COOP Stories

www.scotmid.coop

The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, trading as Scotmid Co-operative, is an independent retail consumers’ co-operative that originated in the Central Belt, particularly Edinburgh and the Lothians. It was formed in 1981 by a merger of the Dalziel Co-operative Society of Motherwell with the larger St. Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1859.

With over 3,900 staff, the co-operative has 177 Scotmid supermarkets and convenience stores, nine Lakes & Dales convenience stores, 17 funeral offices, and 89 Semichem health and beauty shops throughout Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

Like most other retail consumers’ co-operatives in the UK, Scotmid is incorporated as a registered society.

In the year to 26 January 2019, Scotmid Co-op recorded turnover of £377.9m (£373.7m 2017/18) and a surplus or profit after tax of £4.5m (2017/18: £5.5m). The Society also had net debt of £29.4m (£32.7m 2017/18) including a £37m bank loan (£39m 2017/18). Scotmid also reported a £19.2m (£19.3m 2017/18) pension deficit. The Society’s membership was 155,343 down from 268,125 in 2017/18. No share of the profits bonus was declared for members by the Board during the year. The Society operates a share option plan for all employees

Scotmid has a committee style governance structure, similar to The Co-operative Group prior to its own major governance reforms. Scotmid Board Directors are nominated by Regional Committee members and elected by members from the Regions they represent (if these positions are contested).

Scotmid are also a user of the global Cooperative Marque.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Scotmid on social media:

www.fluid.coop

THE GLASSBLOWERS OF BELLE-ÎLE-EN-MER

Founded in 2008, Fluïd is a Cooperative and Participatory Company (SCOP) specializing in glass blowing which offers high-end decoration and tableware products.

It is a production of small series, and unique, tailor-made pieces created from traditional and traditional glasswork. Our workshop is based in Belle-Île-en-mer , a small island on the west coast of Brittany, taking part in local life and in the cultural and economic wealth of the island.

Isolated from the madness of the world, our glassmakers have complete creative freedom and can focus on creating unique products.

Fluïd is dedicated to the world of decoration , lighting and tableware . Each piece is made by hand and mouth blown. The universe brings within a place, an elegant and colourful atmosphere.

A full-fledged actor in craftsmanship, Fluïd wishes to make each moment of sharing an enriching experience blending the beauty of art and design.

The works produced by Fluïd harmonize to create a modern and refined space. The transparency of the glass mixed with the intense colour create a unique atmosphere, playing with the material that reflects the light, creating coloured shadows that come alive.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Fluïd on social media:

www.centralengland.coop

Central England Co-operative is a family of businesses include food stores, funeral services & florists.

It is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society’s profits. A proportion of the profits of the business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes.

The Society’s key businesses are its 260 food stores and over 120 funeral directors which all trade using the 2008 version of The Co-operative brand. The co-operative also has 20 travel branches, 10 florists, three stonemasonry outlets, a coffin factory and crematorium; it has 1,731,005 members (including over 329,000 regular trading members) and 8,600 employees (figures as January 2017).

Registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, Central England Co-operative is the second largest independent retail co-operative in the UK and was formed in 2014 following the 2013 merger of the Anglia Regional and Midlands Co-operative societies. The society has a permanent seat on the board of Co-operatives UK; it is a corporate member of The Co-operative Group, the largest consumer co-operative in the world and the national buying group, Co-operative Federal Trading Services.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Central England Co-operative on social media:

www.upandgo.coop

Up & Go is cooperatively owned by professional home cleaners. We carefully select our partners through an extensive application process, trainings, and trial cleanings. Our rigorous quality standards and extensive training make us uniquely equipped to bring thorough, restorative cleanings to your home. Our focus on quality goes all the way down to the non-toxic products and sustainable methods we use, leaving your home with a healthy sparkle, every time.

A better clean, fair and square.Up & Go lets you easily book professional home cleaning services from businesses with fair work practices.Every home cleaning professional on Up & Go is a co-owner of their own business known as a worker cooperative. We are committed to:

Service Quality and Accountability. Because the service professionals on Up & Go are also business owners, they are committed to building customer loyalty through excellent service. They have developed ongoing training and rigorous service quality standards that are leading industry best practice. If you ever do have a problem, call or email Up & Go and a human will respond within one business day.

Living wage, safe, and dignified work. As a consumer, you can be sure you are supporting fair work practices because these businesses are 100% worker-owned. Business decisions are made by the service professionals themselves (1 worker = 1 vote!), who joined a worker cooperative in order to secure fair schedules and wages.

Transparency. On Up & Go, people get paid fairly for the work they do. 95% of your service fee goes straight to the worker-owned business. The other 5% is for Up & Go to book the job.

Community. Booking on Up & Go builds a stronger community around you. These cooperative businesses are owned by everyday people building better lives and a just local economy. Up & Go connects you with them.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit upandgo.coop on social media:

www.cooperativenetwork.coop

Cooperative Network has a proud history of bringing together and strengthening the voice of cooperative businesses.

The Minnesota Association of Cooperatives was founded in 1945 when cooperatives were under intense scrutiny, and the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives was formed in 1969 by two politically divergent organizations—the Wisconsin Association of Cooperatives, which served primarily consumer co-ops, and the Wisconsin Council of Agricultural Cooperatives.

The Minnesota association entered into a management agreement with its Wisconsin counterpart in 1998. The two organizations became one in 2004 after members voted in favor of a formal unification. The association was renamed Cooperative Network in 2009.

The trusted voice for cooperatives, Cooperative Network is committed to protecting and promoting cooperative businesses and their shared cooperative principles.

We know we are stronger together. Our ultimate goal is to optimize the value we provide to our member cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We are committed to meeting the needs of our members by providing world-class legislative and regulatory advocacy, a wide range of opportunities for learning and development and creative leadership in public awareness.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Cooperative Network on social media:

www.nz.coop

Cooperative Business New Zealand is the industry body that unites and represents New Zealand’s diverse range of member-owned businesses.

We independently represent co-operatives, mutual and societies sitting across multiple sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, insurance, banking, financial services, utilities, education, health, wholesale and retail.

As the peak body, our aim is to increase awareness of the important contribution these organisations make to New Zealand’s economy and society. New Zealand is one of the most co-operative economies in the world with co-operatives generating around 16% of GDP and employing more than 50,000 New Zealanders.

By sharing information and bringing together members, Cooperative Business New Zealand provides a platform for members to collaborate, have a stronger collective voice and to educate the broader community on the value of the business model.

Seven internationally agreed principles (Rochdale Principles) guide co-operatives, mutuals and societies. These emphasise democracy and shared equity, while providing economic and social returns to members and their communities:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Cooperation among co-operatives
7. Concern for community.

Read our Value Proposition here.

As a member of the International Co-operative Alliance, we have access to a large pool of co-operative practitioners, specialists and researchers from the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit nz.coop on social media:

www.gcda.coop

GCDA supporting communities to be healthy and sustainable since 1982.

We aim to:

1. To develop enterprises, which meet economic and social needs and are co-operatively managed. Click here to see the GCDA Business Plan 2014-2016
2. To deliver training programmes and courses, which build the knowledge and skills of the community and partners we work with across the areas core to our aims; enterprise, health and the environment.
3. To create community hubs – based on cafes, farms, allotments, marketplaces and training centres
4. To promote healthy lifestyles to the whole population and particularly those experiencing health inequalities, so their physical and mental well-being is improved.

Sustainability and Community Development

We believe in minimising our impact on the environment, whilst maximising the quality of our programmes and maintaining a financially viable business. To deliver this we have policies, procedures and programmes that ensure we embed this within all of our GCDA work.

Here at GCDA we are promoting the Living Wage and encourage other employers to implement this great benefit and service to their staff. We believe that work should be the surest way out of poverty, and by getting paid the Living Wage, it will enrich society and promote fairness. Our Good Food in Greenwich charter recognises and promotes this fairness in local businesses, and encourages businesses and organisations who pledge to consider this and how to work towards it.

We have a comprehensive operational system to reduce CO2 impact and maximise the recycling and use of waste including food. In 2011 we were awarded the Carbon Smart Blue Award in recognition of the work we do as an organisation in this area.

We employ a comprehensive, community needs, assessment approach to all our work which allows us to fully understand the audience we are working with, understand their views and incorporate them into our services; what they want, what their needs are, what they would like to see in place and how much they want to spend.

Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency Limited, Registered Society: RS007029, HMRC Charity number: EW35985, VAT number 130522365

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit gcda on social media:

www.agromovil.coop

The Farmers’ Platform. Putting Power in the hands of Producers, Co-ops & Co-op Associations.

Agromovil is a mobile supply chain platform that helps farmers connect with buyers to see new opportunities, sell direct, and find optimized transport – getting products to market more efficiently and profitably around the world.

A Better Model for Sellers, Buyers and Transporters

• Matching buyers and sellers
• Optimizing transport + payments
• Making money as the network grows
• Providing licensed data products and charging a percent of each sale on the platform

Competitive Advantages

Unlike competitors, Agromovil functions as an arranger, NOT an intermediary. The platform requires almost no infrastructure on the ground, making it easy to scale. The platform is growing quickly via relationships with banks, government agencies, and mobile providers.

Success in their Pilot Year – in just 6 months

• 1000 farms, 1300 total users on the platform, 150+ communities
• 500 tons of goods placed for sale, 80+ products
• Accessible to anyone – users aged 17-71
• Stickiness: 45% of all farmers who have downloaded Agromovil have posted,
145 more than 3x, at any given time more than 1/3 of farmers had an active post
• Expanding across Colombia, starting JV with USDA in Africa and in the US

Founded by Andrew Mack, Washington, D.C. entrepreneur and former World Bank executive, the Agromovil team includes globally-recognized entrepreneurs, and financial and technology experts including CTO Jens Francis, Lead Advisor Constanza Nieto, and AgTech startup veteran Rodrigo Iafelice.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit agromovil.coop on social media:

www.usworker.coop

The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) is the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives. Our mission is to build a thriving cooperative movement of stable, empowering jobs through worker-ownership. We advance worker-owned, -managed, and -governed workplaces through cooperative education, advocacy and development.

Our Federation includes more than 300 business and organizational members representing 10,000 workers across the country. We organize through local cooperative networks while building power with national and international partners to advance an agenda for economic justice rooted in community-based, shared ownership.

The USFWC was founded in 2004 when a core of worker co-op members came together with co-op developers, scholars, community organizers, and supporters from the broader co-op sector to strengthen worker co-ops through a national, sector-specific organization. Building on growing momentum, this founding event brought together worker co-op practitioners from the existing Western Worker Co-op Conference and the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, as well as key players in Midwest and Southern states, to galvanize and support rising interest in the worker co-op business model. We organized an inaugural conference in Minneapolis to launch the Federation, deliberating over a long weekend to articulate a shared vision, identity, and organizational structure for this new democratically-run national organization.

From its very inception, the USFWC has centered the leadership of workers from democratic workplaces and of historically marginalized communities; especially leadership of color and leaders from low-income and immigrant communities. To this day, our membership is comprised of worker co-ops, democratic workplaces (consumer cooperatives, non-profits, and ESOPs with democratic staff management), cooperative developers, and various organizations and individuals that support worker cooperatives. These Federation members range from 2 to 2,000 workers and span dozens of industries with varying management and governance structures.

As a membership and advocacy organization, we connect worker cooperative members to benefits, to each other and to the larger cooperative and economic justice movements.  We amplify our members’ voices to advocate for worker cooperatives at the local, state and national level. We provide consulting and technical assistance to cooperatives old and new. And through the education, training and organizing work of our partner organization, the Democracy at Work Institute, we are committed to ensuring cooperative business ownership reaches those who need it the most.

Our Federation is led by a 100% member-elected Board of Directors, member councils, and a small but mighty staff with offices in Oakland, CA and Philadelphia, PA.  Annual membership dues are our primary funding source, supplemented by small grants, consulting and program contracts, and individual contributions.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit usworker.coop on social media:

www.aroundtheworld.coop

Aroundtheworld.coop (ATW) aims to enhance and share with the wider society best practices from the social and solidarity economy, both from Italy and around the world, contributing to raise awareness that alternatives to the mainstream is possible.

For this the ATW team aims to be a means for the internationalization of innovative knowledge and know-how, inspiring communities and individuals about collective solutions to local and global issues.

The ATW work is built on professional excellence and reliability. They aim to foster decent work while promoting democratic culture and sustainable human development, with the ambition to contribute to creating a world where social and economic cohesion and solidarity are the rule, not the exception.

Aroundtheworld.coop is committed to strengthen the ability of cooperatives, collectives, and social and solidarity economy organizations in general, to communicate their story of positive impact.

For this, aroundtheworld.coop operates by:

· transforming socio-economic research into participatory high-quality videos;

· carrying out research projects by adopting qualitative and quantitative methods;

· developing capacities of individuals and their organizations to effectively communicate their story and identity both internally and externally, through qualitative methods and digitalization;

· providing training and capacity development to universities and schools, development practitioners, and cooperators, among others.

The Aroundtheworld.coop started as a project from the idea of Andrea Mancori and Sara Vicari, a couple who traveled the world to document innovative cooperatives. The around the world trip was carried out in 2019, in partnership with the International Co-operative Alliance and in particular with the Coops4Dev programme. In total, they produced 13 videos that tell stories of cooperatives from all the continents

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Aroundtheworld.coop on social media: