The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance, and social enterprise.
One Angel Square The Co-operative Group's headquarters in Manchester, England, UK
The Hanover Building in Manchester, former headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society
The head offices for the Co-operative Bank and the CIS in Manchester's 'co-op quarter'
The Co-op superstore Lisburn Road, Belfast, shown here in 1996.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to goods and services.
Raunds Co-operative Society Limited was a consumer co-operative society based in Raunds, Northamptonshire, founded in 1891.
Model of Robert Owen's visionary project for a cooperative settlement. Owenites fired bricks to build it, but construction never took place.
The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers was established in 1844 and defined the modern cooperative movement.
January 1947 Co-op Magazine back cover designed as a promotional poster