pioneer of supporter ownership 

p Jacqui Forster at the launch of Women at the Game in Manchester, May 2017 

Jacqui Forster, a devoted campaigner for 

supporter trusts, has passed away at the 

age of 55, nine years after being diagnosed 

with cancer. 

A legal practitioner, Jacqui dedicated 

a significant amount of her career 

to empowering sports club supporters. 

Her love of football developed early on, 

sparked by attending matches of her local 

club, Altrincham FC, with her father, and 

she remained committed to the club all 

her life. She helped to set up a supporters’ 

trust for the club and later became its vice 

president and honorary head of diversity 

and inclusion. 

Her involvement in the co-op movement 

started in 2003, when she joined 

Supporters Direct. The organisation 

enables fans to set up democratic 

co-operatives, known as supporters’ 

trusts, to gain influence in the running 

and ownership of their clubs. As head 

of casework and constitutional affairs, 

she worked with supporters to purchase 

and develop community-owned clubs. 

In December 2015, she was given 

just months to live. In spite of this, she 

continued her tireless work, starting 

a campaign to encourage women 

supporters to attend football games. In 

January 2017 she set up Women at the 

Game, a movement aimed at bringing 

women football fans together to attend 

matches; it was officially launched 

in May 2017. 

The initiative became a platform for 

women to get together and attend football 

games as a group, with Jacqui arranging 

pre-match meet-ups and doing interviews 

in local and national media to spread the 

word. She believed in making football 

accessible to all. The first Women at the 

Game event at Altrincham FC attracted 

regular football fans as well as women 

who had never been to a match, some 

of whom had been reluctant to attend 

a game on their own. 

Alongside Altrincham FC, Banbury 

United, Doncaster Rovers and Huddersfield 

Town Supporters Association embraced 

the campaign, all hosting Women at the 

Game events. The initiative also reached 

the Premier league, with Manchester City 

organising Women at the Game events 

for its fans. 

p Jacqui Forster set up Women at the Game 

in 2017 

Jacqui’s optimism, kindness, and 

determination were an inspiration for 

everyone who had the chance to meet her. 

“Jacqui was passionate, dedicated, 

and has been involved in almost every 

one of the 200 supporters trusts at some 

stage of their development,” said Ashley 

Brown, chief executive of Supporters 

Direct. “Alongside her professionalism 

was a personality and warmth that will 

be fondly remembered and sadly missed 

by all in the movement, and more latterly 

from her inspirational new venture, 

Women at the Game.” 

Ed Mayo, secretary general 

of Co-operatives UK, said: “We have lost 

an exemplary spirit of co-operation, hope 

and values. What a life she has shared!” 

Elaine Dean, friend of Jacqui and 

former vice-chair of Supporters Direct, 

said: “When a collection was made to help 

her, she used the money to found Women 

at the Game, her legacy initiative to 

encourage women to attend live sporting 

events. She launched this in Manchester, 

three days after the Arena bombing, at 

Gary Neville’s Hotel Football – as the 

original venue of the Football Museum 

was within the police cordon. It took more 

than a terrorist bomb to deter Jacqui!” 

Ms Dean first met Jacqui when 

she joined SD in 2003. 

“Jacqui’s fortitude and determination 

not to give in was an inspiration to 

all who knew her,” she added. “She 

travelled widely and ticked things off 

her ‘bucket list’ on a weekly basis, such 

as parachuting, attending a Grand Prix, 

and skiing. She also travelled to New 

Zealand and Italy and made the most 

of her time left.” 

Altrincham FC also published 

a touching tribute to Jacqui. 

“Altrincham FC is deeply saddened to 

learn of the premature death of Jacqui 

Forster, a longstanding supporter of the 

club and a national figure associated 

not only with organisations such as 

Supporters Direct and Women at the 

Game but also many other initiatives 

to improve the experience for women, 

the disabled and minorities in the 

football environment. 

“In recent years Jacqui and her husband 

Pete have lived directly opposite the 

J Davidson Stadium and they attended 

as many matches at home and away as 

her health permitted. It is particularly 

poignant that Jacqui’s death comes 

on the same weekend that Altrincham 

clinched the EvoStik Northern Premier 

League title.” 


GLOBAL UPDATES 

USA 

Berkeley Electric Coop rounds up bills to support local communities 

An electric co-operative in California is 

rounding up bills to the next highest dollar 

to help fund local community projects. 

Founded in 1940, Berkeley Electric 

Cooperative would round up a bill of 

$55.75 to USD $56.00, with the additional 

$0.25 going to the Operation Round 

Up Fund. Bills are rounded up from a 

penny to 99 cents, but never by more 

than one dollar. 

The fund is administered by the Berkeley 

Electric Cooperative Trust, a board of 

volunteer directors made up of community 

leaders from the three counties served 

by the co-operative. 

The funds can be used for home 

repairs, heating, ventilation, and air 

conditioning (HVAC) or building of 

wheel chair ramps for medical necessity. 

A member can receive up to $3,000 within 

a three-year period for such projects. 

Overall the co-op, rounds up each 

participating customer’s bill by $6 per 

year, which amounts to around $408,000 

a year for this fund. Since its launch in 

1992 the programme has raised $7.6m. 

Customers can see how the money is spent 

on their monthly billing statement as well 

as on their year-end statement. 

While customers are automatically 

signed up to the Operation Round Up 

programme as soon as they join the co-op, 

they can choose to opt out at any time by 

contacting their local district office. 

Berkeley Electric Cooperative now 

serves over 95,000 customers in Berkeley, 

Charleston and Dorchester counties with 

over 5,000 miles of line connecting them 

all together, making it the largest electric 

co-operative in South Carolina. 

CYPRUS 

Anger as 

bailed-out Cyprus Coop 

Bank goes on sale 

The Cyprus Cooperative Bank – 77% stateowned 

following a financial crisis and 

bailout in 2013 – has put itself up for sale 

and appointed Citigroup Global Markets 

to look for buyers. 

The bank is the leader in the amount 

of deposits held by Cypriots, but is also 

weighed down by bad loans – more than 

58% of the total. 

This follows a 2013 banking crisis which 

forced Cyprus to accept a rescue deal that 

included a seizure of unsecured deposits 

in its two largest lenders. 

Finance minister Harris Georgiades said 

the move would rebuild confidence in the 

bank. But the plans have been met with 

anger from opposition parties who accuse 

the government of “selling off the public 

wealth”, Cyprus Mail Online reports. The 

paper says the bank was recapitalised 

with almost €1.7bn in taxpayers’ money 

in 2014 and 2015, but it is struggling with 

€6bn of non-performing loans, more than 

half of its portfolio. 

Main opposition Akel spokesman, 

Stefanos Stefanou, said the government’s 

tactic had been to hide its real intentions 

“behind various promises”. 

Quoted in Cyprus Mail, he said: 

“Initially, the Anastasiades administration 

promised to return the bank to its owners. 

Later, they committed to returning the 

co-operatives to the people. They prepared 

a plan to list on the stock exchange but he 

did not even keep that promise.” 

Independent MP Anna Theologo is 

leading a public protest. “I want to believe 

that we care about who manages public 

funds and how they embezzle people’s 

money with their decisions,” she said. 

“I believe that no one will tolerate 

to pay again, for the third time, for the 

mistakes of the banks and I truly hope 

that this time those responsible assume 

their responsibilities and resign.” 

Other opposition MPs fear the ‘good 

part’ of the bank will be sold while the 

state keeps the balance sheet with the 

delinquent loans, 

But in an opinion piece, Cyprus Mail hit 

out at the management of the bank before 

the financial crisis hit, accusing it of 

reckless lending in a “free-for all”, adding 

that the bank’s wealth was “plundered ... 

by its executives, members, customers and 

political parties, all of whom benefited 

from what they described as the peoplecentred 

co-op movement and banking 

with a human face”. 

Defending the decision to sell the bank, 

it added: “The CCB cannot be described as 

public wealth when more than 50% of its 

assets are toxic, threatening its survival. 

“At least the government’s decision will 

salvage something from the shipwreck.” 

The bank dates back to 1938, when 

Cyrus’s co-operative credit societies had 

expanded to such an extent that a central 

body was needed, and it became clear that 

the Agricultural Bank, established in 1925, 

could not meet the short-term borrowing 

needs of co-ops and farmers. 


CUBA 

What next for co-ops in Cuba with Miguel Díaz-Canel as president? 

Cuban leader Raúl Castro stepped 

down on 19 April to be succeeded as the 

country’s president by Miguel Díaz-Canel. 

What will this mean for the country’s 

co-operative sector? 

While Mr Castro is no longer president, 

he will remain first secretary of the 

Communist Party until 2021, when 

the new president takes over the role. 

Elected by the National Assembly, Mr 

Díaz-Canel is a trained electrical engineer. 

A close ally of the Castro family, he 

served as bodyguard to Raúl Castro, 

and has been involved in politics since 

1987. A former minister of higher 

education, he has supported access 

to the internet (albeit censored) and 

LGBT rights. 

In his inauguration speech, Mr Díaz- 

Canel confirmed Mr Castro would 

continue to lead the country. He defines 

himself as a Raúlista economic reformer, 

which implies he will continue Mr Castro’s 

efforts to shrink the public sector and 

p Miguel Díaz-Canel and Raul Castro 

boost small private enterprises in 

a cautious manner. 

Under Raúl Castro’s rule, nearly 

600,000 small-service business people 

were licensed. Following reforms last 

year, co-ops in non-agricultural sectors 

can only operate in the province where 

they formed, and the distribution 

of income within them is regulated 

to avoid inequality. 

Furthermore, the pay gap between 

the owner and lowest paid employee 

cannot be greater than three times. 

Cuban people can also be a member of 

only one co-operative, or own only one 

private business. Since August, licences 

for self-employed businesses have been 

frozen to address alleged illegalities 

within the sector. 

In another attempt to boost selfemployed 

businesses, the government 

opened a wholesale market in March 

for non-agricultural co-ops in Havana. 

The market enables co-ops in the 

restaurant industry to buy directly from 

wholesales at prices that are 20% lower. 

This is the first wholesale market 

available for co-ops, but the authorities 

plan to open more. The government 

also intends to introduce similar access 

to lower petrol prices for co-ops in the 

transport industry. 

In a speech after stepping down, 

Raúl Castro confirmed the reform 

of the economy would continue 

under Miguel Díaz-Canel, focused on 

developing the self-employed sector and 

continuing the experiment with nonagricultural 

co-operatives. 

EUROPE 

Co-ops are 

key to a more social 

Europe, says CECOP 

-CICOPA Europe 

A conference on social economy and social 

entrepreneurship has looked at the future 

implications of the digital revolution and 

inclusive growth. 

The event was centred around the 

European Pillar of Social Rights, which 

was jointly signed by the European 

Parliament, Council and Commission 

on 17 November 2017. The pillar commits 

EU states to 20 principles and rights, 

including equal access to the labour 

market; the right to health care; 

a better work-life balance; and gender 

equality for pay. 

Patrick Develtere, principal adviser on 

European social policy at the European 

Political Strategy Centre of the European 

Commission, who moderated the morning 

session, said the EU wanted to “stand 

up for the rights of its citizens in a fastchanging 

world”. 

Keynote speaker Giuseppe Guerini, 

president of the European confederation 

of industrial and service co-operatives 

(CECOP-CICOPA Europe), said the social 

economy – and in particular worker and 

social co-operatives – play an important 

role in building a more social Europe. 

He said the pillar was “a good start” 

for a “more social Europe”, something 

CECOP had been campaigning for. 

“This initiative has been important to 

raise awareness among the member states 

on the need for a more social Europe, 

to demonstrate that business activities, 

investments and the social dimension 

can be combined to create growth and 

development,” he said. 

He stressed it was important to recognise 

the “active contribution” of co-ops to the 

sustainability of the local economies, and 

called on governments to support this. 

“This ability must be supported with 

regulatory policies,” he said. 

“An example concerns the public 

procurements: from this point of view 

the 2014 Procurement and Concession 

Directive is a clear positive example, 

thanks to the provision of social clauses 

and reserved contracts for enterprises 

involved in work integration of 

disadvantaged people.” 

He added that the simplification of 

taxation mechanisms was also useful. 

“This does not just mean reducing taxes; 

and nor is it a question of losing revenue 

from the state taxes, because what seems 

lost on the one hand can be greatly 

increased by savings and efficiency, such 

as reducing poverty. 

“For example, if I give up a share 

of taxes owed by the company on the work 

done by a disadvantaged worker, but 

I save money that I would have to spend 

on subsidies and assistance for these 

people, we can have an obvious benefit. 

“What is needed is to learn how 

to measure it. In Italy, for example, we are 

using an evaluation method that measures 

these relationships with a scientific 

analysis validated by a university.” 

Participants at the two-day forum 

examined ways the social economy could 

become sustainable and discussed the 

favourable conditions for a strong social 

economy in the EU. 

Held in Sofia, Bulgaria, the meeting 

was organised in the framework of the 

Bulgarian presidency of the EU. 


GLOBAL 

Health co-operatives are on the rise, IHCO report finds 

A new report by the International Health 

Co-operative Organisation (IHCO) has 

found that the sector has grown in 

importance over the past 20-30 years. The 

research, which looks at co-operatives 

from 13 different countries, concludes the 

growth is clear reaction to the increased 

demand for health services coupled 

with the rising difficulties faced by 

public authorities to support expanding 

healthcare expenditures. 

Co-operatives’ ‘distinct approach 

Co-operatives have a distinct approach 

which enables the development of 

prevention services and improving 

wellbeing, it says. 

In Canada and Italy, for example, 

co-ops are targeting the needs of elderly 

populations, while in France health 

mutuals are becoming increasingly 

relevant in collective care. 

All healthcare systems examined 

presented similar challenges, such as 

demand for long-term care services due to 

longer life expectancy, the difficulties of 

most health systems to organise preventive 

care; long wait times for healthcare; and 

the general problem of containing rising 

health costs. 

According to the report, these problems 

lead to further implications, including 

growing inequalities between groups of 

individuals in urban and rural areas, the 

increasing cost of private coverage, more 

pressure on healthcare workers to boost 

their productivity, and a gap between 

demand for personalised services and 

standard healthcare provision. 

A co-operative solution 

The paper argues the potential of health 

co-ops has been underestimated, due 

to privatisation of health care service 

delivery favouring for profit providers, 

and health co-ops being disregarded by 

policy makers. One of the reasons for this 

is the assumption that private providers 

have higher efficiency than non-profits 

and co-ops. The lack of reliable data on 

the relevance of non-profit and co-op 

health organisations is another barrier. 

The research showed that the most 

popular type of health co-ops are worker 

co-operatives and mutual aid societies. 

Worker co-ops can bring together different 

professionals operating in different areas 

of the health sector: doctors, dentists, 

nurses, pharmacists and paramedics. 

This model is particularly widespread in 

Brazil and Argentina. In Belgium, mutual 

societies play the most central role in the 

national health system, with 99% of the 

population covered by mutual protections, 

the sole provider of compulsory 

health insurance. 

p Brazil’s Unimed is one of the world’s biggest health co-ops 

Pharmaceutical co-operatives are 

another type of producer co-operative that 

is common in Belgium, Spain and Italy. In 

Canada the ambulance sector is managed 

directly by worker-members rather than 

by traditional non profits. 

Another finding was that rather than 

competing with other providers, health 

co-ops tend to fill in gaps left by these. 

The benefits of co-operation 

The report notes that like any type of 

co-operative, health care co-operatives 

are formed and operated not to maximise 

profit for investors, but rather to address 

the needs of specific stakeholder groups 

or the community at large. 

This means co-operatives can be set 

up specifically to increase accessibility 

of health services to poor stakeholders 

and marginal or peripheral communities, 

contributing to reducing health 

inequalities. Furthermore, by promoting 

decentralisation of power, co-operatives 

enable increased flexibility in the supply 

of health care services. 

The participatory dimension of 

co-operatives has several beneficial 

impacts: it encourages the adoption of 

prevention strategies to fight against 

health risk factors at the local level, and 

it enhances the relational dimension 

of health services, thus contributing to 

improving their quality. 

The research shows that contrary to 

expectations, co-operatives succeed 

in funding their activities like or even 

better than for-profit providers using 

alternative modalities, including the 

subscription of shares by large groups of 

users and the accumulation of profits in 

special reserves. 

Co-ops can attract additional resources 

such as voluntary work and donations or 

price discrimination policies in different 

areas. The contribution of volunteers 

is particularly important in Italy and 

Canada, says the report. 

In terms of innovation, the paper found 

that health co-ops have a tendency to 

innovate when it comes to organisational 

structures and services. 

IHCO president Carlos Zarco said: “One 

of the main conclusions of the study is that 

health co-operatives have great ability to 

adapt to new socio-economic contexts as 

they have demonstrated over years their 

suitability when it comes to solving new 

needs in the health sector.” 


USA 

Setback for National Credit Union Administration in US court battle 

A legal battle in the US between the 

National Credit Union Administration 

(NCUA) and the American Bankers 

Association, over the size of the field of 

membership permitted for credit unions, 

saw mixed results in a federal ruling. 

A federal judge in the US District Court 

upheld two portions of the NCUA’s rules 

but struck down two others, following 

a lawsuit launched by the ABA in 

December 2016. 

Bankers had complained that some 

credit unions have grown too large, when 

their membership is supposed to be 

limited by association or geographic area. 

The two provisions struck down by 

Judge Dabney Friedrich were: 

• a measure that automatically qualified 

a combined statistical area of up to 2.5 

million people to be a local community 

• and a provision that increased the 

population limit for rural districts to 

1 million people. 

Other provisions – one on serving corebased 

statistical areas without serving 

their urban core, and another adding 

“adjacent areas” to existing community 

fields of membership — were left in place. 

The ABA had argued that the contested 

rules were in violation of “Congress’ 

explicit instruction that community credit 

unions serve only a single, well-defined 

local community 

“Instead, it declares that large regions 

including millions of residents and 

cutting across multiple states are single 

‘local’ communities.” 

National credit union trade groups, 

including the National Association of 

Federally-Insured Credit Unions, the 

Credit Union National Association and 

CUNA Mutual Group, criticised the ruling. 

“Our organisations are pleased the court 

upheld components of the NCUA’s fieldof-membership 

rule; however, we strongly 

disagree with the court’s decision that 

aspects of the rule exceed the agency’s 

legal authority,” said a joint statement. 

“The field-of-membership rule is not 

only entirely consistent with the Federal 

Credit Union Act, but also credit unions 

must have the ability to grow and serve 

more Americans. We will continue to 

support the agency on this critical issue.” 

NCUA says it is considering its options, 

although others have warned that an 

appeal could provoke the ABA into 

continuing its fight against the measures 

which survived the judge’s ruling. 

EUROPEAN UNION 

European Parliament supports regulatory relief for credit unions 

Credit union representatives went to the 

European Parliament in Brussels to push 

for regulatory relief. 

The meeting, on 27 March, brought 

together the European Network of Credit 

Unions and the European Parliament 

Credit Union Interest Group. The network 

estimates that credit unions serve more 

than 7 million European households. 

The caucus was launched in 2014 

as an informal, all-party European 

Parliamentary Group to raise awareness 

about credit unions and micro-finance 

among EU institutions and stakeholders. 

It is made up of 15 members of the 

European Parliament who support credit 

unions, including co-chair Marian Harkin 

(Republic of Ireland) and vice chair Paul 

Tang (Netherlands). 

They were joined by Sven Giegold 

(Germany), a member of the Economic and 

Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), in 

p MEPs Paul Tang and Marian Harkin; Michael S. Edwards, VP and general counsel, WOCCU; and 

MEPs Sven Giegold and Luke Ming Flanagan (Image: WOCCU) 

highlighting ways to reduce unnecessary 

regulatory burdens and support increased 

credit union activities in the EU. 

Mr Giegold said: “We need to preserve 

the business model of smaller, low-risk 

actors such as good credit unions which 

play a useful role for the stability of the 

European banking sector. Financial 

regulation must not overburden small 

banks with administrative requirements 

but needs to properly address the risks 

posed by systemic institutions.” 

Representatives from the Irish League 

of Credit Unions, the National Association 

of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions 

of Poland, the Estonian Union of Credit 

Cooperatives, and World Council of Credit 

Unions also explained how EU policy 

could provide regulatory relief for credit 

unions in Europe. 


IRELAND 

Revenues up 28% at Lakeland Dairies but market woes force price cut 

Lakeland Dairies has reported a 28% 

increase in group annual revenues for 

the year ended 31 December 2017, up to 

€769.8m (£664.6m) from €601m in 2016. 

This yielded an operating profit of 

€16.8m (£14.5m) (2016: €7.2m). Profit 

before tax was €15.9m (£13.7m) and the 

co-op closed the year with a 15% increase 

in shareholders’ funds at €117.6m. 

Earning before interest, depreciation, 

tax and amortisation (EBIDTA) was €32.6m 

(£28.15m), up from €18.9m in 2016. 

Milk volumes processed in 2017 

increased to over 1.2bn litres, reflecting 

ongoing expansion among Lakeland 

Dairies’ 2,500 milk producers and a full 

year of milk supply from Fane Valley 

Dairies, acquired in May 2016. Efficiencies 

across all operations enabled the removal 

of milk collection charges, cutting annual 

costs for milk suppliers by €5m. 

Farmer-owned, Killeshandra-based 

Lakeland operates across 15 counties 

on a cross-border basis, and exports 240 

different dairy products to 80 countries. 

Chief executive Michael Hanley said: 

“In 2017, Lakeland Dairies achieved 

performance improvements across 

all divisions of the business. Trading 

conditions were helped by a reduction 

in global milk supplies and product 

availability. We were able to take 

advantage of these conditions through 

our efficient processing capabilities and 

worldwide market presences. 

“Our global growth has been driven by 

our strategy, investments, product range 

and the high quality output of our milk 

producers. While there are challenges in 

the global market, it is our intention to 

continue to drive competitiveness and 

overall growth, targeting opportunities 

across infant formulas, dairy proteins 

and health-related nutritional products.” 

“With the investments we have made, 

we are now in a position to process 

more milk than ever before. Our five 

year strategic plan envisages Lakeland 

Dairies achieving sustainable, profitable 

annual revenues of over €1bn by 2021.” 

Chair Alo Duffy added: “Research 

indicates our milk producers will continue 

to expand output by 4-5% annually over 

the next five years. We also welcomed 

30 new entrants to milk production 

during 2017 – totalling 200 new entrants 

since 2013.” 

But at the end of the year, market 

conditions worsened, forcing the co-op to 

cut to its March milk price by 2.5c/L. It will 

balance this with a payment to support 

its farmers, who have been hit by bad 

weather and a fodder crisis. 

The co-op said: “Since late 2017, global 

market conditions have become very 

difficult – with a significant drop in the 

returns available across various product 

categories.” 

The price cut follows a cut to the 

February milk price by 1c/L. 


GLOBAL 

What is the state of agri 

co-op sectors across 

the world? 

The executive committee of the 

International Co-operative Agricultural 

Organisation met in Turkey in April to 

discuss new developments in the sector. 

This included continued growth in 

India’s dairy sector, which is set to reach 

to Rs 9.4tn (US$145.7bn) by 2020. The 

country accounts for 19% of the world’s 

milk production. Other sectors are 

also growing, and the government has 

invested of Rs 50,000 crore (US$7.7bn) to 

develop permanent irrigation solutions 

for drought, and a mentorship programme 

for agri start-ups. 

From Malaysia, Dato’ HJ. Kamarudin 

Bin HJ. Ismail, vice president of ANGKASA, 

introduced the federation’s long-term 

plan. Oil palms account for 74% of the 

country’s agricultural crop, followed 

by rubber (14.63%), coconut (1.2%) and 

cocoa (0.22%). Agriculture is the thirdlargest 

export income for Malaysia, with 

palm oil and rubber making up 8% of the 

total export income. 

The government is considering 

expanding its biofuel B5 programme 

increasing the mix of 5% of palm 

methylester into petroleum diesel to 10%. 

In Turkey, 172 new co-ops 

related to agriculture were formed 

last year. The country is home to 

13,315 agricultural co-ops with 

4 million members. Agricultural sales coops 

are an important part of the sector, 

with 447 active co-ops operating in 2017. 

These purchase 38.8% of the oil sunflower 

produced in the country, 16.8% of the 

dry grape production, 10.5% of the mass 

cotton production, 9.2% of the olive 

production, 7.5% of the fig production and 

9.2% of olive oil production is purchased. 

A new action plan is being drawn up to 

increase the sector’s visibility. 

From Japan, Hironori Hijioka, executive 

director of agri-co-op umbrella body 

JA-Zenchu, told how the organisation, 

is working to engage more with its 

member co-ops. Around 36.8% of the 

Japanese primary agricultural co-ops 

have placed a stronger emphasis on 

farm guidance, sales and purchases. The 

organisation will continue to focus on 

training employees to facilitate member 

enrolment, prepare materials to let 

members know about the role of primary 

agricultural co-ops, and increase door-todoor 

visits. 

Mieczysław Grodzki and Adam 

Piechowski of the National Cooperative 

Council of Poland said the number 

of agricultural co-ops in their country 

had fallen from 2,873 in 2016 to 2,814 

in 2018. During past year the council 

has worked with parliament on a bill 

which would grant farmers exemption 

from property tax and corporate income 

tax. The council is also working to help 

reduce some of the regulatory burdens 

related to setting up co-operative 

producers’ groups as well as accessing 

grants from EU funds. 

In Brazil, agri co-ops started a campaign 

called “We are co-op”, to highlight the 

co-operative enterprise model. The 

national co-operative federation, OCB, 

also launched a Catalogue of Export 

Co-operatives, listing Brazilian co-ops 

engaged in international trade. 

Ivan Asiimwe, CEO of Uganda 

Cooperatives Alliance, presented 

a regional report from Ethiopia, 

Madagascar, Morocco, Malawi, Zambia, 

Uganda and Kenya. 

In Ethiopia the movement hosted the 

fifth National Co-operative Exhibition 

on 8-9 February, bringing together 

representatives from Uganda’s co-op 

movement in an exchange of experience. 

In Madagascar, the USA’s National 

Co-operative Business Association (NCBA 

CLUSA) has facilitated training for 841 

vanilla farmers. 

Morocco and Malawi are also 

strengthening agricultural co-operation 

via a formal agreement, with the later 

looking to learn from the former’s 

irrigation systems and technology. 

Co-ops in Africa are expected to 

benefit from a partnership between 

African Guarantee Fund for Small and 

Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) and 

social investor Oikocredit, which will 

allocate US $10m to finance agriculture 

and renewable energy SMEs and co-ops 

serving low-income populations in sub- 

Saharan Africa. 

In Zambia, women launched Zambia 

Women in Agriculture Cooperative 

Society, which deal in fresh fruit and 

vegetables. 

In Kenya, dairy co-operatives are 

playing a key role in reducing the cost of 

milk marketing and enabling farmers to 

achieve higher returns. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization 

(FAO) of the UN is scaling up its work with 

AgriCord, a global alliance, with a new 

five-year agreement to help farmers gain 

access to markets and adapt to extreme 

weather conditions. 


GLOBAL 

Keynote speakers 

announced for ICA 

research conference 

This year’s ICA global research conference 

will look at the role of co-operatives in a 

rapidly changing world. 

The conference, held from 4-6 July at 

Wageningen University in the Netherlands, 

will look at internal governance, the rise 

of producer organisations, resilience, 

sustainability, education and big data. 

Keynote speakers include Wiebe Draijer, 

chair of Rabobank, who will look at the 

history of European financial co-ops, to 

mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of 

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, the founder 

of co-op banking. 

Simel Esim, head of the Cooperatives 

Unit at the International Labour 

Organization, will focus the future 

of work. She will reflect on changing 

technology and the impact of climate 

change on demographics, and the co-op 

and solidarity economy response. 

And Prof Murray Fulton, from the 

University of Saskatchewan, will look at 

new trends in co-op research, followed by 

a panel discussion. 

AUSTRALIA 

Murray Goulburn 

shareholders approve 

sale to Saputo 

Shareholders at Australian dairy co-op 

Murray Goulburn have approved 

the sale of its operating assets 

and liabilities to Canadian dairy 

giant Saputo for A$1.31bn. 

The resolution was approved by nearly 

98% of the vote at an extraordinary 

general meeting in Melbourne, which 

also approved an initial distribution of 80 

cents a share or unit within 10 business 

days of completion. 

The sale, expected to be finalised on 

1 May, has also been given the green light 

by Australia’s competition regulator, but 

has still to be approved by the Foreign 

Investment and Review Board. 

Murray Goulburn will keep about $235m 

from the sale, with $195m set aside for any 

legal action it still faces. 

Coop Switzerland launches locally sourced ‘Hay Milk’ 

Swiss retailer Coop has launched 

‘Heumilch’ (‘Hay Milk’), a new line of 

milk, cream, cheese and butter products 

that uses milk sourced from cows 

fed exclusively on Swiss hay. “Cows 

producing hay milk must spend at least 26 

days a month on pasture in summer and 

have access to outdoor areas all year,” 

says the co-op. 

Co-ops in Mauritius urged to adopt better governance 

Co-operatives must embrace new 

principles of good governance to avoid 

financial scandals and malpractices, 

the Mauritian minister of business, 

enterprise and co-operatives has said. Mr 

D. Kona Yerukunondu, chair of MCAL, the 

apex body for co-ops in Mauritius, said 

the organisation should be considered 

the mouthpiece of the national 

co-op movement. 

Solar co-op transforms the economy of a farming community 

A village in India has seen its fortunes 

change after setting up a solar co-op 

to power their irrigations systems. The 

Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari 

Mandali co-op (DSUUSM) was set up two 

years ago and sees nine farmers irrigate 

their fields using solar pumps; they also 

sell surplus power to the Madhya Gujarat 

Vij electricity company. 

World Council offers courses via eLeadership AcademyTM 

The World Council of Credit Unions 

(WOCCU) is launching a series of online 

learning programmes for members as well 

as the global credit union community. 

The organisation, which represents 

credit unions from across the world, 

is collaborating on the project with 

eLeadership AcademyTM, 

New co-op to help Canada’s indigenous fish harvesters 

A co-operative is being formed in 

Manitoba, Canada, by a group of 

100 fish harvesters to market their 

product. The group has set up a steering 

committee to form the co-op, which will 

support an industry mostly made up of 

indigenous and Métis people, and has 

sought legal advice on the model. 


MEET... 

... Nick Crofts, 

president of the Co-operative 

Group’s Members’ Council 

Nick Crofts has been the president of the Co-operative Group’s Members’ 

Council since 2015. An elected member of the Co-op since 2009, he also 

represents the Knotty Ash ward on Liverpool City Council; and in 2016 he 

spent some time in the USA working on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He 

now manages the office of Labour/Co-op MP Stephen Twigg and has a 

background in sales and marketing. With local elections coming up, we 

caught him while on a break from canvasing for his colleagues 

WHAT DOES A REGULAR DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? 

There is no such thing as a regular day serving as 

the president of the Co-op Members’ Council. For 

example, I was in Manchester yesterday and for 

regular meetings with Jo Whitfield, retail chief 

executive, Allan Leighton, chair of the Group Board, 

and Ian Ellis, chief finance officer. I also have 

weekly catch-up meetings with Gill Gardner, who is 

the council secretary. 

They were different sorts of ‘keeping in touch’ 

meetings and it was a good opportunity to hear 

from Jo and Ian about the plans they have for 

developments across the family of businesses. 

It’s always good to catch up with Allan to 

exchange our thinking. He’s very interested in the 

views of the Council and is very candid about the 

work and priorities of the Board. 

I’m also a trustee of the Co-operative Heritage 

Trust that looks after the Rochdale Pioneers’ 

Museum and the Co-operative Archive and we had 

a meeting yesterday. 

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE CO-OP 

MOVEMENT? WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO IT? 

I discovered the movement through the 

Co-operative Party. I became a member of the party, 

drawn in by the fact that people working together, 

collaborating together, can bring about real change. 

I had been an active member for some years before 

I was approached to consider standing for election 

for the Merseyside Area Committee, under the 

old structures. 

I’ve always been very interested in business. 

Finding ways to use commerce to create a fairer 

society and more equal economy is very attractive 

to me. Using business to improve the world and 

make it more just and equitable rather than make 

things worse. 

I had been involved in Labour politics for some 

years. I had that strong sense that the co-op 

movement along with the labour movement and 

trade union movement comprise really important 

organisations representing working people. 

WHAT IS THE BEST ASPECT OF THE BEING THE 

PRESIDENT OF THE MEMBERS’ COUNCIL? 

It’s an extraordinary privilege to lead the body that 

represents the owners of our co-op – our millions 

of individual members and the independent 

co-operative societies that founded our co-op 

150 years ago. 

As elected members we have the opportunity to 

see what’s happening within the business and see 

THE VALUES WE HAVE AND THE TRUST AND ADMIRATION 

WE STILL HAVE FROM MILLIONS OF MEMBERS AND 

CUSTOMERS ARE EXTRAORDINARY ASSETS THAT 

WE CAN CONTINUE TO LEVERAGE INTO THE FUTURE 


ISSN 0009-9821 

9 770009 982010 

01 

far more than a regular member would. I am hugely 

proud to be one of the 100 members who have 

this opportunity. 

Your co-operatives. 

Your co-op News. 

AND THE HARDEST? 

With an active trading membership of millions, 

finding out what those members think is a really 

difficult challenge. There isn’t a single issue on 

which our members have a common view. The 

ability for a co-op of our scale to meaningfully 

engage with millions of individual members is very 

difficult and we have to bear that in mind in our role 

as elected representatives. It is very hard to know 

what our members think on any issue. 

The council is a plenary committee of 100 

members, which gives us strength in depth. It can 

sometimes be an unwieldy committee to chair! 

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR 

THE CO-OP GROUP AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THE 

FUTURE HOLDS FOR IT? 

I’m really excited about the future of the Co-op. 

We have travelled an extraordinary distance since 

the dark and dangerous days of 2013. I was a 

member of one of the Regional Boards during the 

crisis and it gave me a fascinating vantage point to 

observe the crisis unfolding. If someone had told 

me that a few years later we would have relaunched 

the membership proposition, relauched our brand, 

returned to profit, and made such improvements 

to the balance sheet, I probably wouldn’t have 

believed them. 

I’m hugely optimistic about the future of the 

organisation. The values we have and the trust and 

admiration we still have from millions of members 

and customers are extraordinary assets that we can 

continue to leverage into the future. 

And of course, we remain a work in progress. 

The reality is that too many of our businesses were 

underinvested for far too long. There is still a vast 

amount of work to do – and investment needed 

– to make sure that our businesses are fit to serve 

members’ and customers’ needs into the future. 

So there is still work to be done in sorting some of 

those issues. I am hugely proud of the team running 

the society. Steve Murrells has done an amazing 

work building on Richard Pennycook’s 

achievements. His recognition that we can 

accomplish more by working together is welcomed 

by the National Members’ Council and our 

independent society partners who see that Steve 

has a genuinely collaborative approach and a 

different tone from some of its predecessors. 

news Issue #7294 APRIL 2018 

Connecting, championing, challenging 

APRIL 2018 

EDUCATION 

Co-op learning: 

principle five 

in action 

Plus ... 150 years 

of East of England ... 

and updates from the 

Co-op Retail and Abcul 

conferences 

£4.20 


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YOUR VIEWS 

RESPONDING TO… BOOK REVIEW: 

SHUT DOWN THE BUSINESS 

SCHOOL – WHAT’S WRONG 

WITH MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 

(NEWS, APRIL 2018) 

It is not just the business schools and 

management education that’s the 

problem. It is the whole education system. 

The only model for social and economic 

enterprises taught is the capitalist one. 

About 10 years ago I moved a motion 

at the Co-operative Party annual 

conference ‘that no child should 

leave school, without being made 

aware that the co-operative society 

model was a successful and proven 

alternative model, to the capitalist 

model’. One delegate, who spoke to 

support the motion, said that she had 

studied for an ‘O’ then ‘A’ Level 

followed by three years for a degree, all in 

business studies and at no time 

had there been any mention of the 

co-operative society model. We now have 

800 co-operative schools, where I hope, 

despite no references on the national 

curriculum, all pupils are at least being 

made aware there is an alternative. 

In some developed and developing 

nations of the world up to 25% 

of their economy is generated by 

a whole range of democratic and ethical 

co-operative societies. It is time the 

cat was let out of the bag and more 

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 

This year Remembrance Sunday is on 

11 November – 100 years exactly from 

when “the guns fell silent”. It will be 

a day when the majority are not at 

work – the big exception being those who 

work in retail. 

An Early Day Motion in the Commons 

asking for “Time Off for Retail Staff” has 

been tabled. Regrettably the text is not 

what it says on the can. The motion merely 

mentions the Sunday Trading Act and calls 

on the government to encourage shops 

so covered to open instead from 12 noon, 

but then open for the six hours allowed. 

Scrooge could not have done better. 

“Christmas Day! Oh have a lie in and come 

along at 12” before adding “and then 

do your normal shift!” 

Regrettably, several Labour Co-op MPs 

have signed this EDM. Perhaps their wayabove 

average salaries have insulated 

them from the niceties of the Sunday 

Trading Law? 

The Co-op Party was founded 101 years 

ago during WWI because of the way the 

Co-op was being discriminated against 

by the government in the awarding of 

contracts. At least 5,000 CWS employees 

volunteered for military service and over 

710 were killed. The CWS promised all their 

jobs back on return – and during military 

service supplemented their lousy army 

and navy pay. Probably unique in itself. 

The memorial in the old Co-op Bank 

building has the casualties listed by 

factory. There are not many industries 

p Above: The WW1 memorial in the old 

Co-op Bank Building lists casualities of the 

war by factory. u Right: CWS employees were 

promised their jobs back when they returned 

from military service 

still in existence today that can have such 

a meaningful timeline to WWI. 

A second more definitive EDM 

1036 specifically asks for Sunday 11 

November to be declared a holiday; 

an opportunity for the 38 Labour 

& Co-op MPs to be seen as a group 

if ever there was. 

Should the government not adopt EDM 

1036, a golden opportunity to seize the 

moral high ground would present itself. 

Retail co-op societies could decide 

unilaterally to close for the day. Media 

coverage would compensate over and 

above the loss of one day’s trading. Just 

one day in 100 years! 

Leslie Freitag 

Via email 


people made aware that there is an 

alternative to the often exploitative and 

corrupt capitalist model, with 

its fanatical and ruthless pursuit 

of profit maximisation. 

John Harrington 

Via website 

An obstacle to co-op education is that 

food co-ops don’t want to distribute 

the surplus, but want to ‘retain’ it, 

permanently. They don’t want their 

members to realize that the undistributed 

surplus actually belongs to them; is their 

personal property, which the co-op is 

keeping, without asking. So the co-op 

has a vested interest in keeping its 

members ignorant. But, I agree: in the 

long run, education would certainly be the 

wiser policy. 

Joshua Laskin 

Via website 

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT 

I live in Ryde Isle of Wight and use the 

Co-op Group store in Anglesea Street, 

Ryde, as my regular shop because of its 

pledge to use British Meat. 

Is the Co-op planning to close this 

store down? If not, they are doing a good 

job of driving customers away by having 

shelves bare of food. Every part of the 

shop is showing lack of produce. People 

are walking out of the store shaking 

their heads. 

Philip Spreckley 

Isle of Wight 

RESPONDING TO… BOOK REVIEW: 

A CALIFORNIAN CO--OP STORY 

(NEWS, APRIL 2018) 

Once again the self-congratulatory nature 

of California omits the LONG history of 

co-operatives established by communities 

of colour. Dr Jessica Gordon Nembhard 

has reminded us that co-operatives were 

the Reconstruction and Jim Crow survival 

strategies of black communities living 

in perilous economic circumstances. 

Black co-ops existed long before hippies 

figured them out as temporary ways to 

stick it to the man. Black co-ops endured 

where counter-culture ones proved 

too much work for most white people 

who had many other options. Co-ops 

sometimes came into existence with 

white sharecropper and tenant farm 

communities – poor whites – as well. 

But CA neither invented the ideas nor did 

spectacularly well when they tried them. 

A little humility in this history would 

not be out of place. 

Churchlady320 

Via website 

Have your say 

Add your comments to our stories 

online at www.thenews.coop, get 

in touch via social media, or send 

us a letter. If sending a letter, please 

include your address and contact 

number. Letters may be edited and 

no longer than 350 words. 

Co-operative News, Holyoake 

House, Hanover Street, 

Manchester M60 0AS 

letters@thenews.coop 

@coopnews 

Co-operative News 

p Above: Dr Jessica Gordon Nembhard 

CORRECTION & APOLOGIES 

The learning and development manager 

at the Co-operative College is Angela 

Colebrook, not Holbrook, as printed in 

last issue’s case study of the College 

(page 38, April 2018). 


Co-op Group AGM 2018 

Motions include political funding, plastics and tabloid ads 

Motions 1—3 are ordinary, advisory 

resolutions, recommended by the board 

and National Members’ Council (NMC). 

They need a simple a majority. 

Motions 1 and 2: To receive the Annual 

Report and Accounts and approve the 

Directors’ Remuneration Report for the 

period ended 6 January 2018. 

Motion 3: To approve a change in the 

executive remuneration policy. A note to 

the motion says: “Our chief executive’s 

total package is a lot lower than the 

market rate. Rather than increase base 

pay your committee believes it is better 

to increase the part of pay which links 

to performance. This will mean the 

maximum amount which he could be paid 

for this part of his pay will increase from 

200% to 250% of base pay. No payment 

would be made if performance is not 

good enough.” 

p The AGM is held at Manchester Central 

Motions 4—8 are ordinary, binding 

resolutions, recommended by board and 

NMC. They need a simple a majority. 

Motion 4: To re-elect Ian Ellis as an 

executive director. 

Motion 5: To re-elect Lord Victor Adebowale 

as an independent non-executive director. 

Motion 6: To re-elect Simon Burke as an 

independent non-executive director. 

Motion 7: To re-elect Stevie Spring as an 

independent non-executive director. 

Motion 8: To re-appoint Ernst & Young 

LLP as auditor and authorise the Risk and 

Audit Committee to fix its remuneration. 

Motion 9, also recommended by the board 

and NMC: To approve changes to the 

Group’s rules. These will simplify processes 

to remove dormant or absent members, 

who have not traded with the Group for 

the past three years. It is also proposed to 

move to maximum terms of office of nine 

years – from the current maximum of six – 

for member nominated and independent 

non-executive directors on what will 

generally be a three-year cycle. The 

changes would apply to the 2018 elections. 

Motions 10 — 12 are ordinary, advisory resolutions, which need a simple a majority. Motions 10—11 are recommended by the board and 

NMC. Motion 12 is recommended by the NMC and the board is remaining neutral. 

Motion 10: Co-op Party funding 

The motion seeks approval for 

political expenditure not exceeding 

£750,000 for the year commencing 

1 January 2019. 

A note on the motion says: “If this 

motion is not passed, we will give notice 

to the Party that we will withdraw as a 

subscribing member; however, we will 

honour our existing commitment to give 

the Party 12 months’ notice to terminate 

our membership and will provide 

funding until the end of 2019. 

“If this motion is accepted, we will 

continue to be a subscribing member, 

but will be able to make additional small 

donations to other political organisations. 

Motion 11: plastic recycling 

The motion welcomes “the leadership 

position taken by our Co-op to 

minimise, in its supply chains and 

products, the use of plastics evidenced 

as harmful when diffused into our 

environment”. 

It calls on the board to continue to find 

and reduce sources of plastic pollution, 

maximise the recyclability of packaging, 

and make an annual report on progress. 

A note says the aim is make 100% of the 

Group’s packaging easy to recycle, with an 

interim target of 80% by 2020. Currently, 

71% of Co-op brand products are in easy to 

recycle packaging, up from 46% in 2016. 

Motion 12: advertising 

This members’ motion on responsible 

advertising was submitted by Colin 

Baines, a former ethics adviser and 

campaigns manager for the Group, and 

non-executive director of Stop Funding 

Hate (SFH). It concerns advertising in 

newspapers such as the Express and Mail, 

which have been accused of “fuelling and 

legitimising prejudice and an increase in 

hate crime”. 

It notes that the Group has responded 

positively to member concerns on this 

issue and has introduced an advertising 

policy to “challenge those views 

expressed in print which we and many of 

our members believe are incompatible 

with our values” and uses its “contacts 

with publishers at every level to make 

the case for change”. 

The motion calls on the board to review 

the impact of its current advertising policy 


Twelve motions go before at the meeting in Manchester on 19 May, 

with voting open to members who have traded enough with one 

or more of the Group’s businesses. 

40 positions up for election 

Members will also be asked to vote in Co-op Group elections. This year, two 

board places and 36 National Members’ Council places are up for election. 

The four candidates for the two member nominated directorships are: 

Monica Burch, chair of Mentoring 

Foundation, and a non-executive director 

of the Crown Prosecution Service and 

Talbot Underwriting Ltd: “Consolidation 

has succeeded. [It’s] time to further grow 

ethically, sustainably and profitably with 

strong governance,” she says. 

Margaret Casely-Hayford, a current 

member-nominated director standing 

for re-election. “As a current Co-op MND 

and former Legal Director of John Lewis 

Partnership, I know that ethics and 

commercial success are complementary,” 

she says. 

Pernilla Bonde, the CEO of HSB, 

Sweden’s largest housing co-operative. 

She wants to use her expertise gained at 

“an innovative, growing and successful 

co-op ... to bring an international 

dimension to the board”. 

Hazel Blears, a current member-nominated 

director standing for re-election, who says 

she has “kept co-op values central to 

[the Group’s] turnaround”. 

and report to members on: the specific 

issues publications have been engaged 

on; the impact of this engagement; and 

processes by which impact is monitored. 

“If the board’s review finds it unable 

to report impact, we ask it to prepare 

an ethical advertising policy that puts 

controls in place to ensure adverts do not 

appear in media that are incompatible 

with co-operative ethics, values and 

principles,” it adds. “We ask the board to 

report on progress to the AGM in 2019.” 

A spokesperson from the Group 

said: “We know our members’ 

opinions vary on this matter and it’s 

right to let them decide for themselves 

how they vote. We’ve responded 

positively to the concerns raised by some 

of our members and used advertising 

to challenge those stories that people 

have found unacceptable. The board 

believes it is for our members to decide on 

this matter and is remaining neutral.” 

National Members’ 

Council 

The Group’s Members’ Council is 

made up of 100 elected member 

representatives, 

including 

representatives from independent 

co-operative societies and people 

chosen to reflect the organisation’s 

diversity and inclusion principles. 

This year, there are 157 members 

standing for 36 vacancies across 13 

regions. 

Cymru (Wales): 16 candidates standing 

for 2 vacancies 

East of England: 4 candidates standing 

for 1 vacancy 

East Midlands: 9 candidates standing 


Isle of Man: 4 candidates standing 

for 1 vacancy 

London: 12 candidates standing 


North East: 5 candidates standing 

for 1 vacancy 

Northern Ireland: 2 candidates standing 

for 1 vacancy 

North West: 23 candidates standing 


Scotland: 12 candidates standing 


South East: 19 candidates standing 


South West: 15 candidates standing 


West Midlands: 9 candidates standing 

for 1 vacancy 

Yorkshire and the Humber: 19 

candidates standing for 2 vacancies 

Independent Society Members: 

8 candidates standing for the 7 

Independent Society member vacancies 

For more about the Co-op Group 

AGM, to check your eligibility to 

vote and register for the event go to: 

s.coop/26cnp 


Working Together: an update 

In 2017 the Co-operative Heritage Trust launched 

Working Together, a project to look for, record and 

preserve the heritage of the workers’ co-operative 

movement of the 1970s-1990s. 

Last April the Trust received £43,000 from the 

Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure key records could 

be identified and saved. This was supplemented 

by donations of more than £16,000 from current 

workers’ co-ops and co-operative organisations. 

Project archivist Philippa Lewis gives an update 

and shares some of the documents uncovered... 

Uncovering heritage 

The first stage of the project focused on locating 

and contacting over 240 key workers’ co-ops active 

in the 1970s-1990s – and finding out what kinds of 

materials they held. The next step was making sure 

that material would be safely deposited with the 

National Co-operative Archive, or another relevant 

local repository. 

One of the most interesting sets of material we 

received was from Unicorn, the workers’ co-op 

grocery based in Chorlton, Manchester. Items 

include minute books showing how collective 

decisions were made, as well as a selection of items 

highlighting Unicorn’s personality and role in the 

local community – such as aprons, T-shirts and 

promotional flyers. 

This material was transferred to the National 

Co-operative Archive in Manchester and has been 

safely deposited in the archive storeroom. 

The material will now be put into archivalstandard 

packaging to ensure its long-term 

preservation. Digitisation of key items and a 

catalogue entry on the Archives Hub will make it 

more accessible to future researchers. 

Oral histories 

Another element of the project has been the 

recording of oral histories with people linked to the 

workers’ co-operative movement in the 1970s-90s. 

These interviews have been conducted in locations 

all over the UK, including Brighton, Northampton, 

Liverpool and Manchester. 

This ensures the long-term preservation of 

personal experiences of those involved in workers’ 

co-op such as Daily Bread, Infinity Foods and 

York Community Books, as well as various 

co-operative support agencies. 

These recordings are being transcribed 

and will shortly be uploaded to the National 

Co-operative Archive website. 

Volunteers and next steps 

Crucial to the project has been the hard work of 

our volunteers, who have been involved in tasks 

such as: identifying workers’ co-ops; repackaging, 

cataloguing and digitising material; and creating 

summaries and transcriptions of oral histories. In 

the next stage of the project, volunteers will help 

us create outreach materials such as exhibition 

boards and learning resources. 

The next stage is to make sure the material is 

made as accessible as possible. As well as making 

digital copies available on the National Cooperative 

Archive website, we will display catalogue 

entries of material on the Archives Hub, to ensure 

collections are more accessible to researchers. 

We are also planning an exhibition to showcase 

some of the material. In May, we are holding 

sessions at the Co-operative Education and 

Research Conference, the Working Class Movement 

Library and the Worker Co-op Weekend. The 

exhibition will also be displayed at long term 

exhibition venues including the Rochdale Pioneers 

Museum and Warwick Modern Records Centre. 

For more details, find @CoopArchive on Twitter 

or visit www.archive.coop 

HERITAGE 

BY PHILIPPA LEWIS, 

Working Together project 

archivist at the 

Co-operative Heritage 

Trust 


Working together to make the 

Co-operative Difference 

The Co-operative Party and the Co-op have had a great year making the case 

for co-operation and a fairer society. But there’s more to be done. 

That’s why once again we’re asking Co-op members to continue our 101 

year-old partnership by voting YES to Motion 10 in the upcoming AGM ballot. 

www.party.coop/coopagm18 

YES 

to motion 

10 

Some of our work since last year’s vote 

Westminster 

Labour & Co-op MPs and 

Peers questioned Ministers, 

laid amendments to legislation 

and instigated debates on a 

wide range of topics including: 

 

 

 

 

Community energy 

Credit unions 

Employee ownership 

Supporting the growth 

of the sector 

Scotland 

Championed Scotland’s 

own version of the Marcora 

law, which enables 

Italian workers to buy 

out their companies 

 

Made the case for 

democratic ownership 

of transport 

A co-operative 

future for Britain 

Secured a manifesto 

commitment from Labour 

to double the size of the 

co-operative economy 

 

Commissioned NEF to 

undertake a study of 

the steps required for 

significant expansion 

of the sector 

Wales 

Serving in the Welsh Government, 

Co-operative AMs have: 

 

 

 

Secured support for 

co-op businesses from 

the new Development 

Bank of Wales 

Introduced new support 

for agricultural co-ops 

Continued funding for the 

Wales Co-operative Centre 

Co-operative campaigning 

Supported the following 

campaigns highlighting the 

movement’s leading role: 

 

 

 

Fairtrade Fortnight 

Co-ops Fortnight 

the Jo Cox Loneliness 

Commission 

Votes at 16 

 

The Fair Tax Mark 

General Election 

38 Co-operative MPs elected 

- at least one in every region 

and nation of Britain. 

Co-operators elected, including 

MPs who previously: 

 

 

 

 

Brexit 

Consulted the co-operative 

sector on its priorities 

for the post-Brexit era 

 

Ran a co-operative 

development agency 

Advised businesses 

transitioning to 

employee ownership 

Established a housing 

co-operative 

Worked for a 

co-operative retailer 

Invited submissions 

from Party members as 

part of our democratic 

policy process 

Modern slavery 

Launched the Party’s 

Modern Slavery Charter, 

setting a new standard for 

ethics and transparency in 

council supply chains. 

 

 

Local government 

Hundreds of Labour 

& Co-op Councillors 

elected in May 2017. 

 

 

Part of a cross-party 

effort to improve 

support for survivors of 

modern slavery from 90 

days to 12 months 

Challenged the 

Government on 

implementation and 

enforcement of the 

Modern Slavery Act. 

Andy Burnham elected 

the first Mayor of Greater 

Manchester as a Labour & 

Co-operative Candidate. 

Promoted the community 

wealth building 

model, which puts the 

development of cooperatives 

at the heart 

of sustainable local 

economic growth. 

Promoted by Claire McCarthy on behalf of the Co-operative Party, both at 65 St John Street, London EC1M 4AN. 

Co-operative Party Limited is a registered Society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration no. 30027R 


Values in action 

How Central England Co-operative 

maps the social return of its 

community investments 

Opposite: 

Children from Tibshelf 

Infant and Nursery School 

take part in a Healthy 

Choices Workshop run 

by Central England 

Co-operative 

Central England Co-operative (CEC) has revealed 

that every £1 it spends on good causes is worth 

£23.15 in positive community impact. 

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) report 

takes an in-depth look at the impact of the 

Society’s community work in 2017 and focuses 

on the social value and return provided by the 

Society’s Co-operative Masterclasses, Membership 

and Community Council grants, Healthy Choices 

and Ethical Challenge Workshops, the installation 

of 300 defibrillators and a food and farming event. 

The results showed that that for every £1 CEC 

invests in community projects, the monetary value 

of the impact made is worth an average of £23.15. 

The findings from the report, by SROI specialist 

Make an Impact CIC, will play a major part in 

shaping the future of the Society. 

In 2016, CEC was the first co-operative of its type 

to publish an SROI report. Its overall figure for that 

year was an SROI of £20.50 for every £1 spent on 

selected community projects. 

“This amazing figure of £23.15 of impact for every 

£1 spent truly showcases how the Society continues 

to make a real difference to people’s lives,” said 

Martyn Cheatle, CEC Chief Executive. 

“This is the second time we have undertaken a 

robust analysis of our community impact, and the 

SROI report continues to be a great indicator of not 

just how we are doing, but also a tool to help us 

plan for the future.” 

Mr Cheatle added that the community projects 

undertaken were only possible due to the continued 

support and success of its trading businesses. 

“Our on-going commitment to support fantastic 

work in the community is underpinned by the 

strong financial performance of the Society and 

a long-term strategy to grow the business in 

a sustainable way,” he said. 

The 2018 report focuses on the difference these 

projects make to people, society, the environment 

and the wider community. 

CEC’s Co-operative Masterclasses are aimed at 

secondary school children and are based around 

educating them about co-operatives. 

Meanwhile, Membership and Community Council 

grants are handed out to local groups who want to 

make a difference, with a total of 48 grants worth 

over £32,000 delivered in 2017. 

The Healthy Choices and Ethical Challenge 

Workshops are delivered in schools to teach 

students about making healthier food choices and 

to educate them about Fairtrade. A total of 3,829 

young people took part in the workshops last year. 

CEC was also a main sponsor of the Kids Country 

Food and Farming Day, which aimed to educate 

students about food, farming and the countryside 

in Peterborough. 

The Society’s defibrillator project has resulted 

in the installation of over 300 lifesaving devices 

outside food stores and funeral homes. This 

was paid for via funds raised through the 5p 

carrier bag levy. 

The results of the SROI report will be used 

to help make effective, data driven decisions, 

to ensure relevant community impact using the 

best resources available, and to look at what 

possible social value could be achieved through 

new, innovative projects. 

The projects highlighted in the report have helped 

Central England Co-op support the communities it 

trades in to the tune of over £2.2m. The publication 

of the SROI comes after the Society was awarded 

five stars out of five in BITC’s 2018 Corporate 

Responsibility Index. 

WHAT IS SROI? 

Social Return on Investment is a method 

that identifies, assesses and values the 

impact a particular service or activity has. 

Typically it is used in order to provide a cost 

benefit analysis, which is presented as a 

ratio showing how, for every £1 invested, 

£x of benefit is produced. 

These pages are supported by Central England Co-operative (CEC), one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the 

UK. The organisation employs over 8,000 staff across its three principal areas of activity: food; funeral services; and property investment. 

CEC has over 400 trading outlets across 16 counties, which will be boosted via its 2018 food store development programme. The Society 

was given five stars out of five in Business in the Community’s Corporate Responsibility Index for its work around areas such as food waste, 

staff volunteering and health and wellbeing. In 2017, £212,000 was shared between 120 good causes thanks to CEC’s Community Dividend Fund. 


Healthy Choices and Ethical 

Challenge Workshops 

The Healthy Choices and Ethical Challenge 

Workshops are delivered in schools to educate 

students around healthy eating and Fairtrade. 

A total of 2,329 students have participated in 

the Healthy Choices Workshops and 1,500 in the 

Ethical Challenge Workshops during the past year. 

Healthy Choices offers the chance for children 

to get hands-on with a range of activities, 

including how to make fun fruit kebabs, gain an 

understanding of food labelling, and learn about 

the importance of getting meal portion sizes right 

so that no food goes to waste. 

Ethical Challenge Workshops are designed 

to teach people how Fairtrade ensures better 

prices, decent working conditions and fair terms 

of trade for farmers and workers across the world. 

Recently, 140 children from Tibshelf Infant and 

Nursery School, in Alfreton, were treated to a 

special assembly talking about the importance 

of Fairtrade and Healthy Choices. 

Zoe Andrews, a teacher at Tibshelf Infant and 

Nursery School, said: “Events like these are 

important as the children really enjoy learning how 

to make more informed choices and where their 

food comes from.” 

The SROI for Healthy Choices and Ethical 

Challenge Workshops is based on the feedback 

from teachers, students and colleagues 

who volunteered. 

The total social value achieved by the Healthy 

Choices Workshops is £84,553, giving an SROI 

of £44.50 for every £1 of grant spent. 

The total social value achieved by the Ethical 

Challenge Workshops is £57,837, which gives an 

SROI of £26.41. 

These initiatives provide significant social value 

and SROI figures primarily due to the large number 

of students who have benefited from the workshops 

and the outcomes around healthier eating. 

Why SROI? Q&A with Caroline Maddox, 

CEC Engagement and Public Relations Manager 

WHY DID CEC DECIDE TO PRODUCE AN SROI REPORT? 

We decided to break new ground as the first co-operative to undertake 

an SROI report last year, as we wanted to ensure the projects we undertake 

are making a real difference in our communities. Measuring SROI assigns 

a monetary value to the social value created by an organisation – social 

value is anything that has a beneficial impact on people, economics, 

the environment or community regeneration. 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SUCH A REPORT? 

Both the first and second reports allowed us to make honest 

assessments of inputs and robust valuations of the impacts they have 

been having. It allows us as a Society to validate our community and 

corporate responsibility strategies, providing us with metrics we can 

use to continue to evaluate future projects and also identify areas 

where we can improve in the future. 

HOW WERE COLLEAGUES AND MEMBERS INVOLVED IN THE REPORT? 

Given that our community investment is one of our core differentiators 

and key to the Society’s operations, we sought colleague feedback on 

both individual projects and the Society’s values, allowing us to really 

find out the differences that are being made. We also engaged with 

several other stakeholders including customers and people involved 

with our various projects and campaigns. This helped us find out that, 

for each pound invested in particular activities, we generate an average 

social return of £23.15 – an increase on the first report which saw us 

record a figure of £20.50. 

HOW WILL THIS HELP THE SOCIETY AND ITS COMMUNITIES IN THE FUTURE? 

Working once again with specialists Make an Impact CIC, we have 

achieved a robust analysis of our community impact and the SROI report 

continues to be great indicator of how we are doing – and will also help us 

plan for the future. Overall, by offering training and educational activities, 

we, as a Society, help build loyalty, which in turn promotes economic 

participation. By creating a surplus, this helps us continue to deliver 

community-based activities while building sustainable communities. 


REI’s new product standards raise 

the sustainability bar 

q Jerry Stritzke, CEO of 

REI, which has announced 

new standards on 

sustainability; REI’s new 

distribution centre in 

Goodyear, Arizona, is 

intended to be one of the 

world’s most sustainable 

facilities 

Seattle-based REI Co-op has released a new set 

of standards to raise the bar on sustainability 

across outdoor and retail industries. 

The announcement, made as the co-operative 

celebrates its 80th anniversary, says the move 

will make it easier for customers to choose more 

sustainable products. 

“One of the most exciting things we’ve done 

in the past year was done completely behind the 

scenes,” said chief executive Jerry Stritzke. 

“We’re collaborating with partners across 

industries to advance sustainable business 

practices, and as a result are completely changing 

the conversation around sustainability for the US 

outdoor industry.” 

Informed by its work with partner brands and its 

participation in the Outdoor Industry Association 

Sustainability Working Group and other key 

sustainability forums, the standards outline the 

co-op’s expectations for how brands manage key 

environmental, social and animal welfare impacts. 

This “builds on work that REI has done over many 

years to advance sustainability within its own 

brands,” says the co-op. 

REI regularly features in ‘Best Company to Work 

For’ lists and has made its #OptOutside Black 

Friday event an annual tradition. In April, the 

co-operative joined Canada’s Mountain Equipment 

Co-op in stopping selling products from Vista 

Outdoor, which owns gun-maker Savage Arms. 

The co-op reported a gross profit of $1.1bn for 

2017, and has reinvested nearly 70% of profits into 

outdoor communities and advocating for public 

lands and gender equality. It has 151 stores in 

36 states, and serves 16 million members. 

The new standards, along with other resources 

designed to help brands deepen their own 

sustainability efforts, will be made available to any 

retailer that wishes to use them. Alongside them, 

REI is publishing a list of preferred sustainability 

attributes, highlighting brands and products 

that are manufactured according to social and 

sustainability best practices. 

Some of the standards set by the co-op, such 

as establishing a manufacturing code of conduct 

for supply chains, take effect immediately. Other 

requirements, that may take additional time for 

brands to meet, have an implementation deadline 

of autumn 2020. 

“This effort to advance sustainability across 

an entire vendor base is among the most 

comprehensive in the US retail industry,” said 

Adam Siegel, senior vice president of research, 

innovation and sustainability for the Retail Industry 

Leaders Association. 

“By going so broad with requirements for their 

suppliers and approaching this with such a spirit 

of collaboration, REI has not only moved their own 

operations forward, but they’ve raised the bar for 

the entire industry.” 

According to Matthew Thurston, REI’s director 

of sustainability, the organisation works with 

more than 1,000 brands, both large and small. 

While some may integrate sustainability into their 

products and supply chains, others may lack the 

resources to fully implement a programme. 

“We’re in a unique position to unite our brand 

partners around a common goal,” said Mr Thurston, 

“by sharing best practices and resources that we’ve 

learned from both our own work and that of the 

brands we work with.” 


The Co-op Way to sustainability 

The Co-op Group has released its annual review of 

ethics and sustainability for 2017, which includes 

fair tax, the environment and responsible sourcing. 

It says it issued the review alongside its annual 

report “so our members can see the full picture of 

our financial and ethical performance”. 

#TheCoopWay Report 2017 says the Group 

invested £29.7m in communities in the UK and 

abroad; reduced greenhouse gases and was 

recognised as the no.1 UK campaigning business for 

its work on modern slavery and tackling loneliness. 

It also made 71% of Co-op-branded product 

packaging easy to recycle, became the first UK 

retailer to sell and use only Fairtrade cocoa in ownbrand 

products, and is the only major retailer to 

offer 100% British fresh meat. 

The Group has held the Fair Tax mark since 2015, 

and has raised over £8m from sales of its bottled 

water to fund water projects in partnership with The 

One Foundation over 11 years. 

The report also includes three case studies to 

examine the Group’s wider social impact. They 

look at the Group-funded clean water projects in 

Malawi; its apprenticeship programme; and the 

Local Community Fund. 

Member-nominated director Paul Chandler 

said the report “provides evidence of our moving 

back into a true leadership position on ethics and 

sustainability” after the Group lost ground with the 

crisis of 2013. 

He added: “We’re going to continue to evolve 

methodologies and extend impact measurement 

across other activities, and as part of this will need 

to do more to recognise negative impacts that our 

business inevitably brings as well as the positives.” 

But he warned: “Not everything is moving in our 

intended direction. There are some areas where 

we’ve not achieved what we might have hoped – 

and it’s right that in our report we’re transparent 

about this.” 

These areas of concern, he said, are: 

u The volume of food surplus redistributed has 

gone down slightly. 

u Absence rates, colleague turnover and 

perceptions of respect at work “aren’t where they 

should be.” Mr Chandler said efforts to improve 

pay, promote diversity and inclusion, and support 

colleague wellbeing should improve this. 

u Trade with other co-operatives is still a small 

percentage of total turnover, other than the good 

growth in wholesale sales to independent co-ops. 

Mr Chandler said: “The figure in the report is 

almost certainly understated because it’s quite 

hard to define and monitor. It would be great to 

see us thinking more about how we can get better 

measures of what we do in this area... We now need 

to articulate clearer and longer-term priorities and 

sustainability targets on which we can really focus.” 

p The report includes a 

case study on the Group’s 

funding of clean water 

projects in Malawi 

u Find the report online 

at s.coop/26co9 

Alliance’s guide to good reporting 

The International Co-operative 

Alliance has published its updated 

Sustainability Reporting for 

Co-operatives: A Guidebook. 

The guide builds on the Alliance’s 

Sustainability Scan and Co-operative 

Growth for the 21st Century reports. 

It also includes feedback from 

primary co-ops around the world 

from its Sustainability Advisory 

Group, and is aimed at co-ops that 

are new to reporting on co-operative 

sustainability, as well as those 

looking to take their reporting one 

step further. 

While a number of co-ops have led 

in the development and deployment 

of sustainability reporting, in general 

co-operatives lag behind, as was 

found when the top 50 of the largest 

300 co-operatives were compared to 

the top 50 Fortune 500 IOCs. 

“The Co-operative Values and 

Principles codify a particular concept 

of community wealth and prosperity 

– one that has recognised economic, 

social, and environmental criteria in 

symbiosis long before the coining 

of ‘the triple-bottom-line’,” says the 

guide. “It is a story that needs to be 

told and sustainability reporting can 

contribute to telling that story.” 

u Find the report at s.coop/26co8 


The rise of digital, market volatility and financial crises mean choppy waters for business – which 

makes governance is more vital than ever for co-ops. Co-op News looks at some of the key issues 

Could better governance 

have saved fallen co-ops? 

GOVERNANCE 

BY MILES HADFIELD 

p Good governance 

could be key to 

keeping a successful 

business alive 

The co-operative movement has seen high profile 

casualties in recent years, most notably the crisis 

which brought down the UK’s Co-operative Bank. 

In his study for Co-operatives UK, The Governance 

of Large Co-operative Businesses, Prof Johnston 

Birchall stresses that governance failures happen 

in all business models – and highlights a "malaise” 

in “the whole edifice of corporate governance in 

shareholder-owned companies”. 

On the other hand, he says, “Co-operatives, owned 

by their members rather than by shareholders, have 

a relatively good track record in governance, but 

there have been some notable failures as well.” 

When it comes to producer co-ops, Prof Birchall 

says there have not been many governance failures – 

but he gives the example of the Saskatchewan Wheat 

Pool, a successful Canadian wheat exporter, which 

ran into trouble in the 1990s. 

“In the 1990s, it needed to modernise while facing 

a demand from retiring farmers to redeem their 

equity. In search of new capital, in 1996 it issued 

non-voting shares to outside investors. However, 

the board did not have the expertise to manage 

these changes and the result was a transfer of power 

to its managers.” 

The new managers made losses through some 

poor business decisions – but the board was too 

trusting of the chief executive and there was a 

“growing gap between the information possessed by 

the management and by the board”. 

“Eventually,” writes Prof Birchall, “the board was 

restructured from 12 members down to eight, with 

four independent expert members brought in, but 

it was too late: in 2005 it converted to an investorowned 

company.” 

Another co-op, Dairy Farmers of Britain had 

1,800 farmer members, responsible for 10% of UK 

milk production. But Prof Birchall says “a strategy 

of growth through vertical integration” saw it 

enter a costly deal in 2004 to buy a dairy company 

from the Co-op Group and supply the Group with 

milk at a loss. 

“It did not have the financial resources or 

experience to make the strategy work, and when it 

lost the contract in 2009, it went into receivership, 

at a considerable loss to its farmer members,” adds 

Prof Birchall. “A parliamentary report commented 

that the governance of the co-operative was partly 

to blame. It would have benefited from having 

executive directors on the board, from giving the 

farmer directors proper training, and from having a 

more transparent transfer of information between 

the board and the members.” 

He also cites a string of failures in European 

consumer co-ops in the 1980s and 1990s, under the 

pressure of supermarket competition. They were not 

helped by “a combination of mediocre management 

and oligarchic local boards of directors, both 

caught in a downward spiral of poor performance 

and lack of member involvement. 

“At the back of the whole dismal story was the 

fatal loss of the economic connection they had 

previously had with their members – the dividend on 

purchases. When, under falling profits and pressure 


to cut costs, they gave up this device, there was 

nothing to distinguish members from customers in 

general, and so the link between members, boards 

and managers in the governance structure was 

fatally broken.” 

Mervyn Wilson, former principal of the 

Co-operative College, says that a string of governance 

failures in the past, with some high-profile UK 

scandals in the early 1990s, prompted a move for 

better training of governors. 

“There’s whole raft of situations where governance 

failures lead to recognition of a need for improvement 

lead to training about codes,” he says. 

“To me, the lack of director training in terms 

of accountability training and the use of ‘external 

business expertise’ led them to fail in their 

responsibility to hold executives to account.” 

Like Prof Birchall, he sees governance 

as particularly difficult in large, complex 

organisations and warns that sometimes “process 

replaces competence”. 

Worse, he says, the lessons of past governance 

failures are not learnt. 

“There’s a systematic refusal to learn from 

experience in the co-op movement. 

“In order to move on, there's almost a line drawn 

under those failings – what’s most remarkable is 

that people engaged in serial failings are given new 

roles as part of a deal for a quiet life.” 

But it is worth noting that better governance 

alone may not always be enough. A recent casualty 

for the co-op movement has been Australian dairy 

giant Murray Goulburn, which was forced to cut 

milk prices after being exposed to volatile markets. 

It is now being taken to court by regulators and has 

been sold to Canadian dairy firm Saputo (see p21). 

Anthony Taylor of Australia’s Business Council 

of Co-operatives and Mutuals says the MG case 

“was more complex than governance – there were 

arguably poor management decisions, and the 

broader economic environment was a factor that 

exposed this.” 

Mr Taylor says the crucial thing is for co-ops “to 

remain focused on their members to succeed ... 

whether we are talking about how you approach 

governance or management or anything else to 

maintain a strong co-op over time.” 

He says this is the starting point the BCCM has 

taken when it develops Governance Principles for cooperatives 

and mutuals, adding that BCCM’s original 

blueprint stressed the need for the co-operative and 

mutual sector to develop the highest standards of 

governance. To that end, the BCCM has been holding 

two chairs’ forums per year for the past three years. 

These have been working on the first set 

of Co-operative and Mutual Enterprise Governance 

Principles for the Australian co-op and 

mutual sector. 

“We are getting close to publishing the first 

version, for voluntary adoption by the sector 

in the next couple months, after a final round 

of consultation,” adds Mr Taylor. “A couple of BCCM 

members have already indicated they are ready to 

start reporting against the governance principles 

when they are released. 

“We will then continue to develop the governance 

principles iteratively with our members over time. 

“Alongside the self-help aspect of having a set 

of governance principles for the sector, we hope 

it will kickstart a dialogue with key stakeholders 

outside the sector, such as governance training 

bodies, about what fit-for-purpose governance 

practices and governance training looks like 

for the co-operative and mutual enterprise 

sector, distinct from both the for-profit and not-forprofit 

sectors.” 

Murray Goulburn’s woes deepened when it cut 

milk prices for its farmers, prompting many to leave 

the organisation. 

By contrast, Greg McNamara, chairman 

of Australian dairy co-op Norco, says co-op values 

which put farmers first are vital to good governance. 

“If you don’t take the co-operative ethos 

where farmers are the most important part of the 

business, you are weeded out – you don’t survive,” 

he told the agricultural Outlook 2018 conference 

in March. 

“We have to stay true to our core values,” he said. 

“Our relationships with all our stakeholders is the 

key to future success, building a proposition that 

sets our business apart from its competitors... We 

look for business partners who will build on this 

value proposition.” 

p Australian agri co-op 

Murray Goulburn has been 

sold to Canada’s Saputo 


Data and new challenges for co-op governance: 

A view from the agri sector 

The rise of big data has brought a fresh raft 

of governance issues to co-operatives across all 

sectors, leaving them responsible for a huge store of 

members’ information. 

This is no less true of the agri sector, where big 

data is having effects throughout the supply 

chain. Smart sensors and devices are producing 

information on such factors soil, weather and crop 

performance that creates unprecedented decisionmaking 

capabilities. 

With this information shifting the roles and 

relations between players in agriculture, there are 

governance implications for data ownership, privacy 

and security – an issue highlighted at last year’s 

global conference of the International Cooperative 

Alliance by Andrew Crane, former CEO of Australian 

grain co-op CBH. 

“Agriculture is one of last industries to get teched,” 

he told delegates at a workshop on big data. “It’s 

a physical product – how do we digitise that? But 

there is scope with use of data to help farmers make 

a return. 

“Who owns the data? Modern farm equipment 

captures a huge yield of data as it harvests crops. 

Who owns that?” 

Also on the panel was Bob Yuill, deputy chief 

executive of the Scottish Agricultural Organisation 

Society, about the governance implications for agri 

co-ops and data. 

Are co-op governance systems up to the task 

of keeping pace with changes in technology? 

As with any commercial organisation there is the 

increasing danger of becoming irrelevant due to 

disruptive forms of technology. In addition, there is 

the issue with keeping up with technological change 

that is increasing in pace. For example, sensor 

technologies and Long Range Wide area networks 

(LoRaWAN) coupled with vast processing power 

will be disruptive as well as providing profound 

opportunities. 

How can these systems be made stronger? 

Co-operative governance has to become much more 

future-focused, competing with time used to monitor 

historical happenstance. In simple terms this 

means technology as a strategic subject should be a 

consistent, if not a constant, agenda item, requiring 

research, opportunity analysis and risk assessment. 

At Kuala Lumpur, Andrew Crane said his co-op had 

seen a conflict of interest with its own members 

over ownership of agri data. How can governance 

systems take account of this? 

It’s less about ownership; data is much more 

concerned about control – ownership and control 

are two different concepts. Co-ops are able to define 

and govern the concept of ‘data control in common’ 

and apply co-operative principles in this regard. 

How is technology affecting the hiring of casual 

and seasonal labour in agriculture? Does this pose 

governance issues for agri co-ops? 

We already have well matured labour and machinery 

rings, who in Scotland are the most significant 

suppliers of labour, training and apprenticeships 

into Scottish agriculture. There are no overall 

governance issues, quite the opposite, concerning 

their level of member support and having clear 

strategies to support labour providers, their training 

and development needs. 

How do these issues fit in with the wider 

governance issues facing agri co-ops – such as 

price volatility, uncertainty over subsidies, and 

increased competition? 

A clear focus for our agri co-ops is resilience, 

developing their strategies to increase the resilience 

of both the co-op itself and of their members and 

families, through the use of technologies such as 

precision farming and deployment of labour and 

machines to areas of greatest need to deal with 

difficult spring and harvest times, community 

activity and so on. Our agri co-ops can demonstrate 

excellent governance procedures that may be of 

interest to others in our co-op family. 


Governance and the society secretary: 

Jim Watts, Central England Co-operative 

Jim Watts, who holds the position of society 

secretary at Central England Co-op, says it is defined 

by three key roles – and these all have a part to play 

in ensuring effective governance. 

“First and foremost, my role as secretary is to 

support and guide the board in fulfilling its duties 

in order to meet the society’s strategic aims and 

objectives,” he says. “In a co-op, there is also the 

added important responsibility for the board to 

follow co-operative values and principles in carrying 

out its work – which is what sets it apart from typical 

business ownership structures. 

“The best way to put this is that the secretary 

should act as a trusted advisor to the board so that 

the directors can operate effectively as a cohesive 

group and work in the best interests of the society 

as a whole on behalf of the members. 

“This also sees me act as the independent ‘link’ 

between the president, the board and our executive 

team – and aims to ensure the smooth running 

of our programme of board and sub-committee 

meetings, supported by regular communication 

in-between meetings.” 

The second key area for Mr Watts and his team is 

based on supporting the society’s members in a variety 

of ways. 

“This is a very big and vital part of my role and can 

encompass everything from our members’ meetings 

to annual elections,” he says. 

“I am proud of the great work that we have 

done over the past few years around our members’ 

meetings to ensure they strike the right balance 

between providing a clear overarching view 

of the society as a whole, at the same time as making 

them interesting, informative and relevant to our 

local members. 

“In terms of our annual elections, my role is to 

promote our co-operative point of difference as a 

member-owned business. This means encouraging 

our members to use their democratic right to take part 

and have their say on the society and how it is run. 

“Our annual and half-yearly reports are a great 

way for us to shine a light on the things the society 

has been doing and explain our progress and 

achievements to our members. 

“But at the same time, our communications with 

members have to balance the joint requirements of 

meeting our statutory reporting obligations while 

also providing a clear overview of our progress 

and the impact we have made, and showing how 

we continue to measure ourselves by co-operative 

values and principles.” 

The third key role is based around the behindthe-scenes 

work that is essential when it comes to 

making sure the society remains open for business 

and compliant with its legal obligations. 

“Working closely with assistant society secretary 

Michael Tavener, this is all about keeping on top 

of things such as the timely filing of statutory 

information including annual returns, accounts and 

corporate registrations,” says Mr Watts. 

“The role is all about good, open communication 

and the ability to work on all manner of topics, often 

taking place at the same time, and to then be able to 

articulate and put them into action across the society 

while working with everyone from the president and 

the chief executive to our members and colleagues. 

“In short, it’s about ‘doing the right thing’ on 

behalf of the society.” 

ANNUAL REVIEW 2017/18 

For the year to 27 January 2018 

p Jim Watts, society 

secretary at Central 

England Co-operative 

t The annual review 

is used as a way 

to communicate 

information to 

members 


Governance and the 

co-operative difference 

When the Rochdale Pioneers set up shop in 1844, they laid the foundations 

for today’s global co-operative movement. The Rochdale Principles set 

a benchmark which still sets co-operatives apart from competitors in the 

increasingly crowded arena of ethical business. 

ETHICAL BUSINESS Other forms of social enterprise have been inspired 

by the founding principles of the co-op movement 

BY SUSAN PRESS 

and in recent years corporate business is pitching 

to be a force for public good. One of the ways they 

are doing this is through B Corps certification. 

The community of B Corps certified in the UK 

launched at the end of September 2015 with 62 

founding members. There are now 150 signed up to 

B Corps certification, which requires high standards 

of verified social and environmental performance, 

transparency, and legal accountability. Leading 

UK B Corps brands grew on average 21% in 2017, 

compared to a national average of 3% across their 

respective sectors. 

The UK community includes household names 

like Ella’s Kitchen, Pukka Teas, Divine Chocolate 

and Lily’s Kitchen. Globally, there is now a 

community of over 2,400 B Corps claiming purpose 

Why this matters: Your company wants to 

beyond profit. 

attract and retain Mark the Cuddigan, best talent, chief and talented executive of Ella’s 

q B Corps Handbook people want Kitchen, to bring said their recently: whole selves “I am to excited that the 

details the benefits work every B day. Corps movement is growing and that UK consumer 

of certification 

brands are leading the way in driving positive 

change and inspiring other businesses to join us 

on this global mission to redefine the meaning 

of success in business. Ultimately, the more likeminded 

businesses who certify as B Corps, the more 

we can ensure that businesses can come together 

to inspire change and be a force for good 

for people and the planet.” 

But, however 

welcome the 

Worker Ownership boom in a more 

ethical private 

sector, it is the 

co-op movement which 

still offers something 

unique in terms of 

collective working 

Work Environment 

and positive 

impact on the 

wider community. And its governance is key to 

making that happen. A co-operative boardroom 

is very different from those of investor-owned 

corporations or businesses run for shareholder 

profit – however ethical they may be. 

Linda Barlow is co-operative governance advisor 

for Co-operatives UK, which offers advice and 

support to thousands of co-operatives in the UK 

currently contributing £36bn to the economy. 

She says: “Co-ops have to operate within the 

structures available to any other business. It’s what 

is in their governing documents and articles that 

p Linda Barlow 

makes them different, embracing the principles of 

co-op values and enshrining them in governance. 

The biggest difference is that when you become 

involved in a co-op you are on the same democratic 

level as anyone else. Regardless of how much you 

put in yourself you still only have one vote. 

“Members’ motivations in getting involved 

are also different than being a shareholder in a 

commercial entity. There, the main motivation 

is because you want to see capital grow and get 

a return on investment, whereas in a co-op you 

become involved because it meets your cultural, 

social or economic needs. Some co-ops share a 

financial dividend but not all do. The rewards are 

different, it’s not to make money for yourself. It is 

more that if your relation to it is as a worker you 

shape that by being a worker but also an owner.” 

38 | MAY 2018 

Compensation, Benefits 

and Wages

Recently, Co-operatives UK set up a 

Co-operative Governance Expert Reference 

Panel with representatives from all kinds of UK 

co-ops, from retail to housing, working with lawyers 

towards good practice and better governance. 

“Co-operatives are businesses and need to be run 

properly and be accountable to members,” says Ms 

Barlow. “The elected board has to be able to do 

its job. So we provide lots of resources, training, 

guidance notes and toolkits so people know what 

they are getting themselves into. 

“The panel works with people within the different 

sectors of co-ops to develop good governance and 

see what it looks like within the co-op context.” 

Since the financial crash of 2008, the co-op 

sector’s impact on wider society has broadened, 

with many local communities working to save 

services at risk from austerity cuts. 

“Within the co-op sector there has been a lot 

of growth at community level where people have 

the opportunity to become members and have a 

say, particularly in areas like energy and saving 

local assets like libraries, shops and pubs. People 

are waking up, they don’t want to be passive 

participants any more and they can have a real say 

in how a service is run collectively. 

“The normal commercial enterprise is just there 

to see investment grow. In a co-op the relationship 

is different; people know they are entering into 

it for different reasons. The reward is collective, 

you can work alongside people who share the 

same values.” 

For more than 15 years, Social Enterprise UK 

has worked with government, charities, and the 

public and private sectors to champion the cause 

of sustainable businesses with a positive impact 

on communities. 

A major boost to its work was the Social Value 

Act, which came into force in January 2013, 

requiring public bodies, including councils, to 

consider choosing providers based on the social 

value created in an area and not on cost alone. 

While social enterprises and co-operatives are 

not interchangeable, there is much common 

ground to work on. 

Deputy CEO Charlie Wigglesworth says: 

“There are a lot of different structures, lots of 

Community Interest Companies (CICs) and a 

range of others, including industrial and co-op 

societies, who we work with. What they share is 

a social purpose written into their governance 

documents and owned in that way. What we see 

in terms of demographics is a much stronger 

diversity and inclusiveness than you would find in 

mainstream business. 

“The other thing we find is we all take a very 

holistic approach to being a good business. 

If you look at the information we have about fair 

pay, salary ratios are all very strong. We have a 

lot of data and statistics on those areas which we 

share with co-ops, for example the importance of 

structure and governance locking in important 

aspects of how business operate within the social 

enterprise sector.” 

At a time when more than 66% of consumers 

have reported they are willing to spend more for 

goods and services that are committed to making a 

positive social impact, Mr Wigglesworth agrees the 

time has never been better for social enterprises 

and co-operatives to work together for the 

common good. 

“Every time we have done a survey recently, 

we have seen a growth in start-up rates. That’s 

consistent growth and real expansion. 

“We know there is a better way of doing business 

than the mainstream model. A recent state of social 

enterprise survey compared how we perform against 

the mainstream sector. 30% of social enterprises are 

based in more deprived areas, compared to 8% of 

SMEs; 79% of social enterprises recruit the majority 

of their workforce locally and 58% the entire 

workforce. They are also much more representative 

of their communities. 41% of social enterprises are 

led by women and 12% from BAME communities. 

The need is great in terms of societal impact. 

However, what we want to see is social enterprises 

of different scale and different markets. 

“There are a lot of social enterprises that are 

not co-operatives but their priority is still social 

purpose and re-investing profits.” 


Q&A: 

Trebor Scholz on governance 

for platform co-operatives 

TREBOR SCHOLZ is a 

scholar-activist and 

associate professor for 

culture and media at 

The New School in 

New York City 

p Trebor Scholz at 

Re: Publica Berlin 

(Image: Re:publica 

/ Gregor Fischer) 

WHAT PARTICULAR CHALLENGES DO PLATFORM 

COOPERATIVES FACE WHEN IT COMES TO 

GOVERNANCE? 

“Co-operativism,” Yochai Benkler wrote, “is not 

simply shared ownership, as are many employeeownership 

plans. It is, first and foremost, shared 

governance.” As central as governance is to the 

co-operative model, it has also emerged as an 

important challenge for most types of co-operatives, 

not solely platform co-ops. At times, people in 

co-ops find it onerous to agree on even basic issues 

of how to run their organisation. 

But also the tyranny of distance presents a 

problem for governance. Take agricultural co-ops 

in rural Gujarat (India), for instance. It’s not easy 

for the women who work on far-flung farmlands 

to really feel like members of the Self-Employed 

Women’s Association (SEWA). How can they 

start to participate in the day-to-day activities of 

this federation of co-ops? The problem does not 

disappear when co-ops join the digital economy. 

In a democracy, we should all have the 

opportunity to participate in the shaping of 

the structures on which we depend most. But 

one of the pathologies of platform capitalism 

is that it trains people to be followers; it 

primes them to think of themselves as workers 

instead of collective owners. It’s hard to change 

mindsets overnight. 

HOW DO PLATFORM CO-OPS MOTIVATE MEMBERS 

TO ACT MORE LIKE OWNERS? 

The producer platform co-operative Stocksy runs 

workshops for its members on the back end of their 

online stock photography platform, encouraging 

them to participate in the governance of the 

co-operative. 

Online tools like Loomio, LiquidFeedback, and 

DemocracyOS help dispersed groups to have 

sustained discussions, shed light on the opinion 

of the overall group, and then make meaningful 

decisions. These tools address some but not all 

of the challenges posed by the dispersed nature 

of workers in the gig economy and the various 

existing forms of co-operatives. 

I think that the technology matters a great 

deal but technology alone does solve any social 


problem. I consider the organisational form 

of the platform co-operative and its governance 

model as a crucial intervention in the extractive 

gig economy where “capital is the corporation, 

the insider, and labour is the outsider hired to 

do work.” as Marjorie Kelly puts it in Owning 

Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution 

(2012). In a platform co-op, other members are 

co-owners, not your masters. 

The platform co-op model puts producers 

in the driver’s seat when it comes to their own 

platform; they can decide how data ownership, 

algorithmic transparency and hosting are handled. 

They can decide whether they are sharing 

their code base as open source, or 

not. Distributed ledgers alone cannot 

substitute for democratic decision-making; 

it is still people who write the algorithm. 

In the data co-op Rchain.coop, members of the 

co-operative jointly decide about the algorithm. 

WHAT ADVANTAGES DO PLATFORM CO-OPS HAVE 

OVER CONVENTIONAL ONES WHEN IT COMES TO 

EASE OF GOVERNANCE? 

Let’s start by comparing platform co-ops to 

“businesses-as-usual companies,” as the 

sociologist Juliet Schor calls them. With an 

extractive platform, the focus is inherently limited. 

You can’t facilitate collective data ownership 

or algorithmic transparency. It’s not about 

genuine shared governance in the first place. 

A co-operative structure, however, facilitates 

collective and democratic decision making. 

Platform co-ops like Rchain, Loconomics, and 

MIDATA.coop challenge this head on, by sharing 

their code base on GitHub and by allowing members 

to directly govern their own platforms. 

Online labour brokerages and apps allow not 

only for economic activity, but also bring about 

labour power; they organise workers. Connecting 

geographically dispersed workers who do not 

have a chance to meet in the cafeteria or office, 

is a political act, too. Imagine a platform co-op for 

thousands of individual child care professionals, 

for instance. The platform model would allow 

these freelancers to make their cash flow 

more predictable, allow for co-ordinated group 

purchases, and administrative help. It would 

allow for skill building through educational 

offerings and facilitate the connection 

with parents. 

WHAT LESSONS CAN PLATFORM CO-OPS LEARN 

FROM THE WIDER CO-OP MOVEMENT? AND 

CAN THE PLATFORM CO-OP EXPERIENCE OFFER 

ANY USEFUL LESSONS TO THE WIDER CO-OP 

MOVEMENT IN RETURN? 

Failure should be welcomed, embraced, and 

expected. At this point, some platform co-ops 

still fall short of genuine democratic governance, 

there is no question about that, but I also notice 

concerted efforts to change that. 

Co-operatives could embrace tools like 

Loomio and experiment with governance 

models like Holacracy, parts of which inspired 

many platform co-operatives. A governance 

code of practice would be another useful 

step forward. 

t Clockwise from 

left, LiquidFeedback, 

Stocksy and RChain 

co-operative 


Business education is not leading to good corporate governance and we teach alternative 

models, putting co-operation and corporate responsibility on the curriculum 

EDUCATION 

BY MARTIN PARKER, 

Professor of Organisation 

Studies at the University of 

Bristol and author of Shut 

Down the Business School 

(Pluto Press, 2018) 

Virtually every university in the UK has a business 

school, and they collectively teach around one in 

seven university students. It’s a gigantic and very 

profitable industry, and one that has grown as state 

funding of universities has declined. But these are 

not neutral purveyors of teaching and research 

about how to organise, because the b-school sells a 

very particular form of knowledge. It teaches about 

capitalism, and largely ignores any alternatives. 

The business school is a creature of the market. 

In order to stand a better chance of selling ideas, it 

is a good idea to teach things that flatter those who 

want to become wealthy and powerful. And this is 

exactly what the b-school does, by suggesting that 

decision making by management and the unequal 

distribution of rewards are inevitable. Students are 

taught that these are the result of a combination of 

economic laws and human nature. Leaders must 

be amply compensated to compensate them for 

the burdens that they shoulder while well behaved 

employees admire them from a distance. 

The problem that the business school should 

be addressing is governance. As Plato says in The 

Republic, we need to be careful how we educate 

those who might lead us. If we educate our graduates 

in the inevitability of market managerialism, it is 

hardly surprising that we end up with justifications 

for massive salaries and hierarchical decision 

making. That is the message that the business 

curriculum provides. The abstraction called ‘the 

market’ is assumed to be the hidden hand that noone 

can buck, and it is ‘the market’ that determines 

that some get paid more than others. 

The key to the problem of business education is in 

the name. Words like ‘business’, or ‘management’, 

or ‘commerce’ refer us to some particular forms 

of organisation. Mostly large, mostly private 

sector, usually the limited company. These quite 

specific organisational forms are then assumed 

to provide general models for all sorts of other 

organisations, which is a bit like assuming that 

studying whales can tell us about herring. Because 

the fact is that our world is populated by all sorts 

of organisations, and they all present different 

solutions to the problem of governance. That’s 

why we need a School for Organising, not 

for management. 

If we start looking, there are lots of forms 

of organisation that an alternative school might 

look at in order to learn lessons. This means the 

curriculum would not ignore organisations on a 

different scale, or in different cultures, or from 

different times. Organisation – as a verb – simply 

refers to the patterns that humans produce in 

order to get things done. It could include families, 


co-operatives, local markets, kinship systems, groups, 

networks, communes, tribes, partnerships, local 

exchange trading systems, hierarchies, democracies, 

city-states, councils, teams, bureaucracies, trusts, 

communities, collectives, enterprises, professions, 

guilds, lineages, trade unions, states, clubs, cultures, 

occupations, societies, matriarchies, solidarities, 

associations, villages, sects, and utopias. Oh, and 

private sector limited companies too. 

We wouldn’t trust a medical school that 

only studied certain diseases, or restricted its 

research to people who had a certain skin colour. We 

wouldn’t be impressed if a teacher of architecture 

ignored all buildings that weren’t office blocks, 

or if a biologist decided to ignore life forms that 

weren’t antelopes or zebras. This is what the 

business school is doing with organisations. It is 

implicitly condemning all other organisational 

forms as old fashioned or niche, and assuming 

that market managerialism is the only and one 

best way. Before the crash, this was an assumption 

that might have been credible to many people. 

Nowadays, we might instead suggest that it was the 

people with degrees in management, finance 

and accounting who got us into the mess 

that we are in, and the business school 

should not avoid its culpability. 

Many business schools and their professional 

associations have been busily trying to avoid this 

unpleasant conclusion. Apart from wriggling a 

lot about cause and effect, their only suggestions 

for reform appear to involve compulsory modules 

on corporate social responsibility, and perhaps 

making some noises about diversity and 

sustainability. This is tinkering, the equivalent of 

the biologist agreeing to add rhinos and hippos 

to the curriculum. Their fear of change is perfectly 

comprehensible, but if the business school is 

to rescue its tarnished image, it needs more than a 

bit of public relations. it needs to become a proper 

subject, and change its name. 

Because we do need somewhere questions 

of organisation are studied and taught. Whether 

small worker co-op or multinational company, 

issues of how co-ordination and control can be 

achieved are central to our lives. So too are the 

political issues that are necessarily part of any 

OUR WORLD IS POPULATED 

BY ALL SORTS OF ORGANISATIONS, 

AND THEY ALL PRESENT DIFFERENT 

SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM 

OF GOVERNANCE 

patterning of power. Plato knew that leaders 

needed to be trained not to become tyrants. So 

perhaps it’s time for these schools to encourage 

modesty and historical understanding in their 

graduates. If this means they study how local 

currencies are organised, and the skills required 

in running a mutual, then so much the better. At 

least the students will understand that there 

are alternatives, and the School of Organising 

can become more than just a place for 

teaching capitalism. 

Martin Parker’s book, 

Shut Down the Business 

School, is published by 

Pluto Press in May. 

p The book calls for an educational rethink 

p Bristol Business School 


How can co-ops keep their place on a political 

agenda so heavily dominated by Brexit? 

With Brexit dominating the political forum in the UK, 

getting co-operatives on the government’s agenda 

could prove to be a challenge. 

A survey conducted for the Independent newspaper 

by BMG Research in December 2017 showed that 60% 

of people believe important domestic issues were 

being ignored by ministers who were preoccupied 

with Brexit. Key concerns highlighted in the survey 

included the UK’s housing crisis and the increasing 

demand faced by the NHS. 

Similarly, at their annual conference earlier this 

year, members of the British Chamber of Commerce 

called on the government not to let Brexit overshadow 

domestic issues. 

Claire McCarthy, general secretary of the 

Co-operative Party, says that while the UK’s exit from 

the EU continues to dictate national headlines, the 

day-to-day work of making the case for the co-op 

model continues. 

“In the last 12 months, Labour & Co-op MPs and 

peers have questioned ministers, laid amendments 

to legislation and instigated debates on a wide range 

of topics,” she says. These topics have included 

support for community energy, the expansion of 

credit unions, support for employee ownership and 

employee share ownership, the contribution of the 

co-op sector to the British economy, the benefits 

of mutual guarantee societies, regulatory burdens on 

co-ops, the need to grow the co-operative sector and 

tackling modern day slavery. 

t The Welsh Government is supporting the 

Development Bank of Wales to help agricultural 

co-operatives u The farming minister met with 

co-ops to discuss the challenges the farming 

industry faces because of Brexit 


“In Wales, Labour & Co-op Assembly Members 

serve as ministers in the Welsh government that is 

providing support for co-op businesses from the 

new Development Bank of Wales; new support for 

agricultural co-ops; and continued funding for the 

Wales Co-operative Centre. In Scotland, Labour & 

Co-op MSPs have championed the introduction of 

Scotland’s own version of the Marcora law, which 

enables Italian workers to buy out their companies.” 

Ms McCarthy reveals that the Co-operative 

Party is consulting the sector on its priorities for 

the post-Brexit era to help the movement manage 

the challenges and uncertainties and maximise 

opportunities in the future. “We want to hear more 

views and insights from across the movement on 

this,” she adds. 

Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK, 

the national apex body for co-ops, thinks current 

politics is marked by more “uncertainty” and 

“division” than for a long time. 

“For the co-operative sector, we experience that 

in terms of responding to some genuinely long-term 

visionary policy thinking by opposition parties, 

coupled with the week-to-week challenges of getting 

co-ops onto the agenda for the government of the 

day. Brexit rules, and so much of our focus has been 

on getting clearer terms for our members in the big 

negotiations under way,” he says. 

As part of its work with the agricultural sector, 

Co-operatives UK recently held a roundtable in 

Parliament for its members, with the farming 

minister speaking and a presentation on European 

farmers co-ops by COGECA. In February the 

government announced a £10m collaboration fund, 

to support co-ops in the sector, a move Co-operatives 

UK had lobbied for. 

The roundtable enabled the farming minister to 

meet with co-ops and discuss how the sector can help 

the food and farming industry face its challenges. 

Members of co-ops pointed out to government 

members that the emphasis should be on supporting 

exiting groups operating to enable them to grow 

rather than creating new co-ops. 

“This was in Westminster, but in fact the more 

impressive policy around farmer co-operatives is 

arguably in Scotland, led by our federal member 

SAOS, working in partnership with the wider 

industry,” adds Mr Mayo. 

“Co-operatives ought to be a good option for all 

devolved government, and Scottish farming policy 

since 1997 is an excellent case study, bringing 

significant benefits in terms of the co-operative 

contribution to jobs and the economy. 

“Similarly, in Wales, we are seeing 

a new generation of co-operatives emerge 

around housing and social care. In the North 

West and in the Midlands, there are active 

clusters of our members looking to champion the 

co-operative and wider social economy options with 

the new mayors. In East Anglia and Lincolnshire, 

co-operative business leaders are playing a key role 

in the Local Enterprise Partnerships.” 

In Westminster, Co-operatives UK’s campaign 

to cut audit burdens for smaller co-ops has just 

finished, with legislation to make audit requirements 

fairer to co-ops coming into force on 6 April. 

According to Mr Mayo, these are practical advances 

for the sector, which continues to face the challenge 

of being recognised by the political party in power as 

a conduit for an inclusive economy. 

“It is an achievement to have cross-party support 

for co-ops, but we need to turn up the dial on the 

level of that support if we are to have the influence 

we need for the co-operative economy,” he says. 

“If inspiration was needed, it could come from 

a setting far beyond Brexit – the United Nations. 

Having agreed 17 Sustainable Development Goals 

with member states as a powerful shared vision of 

a different economic trajectory, the United Nations 

secretary general, António Guterres, points to 

co-ops as ‘uniquely placed’ and ‘natural vehicles’ to 

deliver on those ambitious goals.” 

p Scotland’s farming 

policy since 1997 is an 

example of how co-ops 

can contribute to the 

economy and jobs 


Co-op Paths to Peace 

and the Peace Sign 

The peace symbol, first seen at an anti-nuclear 

rally in 1958, is now a protest icon. Less well 

known is how the co-op movement – including 

the Women’s Co-operative Guild, the London 

Co-operative Society and the Co-operative Party 

– played a critical role in the birth and growth of 

the peace movement. 

This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding 

of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament 

(CND) and the public unveiling of Gerald Holtom’s 

Peace Sign at Trafalgar Square on Good Friday, 

4 April. Holtom’s emblem incorporates the 

semaphore sign for N and D. 

This anniversary makes it a good time to 

consider the role of the co-op movement, and 

the ordinary people who comprised it, to make 

sure its efforts are not forgotten. What follows are 

references from several books that underscore 

the co-operative contribution. 

HISTORY 

BY DAVID THOMPSON 

David Thompson is a 

UK-born co-operator who 

attended anti-nuclear 

protests in London in 

the 1950s. He now lives 

in the USA, where he is 

president of the Twin 

Pines Foundation 

“The Co-op Van would arrive with Bob Tapson. ‘The 

real leader of the March,’ said the Guardian, one 

year, ‘is the Co-op van.’ Someone else said that if 

you drove it across London soon after Easter, by 

the time you got to the other side, you would find a 

march behind you.” 

Duff, Peggy. Left, Left, Left. Allison and Busby, 1971 

“In March, 1955, a Socialists doctor’s wife in 

Golders Green, Mrs Vera Leff, mentioned to her 

local Co-operative Women’s Guild the problem 

of the radiation risk from H bomb tests. Women’s 

Co-operative Guild’s being what they are; it is 

probably that nothing would have happened but 

for another of the Guild’s members, a retired civil 

servant called Gertrude Fishwick … and if any single 

person can be said to have triggered off the chain 

reaction which ended in CND, it is Miss Fishwick, 

who died exhausted by her efforts two days 

before the Central Hall meeting which launched 

CND in February 1958.” 

Driver, Christopher. The Disarmers: A Study in 

Protest. Hodder and Stoughton, 1964 

“The National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear 

Weapons Tests had its origins in the Golders Green 

and Suburb Women’s Co-operative Guild. At the 

beginning of 1955, the Guild convened a meeting 

of various local bodies ‘to discuss what we could 

do together in our own area to help towards the 

banning of the H-Bomb. The immediate actions 

of this group were, first to send a message to 

the Prime Minister: ‘We ask our Government to 

do all in its power at the forthcoming Four Power 

Talks, to reach agreement on the vital matter 

of banning nuclear weapons and ending the present 

experimental explosions.’ And, secondly, ‘Appeal to 

all local organizations and groups to help us in our 

continued efforts for the above policy.’” 

Taylor, Richard. Against the Bomb-The British Peace 

Movement. Clarendon Press, 1988 

“In the mid-1950s there were more than 1,600 

branches of the Women’s Co-operative Guild which 

helped lay the local groundwork for the anti-nuclear 

movement, with nearly 3,000 guildswomen from all 

over England attending the Central Hall Westminster 

demonstration in 1955, and 2,500 in 1956. 

“The banning of the H-bomb tests, hostility 

to German re-armament and to foreign bases and 

to arms expenditures appear regularly on Congress 

agenda. Three major Guild efforts were the 1955 

and 1956 peace rallies and the 1958 Women’s 

Caravan for Peace, in which the Guild took place.” 

Gaffin, Jean and Thom, David. Caring and Sharing: 

The Centenary History of the Co-operative 

Women’s Guild. Co-operative Union, 1983. 

“We must not let this enthusiasm be lost. The 

international situation is still such that extreme 


vigilance is necessary if we are to ward off world 

war three. Guild support for CND and publicity for 

its marches was given in the Bulletin and 11,000 

guildswomen signed a petition to the government 

in 1957, ‘expressing concern at the continued 

manufacture of and testing of nuclear weapons and 

drawing attention to the genetic effects’.” 

Women’s Co-operative Guild, December Monthly 

Bulletin, reporting on a “splendid demonstration”. 

“On the eve of the Labour Party Conference of 

1958 (Scarborough) the Executive Committee 

meeting at 25 September discussed a proposal 

from Ted Bedford, Secretary of the Political 

Committee of the London Co-operative Society, 

who had become treasurer of CND, that the 

H Bomb Campaign Committee, a Labour 

group, should be asked to close and merge 

itself into a Labour Advisory Committee of 

the campaign…. Its first chairman was Frank 

Beswick, A Labour MP (now Lord Beswick), who 

was also chair of the LCS Political Committee.” 

Duff, Peggy. Left, Left, Left 

“The Political Committee of the London 

Cooperative Society was a constant supporter 

of anti-nuclear groups, through staff support, 

funding, leaflet printing, use of meeting rooms, 

transportation and getting loudspeakers and other 

equipment to rallies. 

“In April 1960, the government was compelled 

to announce the abandonment of the Blue Streak 

project, and thus, de facto, the independent 

deterrent. Before this announcement, the 

Co-operative Party, USDAW and AEU had all 

passed unilateralist resolutions. Gaitskell was 

forced to abandon his rigid stance, and the Labour 

party adopted a new policy.” 

Taylor, Richard and Young, Nigel; Campaigns for 

Peace. Manchester University Press, 1987 

“A recent study of co-operative societies 

draws particular attention to their contribution 

to democratic institutions ... participation 

constitutes the mechanism for the recruitment 

of political education of men. It provides training 

in democratic action and access to a forum 

of oppositional ideas, the toleration and 

dissemination of which are essential to democratic 

government. It offers a varied set of opportunities 

for the nurture and expression of politically and 

publicly directed energy. Democratic associations 

constitute the great intermediary foci of loyalties 

which distinguish the civil from the mass society 

in which nothing stands between the attachment 

of a man to his family and to the nation state. In 

this general sense, the co-operative movement has 

played a significant historic role in the development 

of British democratic institutions.” 

Parkin, Frank. Middle Class Radicalism. Manchester 

University Press, 1968 

One example of this co-op awakening is Pat 

Allen, a linchpin of London CND, who recalled: 

“My own involvement was first in Gravesend and 

then in Newham from 1960 onwards. By this time 

most other parts of London already had local CND 

groups ... I was soon in touch with a Methodist 

Minister, a Co-op activist and a Labour Party activist 

to establish Newham CND.” 

Hudson, Kate; CND: Now More Than Ever Satin 

Publications Ltd. 2005 

t Facing page 

and left: The co-op 

movement played 

a crucial role in the 

growth of the antinuclear 

movement, 

including the London 

rallies where the iconic 

CND emblem was 

first unfurled 


REVIEWS 

Review: Johnston Birchall on co-operative governance 

Johnston Birchall 

(Co-operatives UK, 

s.coop/26coa) 

The second edition of Professor Johnston Birchall’s 

The Governance of Large Co-operative Businesses 

takes a look how the world’s 60 largest co-ops 

“ensure that their customers, employees and 

suppliers have meaningful influence”. 

It follows a renewed focus on governance in the 

movement, prompted by high-profile crises such 

as the demutualisation of the UK Co-op Bank, and 

challenges such as volatile global markets and the 

rise of big data – although, the report says, co-ops 

have “a relatively good track record in governance”. 

Prof Birchall says this is an important moment for 

governance for another reason: “More people are 

beginning to appreciate the co-operative difference, 

and to see member-owned businesses as an 

alternative to investor-ownership. 

“This makes the occasional co-operative failure 

even harder to bear, because with it go the silent 

hopes of people who had a suspicion that there 

might be a better way but who now feel let down. 

For these reasons, it is imperative that we make sure 

co-operatives are as well governed as possible, and 

that we learn by our mistakes.” 

With that in mind, the report offers “a more 

systematic and analytical account of comparative 

governance ... to present practical considerations 

for the design and redesign of good governance in 

co-operatives”. 

Prof Birchall considers the merits of membercentred 

and multi-stakeholder approaches to 

governance and stresses the importance of giving 

equal weight to member voice, representation and 

expertise. He goes on take a sector-by-sector look at 

the world’s biggest co-ops. 

It’s also vital to adapt governance as a co-op 

changes, he says, pointing to regular reviews of 

regional representation in US agri co-op Land o’ 

Lakes to match changes in the number of members, 

or the way Arla Foods adjusts its governance to 

represent new members as it expands. 

He advocates member councils to ensure effective 

representation in large co-ops, with “authority 

distributed so the member council and the board 

can each get on with doing what they do best”. 

“There should be some tension between the two 

bodies,” he adds. “The council should have some 

powers, such as having places on the nominations 

committee, being able to approve annual accounts, 

and endorsing strategic plans.” 

And he suggests holding meetings between 

expert boards and members to ensure effective 

communication of members’ wishes. 

MAY 

The Fall of the Ethical Bank: how 

a large group of decision makers 

believed their own hype – and got it 

spectacularly wrong. 


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OPEN DAY 

FRIDAY 

18 MAY

DIARY 

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Co-operative 

Congress brings a mix of speakers, 

workshops and networking to London 

on 23 June; the Community Energy 

Conference takes place in Manchester 

on 23 June; futurist Shivvy Jervis will be 

talking at WOCCU 2018 in Singapore from 

15-18 July; OPEN 2018 takes a look at the 

platform co-op movement in London on 

26-27 July 

20 June: Co-operatives East Midlands: 

AGM and training session 

Co-operatives East Midlands: 

AGM and training session 

WHERE: Joseph Wright Room, Derby 

INFO: s.coop/26cnn 

23 June: Co-operative Congress 

Congress is the co-operative sector’s 

annual conference, when members and 

directors, activists and CEOs from 

across the movement come together. 

Combining speakers, practical 

workshops, pitches from collaborative 

entrepreneurs and much more, Congress 

is an opportunity for all those working to 

build a fairer economy to come together 

to share ideas, get inspiration and 

take action. 

WHERE: Bishopsgate, Liverpool 

Street, London. 

INFO: uk.coop/congress 

23 June: Community Energy 

Conference 2018 

Community Energy England and Co-op 

Energy are once again teaming up to 

deliver the country’s largest community 

energy conference of the year. The 

conference will kick off Community Energy 

Fortnight and Community Energy England 

will be launching its much-anticipated 

second State of the Sector Report. It is 

jointly hosted with Co-operative Energy 

and supported by Electricity North West 

and Tyndall Centre. 

WHERE: Renold Building, 

University of Manchester, 

INFO: s.coop/26cno 

5 July: UKSCS Co-ops Fortnight Lecture 

Dr Cilla Ross, vice-principal at the 

Co-operative College, will discuss ‘Rethinking 

Co-operative Education in New 

Times’. 

WHERE: Federation House, Manchester 

INFO: s.coop/26coe 

7 July: International Day of Co-operatives 

15-18 July: World Credit 

Union Conference 2018 

The World Credit Union Conference 

is the premier global event for the 

credit union industry. Attendees from 

around the globe include board 

members, CEOs, executive directors, 

senior management and more. This is 

the only conference that has a global 

focus on improving lives through credit 

unions. It offers educational sessions on 

key topics, networking opportunities 

and an team-building environments to 

facilitate and grow decision making. 

WHERE: Suntec, Singapore 

INFO: wcuc.org 

26-27 July: OPEN 2018: 

Platform Co-operatives 

The platform co-operative showcase 

will present examples from functioning 

platform co-ops, including practical 

examples of legal structures, funding and 

financial setups, and detailed insight 

from platform co-op practitioners about 

how their organisations work. 

WHERE: Conway Hall, London 

INFO: 2018.open.coop 

LOOKING AHEAD 

31 August - 2 September: UK Society 

for Co-op Studies Conference (Sheffield) 

12-14 October: Co-operative Party Annual 

Conference (Bristol) 

22 November: Practitioners Forum 

(Manchester) 


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