Co-op News (August 2019)

RETAIL
Sheffield Co-op Group
store brings back milk
in glass bottles
A Co-op Group store in Sheffield is bringing
back the glass milk bottle in response
to demand from customers and the war
on plastic.
The Ecclesall Road store is selling glass
pint bottles from local farm Our Cow
Molly, four miles away. Customers can
return the bottles to the shop to be re-used
by the dairy.
Store manager Pete Cooper says the
glass bottles are proving to be a hit – and
he’s planning on increasing his order to
meet demand.
Mr Cooper said: “We’re the first Co-op
store in the country to sell milk in glass
bottles and we believe we’re the first
supermarket in the country to do so too.
“It fits in with the Co-op’s ethos as an
environmentally friendly company keen
to do what it can to reduce plastic waste.
And the response shows just how close
the issue is to people’s hearts. It’s also
great to be supporting a local farm only
a few miles away.”
Our Cow Molly already supplies a local
convenience store with milk in glass
bottles – where customers get a discount
on their next pint when returning their
used bottles. Other stores in the city are
now planning to follow suit.
Director of Our Cow Molly, Eddie
Andrew, said: “It’s great that the Co-op
has become the first major supermarket
in the UK to listen to environmentally
conscious consumers asking for milk in
glass bottles, and to give them what they
want. We’re really proud we’ve been able
to get our milk on the shelves there and
help reduce plastic waste.”
According to recent research, a glass
bottle needs to used at least 13 times before
becoming better for the environment
than a plastic one. Mr Andrew said this
was easily the case with the bottles it
p Ecclesall Road Co-op store manager Pete
Cooper (left) with Our Cow Molly’s Eddie
Andrew (Image: Our Cow Molly)
delivers, some of which he claimed have
been in circulation for 20 years.
ECONOMY
Community-owned assets contribute £220m a year to England’s economy
New research shows that England’s 6,300
community-owned assets contribute
nearly £220m to the economy every year.
The Our Assets, Our Future report is
written by researchers from the Centre for
Regional Economic and Social Research
(CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University
and the Institute for Voluntary Action
Research (IVAR).
The team interviewed eight funders
and support organisations, conducted
an online and postal survey of potential
community asset organisations, and made
case studies of 27 assets in community
ownership in five local authority areas.
p The Kings Head, a community owned pub
in Pebmarsh (Photo: the Plunkett Foundation)
They found that, despite limited
resources, three quarters of communityowned
assets say they are in good
financial health. The majority of provided
a ‘micro’ (32%) or ‘small’ (48%) revenue of
less than £100,000.
And the sector is growing, with nearly a
third of its assets coming into community
ownership in the last decade. Communityowned
assets are also pumping nearly
£150m a year of spending directly into the
local communities where they are based.
But one in five community assets made an
operating loss of 10% or more of revenue
in the last financial year.
Poorer areas are less likely to have
community-owned assets, with the
most deprived 30% of neighbourhoods
containing just 18% of assets. Rural
areas tend to have higher numbers of
assets in community ownership – with
the exception of some urban areas,
particularly Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham and Southwark. The authors
of the report believe the trend shows the
importance of a supportive environment.
The cost of maintenance was the most
common factor cited for the financial
health of community assets in the last
three years, at 46%, with other barriers
including the scale of expenses, poor
revenue, lack of a full volunteer base and
limited access to grant funding.
Ian Wilson, lead author and principal
research fellow from the CRESR, said:
“Although 31% of these assets are in
excellent financial health, the sector
needs more financial support in order to
fulfil its economic potential.”
The report says it should be easier to
transfer assets into community ownership,
calls for more business planning and
general support for the sector, and wants
more reliable access to cheap finance.
The research was commissioned
by Power to Change and the Ministry
for Housing, Communities and Local
Government.
Vidhya Alakeson, chief executive
of Power to Change, said: “When
communities directly own land and
buildings, they can start to meet the
real needs of people in their area. That’s
why we need concerted action from
policymakers at all levels to support
community ownership.”
6 | AUGUST 2019