wholesale society redirects here . for general information on organisations of this name see co operative wholesale society . co operative group limited one angel square manchester the co operative group s headquarters type consumer co operative industry wholesale and retail founded 13 december 1844 13 december 1844 1 2 headquarters one angel square manchester united kingdom number of locations 4 500 key people allan leighton group chair richard pennycook chief executive services food electrical funeralcare insurance legal services banking 20 % stake travel 30 % stake revenue 9.36 billion 2015 net income 81 million 2015 3 members 4.5 million active members 2016 number of employees over 70 000 2015 website coop.co.uk the co operative group commonly known as the co op is a british consumer co operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail ; electrical retail ; financial services ; insurance services ; legal services and funeralcare with in excess of 4 500 locations . it is the largest consumer co operative in the uk and owned by more than 4.5 million active members . 4 members are democratically involved in setting business strategy decide how social goals are achieved and share in its profits . membership is open to everyone aged 16 and over provided they share the values and principles upon which the group was founded . the co operative group has over 70 000 employees across the uk . the group has headquarters in manchester on a listed eight building estate which includes its head office one angel square the cis tower hanover building new century house and redfern building . 5 the group also manages the co operative federal trading services formerly the co operative retail trading group crtg which sources and promotes goods for food stores of the co operative movements of the uk . 6 it introduced the co operative brand in 2007 which is used by many consumers co operatives in the uk and managed by the group . it replaced this for its own businesses with a revitalised version of its late 1960s co op logo in 2016 . 7 the business has long established itself as an ethical retailer and was the first major uk retailer to champion fairtrade . the co operative group has also pioneered a number of other initiatives including providing nutritional information on its own brand food producing environmentally friendly household products and has won awards for raising animal welfare standards . it has invested significantly in community projects and renewable energy generation . it has held the fair tax mark since 2015 . contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1844 1938 1.2 wwii & post war decline 1939 1989 1.3 modernisation & takeover attempts 1990 1999 1.3.1 establishing the co operative difference 1.4 expansion 2000 2012 1.5 financial crisis 2013 2014 1.6 rebuilding the co op 2015 present 2 co operative practices 2.1 purpose values and principles 2.1.1 co operative values 2.1.2 ethical values 2.1.3 principles 3 businesses 3.1 current 3.2 former 3.3 marketing and branding 4 governance 4.1 group board and executive team 4.2 executive remuneration 4.3 former structure 5 dividend and membership scheme 5.1 history of co op membership 5.2 current membership scheme 6 ethical trading and campaigning 6.1 fairtrade 6.2 renewable energy and energy saving measures 6.3 animal welfare 6.4 responsible fish sourcing 6.5 community dividend 6.6 co operative development 6.7 clean energy campaigning 6.8 food labelling 6.9 israeli settlement boycott 6.10 pesticides and toxic chemicals 6.11 genetic modification 6.12 waste reduction and carrier bags 6.13 supply chain efficiency 6.14 palm oil policy 6.15 political affiliation 7 list of corporate members 8 awards 9 see also 10 notes 11 references 12 external links history edit beginnings 1844 1938 edit the co operative group has developed over 165 years from the merger of co operative wholesale societies and many independent retail societies ; evolving from solely a wholesale operation to a major retailer . the group s roots are traced back to the rochdale society of equitable pioneers established in 1844 . 8 the rochdale society of equitable pioneers was based on the rochdale principles which notably introduced the idea of distributing a share of profits according to purchases through a scheme which became to be known as the divi . an advert for cws candles although the co operative group incorporates the original rochdale society the business core for much of its history were its wholesale operations . this began in 1863 when the north of england co operative wholesale industrial and provident society limited was launched in manchester by 300 individual co operatives in yorkshire and lancashire . by 1872 it was known as the co operative wholesale society cws and it was wholly owned by the co operatives which traded with it . 9 10 11 the cws grew rapidly and supplied produce to co operative stores across england though many co ops only sourced around a third of their produce through the cws . it was this continued and fierce competition with other non co operative wholesalers which led to the cws becoming highly innovative . by 1890 the cws had established significant branches in leeds blackburn bristol nottingham and huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits manchester boots leicester soap durham and textiles batley . in an attempt to drive down the significant cost of transportation for produce the cws even began its own shipping line which initially sailed from goole docks to parts of continental europe . one of the cws steamships the pioneer was the first commercial vessel to use the manchester ship canal . this rapid expansion continued so that by the outbreak of world war one the cws had major offices in the united states denmark australia and a tea plantation in india . 10 the head offices for the co operative bank and the cis in manchester s co op quarter . there was a great deal of consideration on the role of the cws in the british co operative movement around the turn of the twentieth century . many fiercely local societies saw the cws as a valuable supplier but did not want to exclusively purchase produce from them owing to perceptions of high cost mostly transport costs and unreliable quality some things the cws were at pains to resolve . in contrast to this the cws had its aim to be the centrepoint for the whole co operative movement in the uk and lobbied hard for loyalty from co ops . to this end they started to assist the local retail societies in more ways than simply as a wholesaler . the cws bank the precursor to the co operative bank financed loans for societies to use for expansion through purchasing new buildings land or new equipment . after the acquisition of the co operative insurance society in 1913 the cws also provided insurance services to members and the cws also began providing legal services all businesses which form parts of the co operative group today . it was hoped that these financial ties as well as the cws corporate dividend would increase loyalty to the cws . 10 wwii & post war decline 1939 1989 edit during the second world war rationing led to an effective pause in any major changes to the co operative movement in the uk with the cws becoming highly involved in sourcing overseas goods for uk consumers and manufacturing wartime goods . during this time the cws began planning for the future as even then they could see the potential disruption to the retail market that the new multiple grocers could have . in 1944 the cws published a report entitled policy and programme for post war development which focused on methods for revitalising the co op movement after the war had ended . the report suggested merging the cws with the scottish co operative wholesale society scws ; reducing the number of co operative societies through merger ; moving into the manufacturing and production of white goods and the expansion of the co operative bank . this report received much criticism from the fiercely local co operative societies and the proposals of the report were only partly and slowly implemented . there was some attempt to modernise the co operative stores around this time . after the london co operative society opened its first self service shop in 1942 the co operative movement led the way on the development of self service stores to the point where by the 1950s 90 % of self service shops in the uk were run by co operatives . 12 despite this the market share and the number of members of the society began to dwindle and importantly so did the member share capital which societies used to invest . 10 the co operative independent commission 1958 was tasked with investigating the decline in the co op movement and for making recommendations for revitalising the movement in the future . its recommendations had two main thrusts that a strong response to the emerging multiple store supermarket chains including the appointment of professional managers 11 was needed and that the co op needed to come to terms with the rise in consumerism and to move away from its association with the working poor rather than a more prosperous working class . this was not to say that the co op had not been modernising notably through opening self service stores and supermarkets . however the report suggested that the co op needed to become more responsive to the grocery market by being more competitive on price by rationalising on unprofitable stores and by recruiting professional managers . the cws responded with operation facelift in 1968 which introduced the first national co operative branding the co op cloverleaf . though operation facelift led to some improvements the movement including the cws remained largely unreformed with its grocery marketshare continuing a downward trend . 11 again it was suggested that societies merge to form regional societies to improve their competitiveness through enhanced economies of scale . many local co op societies strongly resisted such mergers but as their financial situation declined many were forced to merge to create regional societies or were absorbed into either the crs or the scws to avoid failing . consolidation within the movement was considerable and in 1973 serious financial mismanagement of the scws bank led to the scws and the cws merging to form a single uk wide wholesale society . the merger did highlight the potential of the co operative bank as it was building a sizeable base of customers notably local authorities mutuals and local groups alongside co operative societies and this became an increasingly significant proportion of the cws s annual profits . the growth in the bank largely related to its aggressive expansion into the personal banking market and with the pioneering of free banking 1972 in the uk nine years before any of its larger rivals . 10 the co op superstore lisburn road belfast shown here in 1996 . the co operative movement s marketshare and profitability continued to decline during the 1970s and 1980s in part due to a number of reasons . firstly the process of de industrialisation that had characterised the period led to serious economic difficulties in many of the movements heartlands notably the northern industrial towns which disproportionally impacted on the societies through a decrease in consumer spending despite the british economy seeing a rise in overall consumer disposable income . this was largely due to the strong increase in inequality in the uk at this time . the co operative movement was not well placed to tap into this increase in middle class spending due to the geographic spread of its stores and the co op s historic association as the shop for the working poor . secondly redevelopment projects in many cities between the 1950s and 1970s often moved people from rows of terraced housing which featured