limited type co operative industry insurance founded 1945 1945 headquarters guelph ontario canada key people kathy bardswick president and ceo revenue 3.5 billion 2011 net income 137.6 million 2014 1 number of employees 5 017 2011 website cooperators.ca the co operators group limited founded in 1945 is a canadian insurance co operative owned by 45 members including co ops and credit union centrals . it is one of the leading canadian owned multi line insurers offering auto home life farm travel and business insurance as well as investments . the company was started by farmers in saskatchewan in 1945 . the co operators group ltd. is a co operative based in guelph ontario . that entity owns several operating companies the largest of which is co operators general insurance company which sells property and casualty insurance i.e. auto home and commercial primarily through its network of more than 485 exclusive agents . the second biggest company in the group is co operators life insurance company based in regina which sells life insurance i.e. life health group benefits . other member companies are hb group insurance of mississauga the sovereign general insurance company of calgary cumis group limited based in burlington ontario and investment firm addenda capital of montreal . as of march 2011 the group of companies had more than 40 billion in assets under administration . contents 1 history 2 awards & recognition 3 references 4 external links history edit the roots of the co operators can be traced back to the wheat fields of saskatchewan . the great depression followed by the second world war was a time of great adversity for rural communities as many agricultural families lost their belongings their savings and their life insurance . in this environment co operatives were increasingly appealing as a way for a community to pool its resources to help rebuild lives . 2 a group of farmers in saskatchewan dreamed of building a co operative insurance company to protect their assets for future generations . in 1945 with the support of the saskatchewan wheat pool and farm based prairie co operatives co operative life insurance company was incorporated in regina . 2 similar developments were underway in ontario where the co operative union of ontario and the ontario credit union league established co operators fidelity & guarantee association 1946 to support farmers in that province . 2 the saskatchewan and ontario based companies expanded significantly over the years both in terms of geography and product offerings . the two successor companies regina based co operative insurance services and co operators insurance associations of guelph established closer ties and in 1975 merged as ci management group which adopted the brand name the co operators . in 1978 the company took its present name . 3 the group of companies has grown steadily since then . presently the co operators banner includes addenda capital co operators general insurance company co operators life insurance company the cumis group hb group insurance federated agencies limited and the sovereign general insurance company . 4 the company is currently title sponsor for the radio network of the canadian football league s saskatchewan roughriders . awards & recognition edit the co operators has been consistently ranked among the best 50 corporate citizens in canada by corporate knights achieving second place in 2010 5 first place in 2011 6 and 3rd place in 2013 . 7 listed among the 50 best employers in canada for eight consecutive years . listed among canada s green 30 a list of canada s top employers that are highly regarded for their commitment to environmental social and economic sustainability . references edit co operators general insurance company 2014 annual report pdf report . retrieved 6 july 2015 . a b c mcpherson ian . the origins of cooperative insurance on the prairies pdf . retrieved 4 november 2010 . company timeline company structure http newsreleases.cooperators.ca index.php s 5651 & item 4970 http newsreleases.cooperators.ca index.php s 5651 & item 40788 http newsreleases.cooperators.ca index.php s 5651 & item 137176 external links edit company website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title the co operators & oldid 697289228 categories insurance companies of canadacompanies based in guelphcooperatives in canada navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aispolski edit links this page was last modified on 29 december 2015 at 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