Co-op News February 2023

FEBRUARY 2023 

COMBATING CRISES 

How co-ops are supporting 

members - and being 

supported themselves 

Plus … News Zealand’s 

Roz Henry on what the 

country’s leadership change 

means for co-ops ... New 

trouble at Mondragon as two 

organisations vote to leave ... 

Anti-social media: can co-ops 

fix Twitter? 

ISSN 0009-9821 

770009 982010 

01 

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Co-operatives are there for their members in times of trouble. But what 

happens when it’s the co-op itself that is struggling? This question isn’t 

new, but is becoming worryingly common as organisations of all sizes, in 

every sector, struggle to keep their collective heads above water and swim 

against waves of crisis after crisis. 

The environmental crisis weighed heavy on the minds of those attending 

the recent Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) conference 

in Dunblane (p26-27), who agreed that while warmer temperatures bring 

some benefits like a longer growing season, the risks – such as increased 

storm, drought, flood, pests and crop disease – massively outweigh them. 

Delegates heard how technology will play a part in mitigating this, but that 

farmers need to be part of the conversation. 

Farmers have a rough deal, and have a higher rate of suicide than the general 

population in a number of countries. Co-ops know this, and organisations 

in the agriculture sector – and others – are looking at how to support the 

mental health and wellbeing of their members, colleagues and customers. 

(p39-41). Food and retail co-ops are also looking at how to support 

individuals through the cost of living crisis (p30-33), through education on 

energy and affordable m eals, a s w ell a s f undraising f or l ocal f oodbanks, 

advice on finances a nd t he p ractical p rovision o f p hysical spaces – such 

as community pantries and warm spaces – to provide support and comfort. 

But who supports the co-ops that are increasingly feeling close to the edge? 

Over the past year, there have been a number of examples of co-ops turning 

to crowdfunding to plug gaps in their finances caused by the economic crisis 

– with mixed results (p36-38). And it’s not just the small co-ops struggling 

right now. In the Basque Country, Spain, two of Mondragon’s co-ops have 

voted to leave (p34-35), while in December, Midcounties’ board chose to 

end its Healthcare provision (p8). 

But it’s not all doom and gloom, I promise! In New Zealand, upcoming 

elections may pose opportunities for the sector (p25) and in India, a SEWA 

delegation to Delhi made clear the demands of women’s co-ops as the 

country prepares a national co-op policy (p46-47). We also hear how co-ops 

have the potential to revive platforms such as Twitter (p44-45), about the 

work of a new climate offset co-operative (p42-43) and celebrate the work of 

pioneers working in community energy (p28-29). 

REBECCA HARVEY - EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based inks 

on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer waste) 

with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC certified 

sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process. 

FEBRUARY 2023 | 3

ISSN 0009-9821 

9 770009 982010 

01 

THIS ISSUE 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 

David Hynam, new CEO of LV=, has 

pledged support for mutualism (p13); ICA 

secretary general, Bruno Roelants, 

announces retirement (p14); SEWA Delhi 

declaration (p46-47); Trouble at 

Mondragon? (p34-35); Meet the winners of 

the Community Energy Awards (p28-29) 

FEBRUARY 2023 

COMBATING CRISES 

How co-ops are supporting 

members - and being 

supported themselves 

Plus … News Zealand’s 

Roz Henry on what the 

country’s leadership change 

means for co-ops ... New 

trouble at Mondragon as two 

organisations vote to leave ... 

Anti-social media: can co-ops 

fix Twitter? 

www.thenews.coop 

£4.20 

COVER: Combating crises 

With the pandemic, war, economic 

problems and ecological crises piling 

up, how are co-ops supporting their 

members and communities? And how, 

in turn, are co-ops being supported? 

Read more: p31-41 

22-23 MEET: LOUISE GITTINS 

Chair of the Cooperative Councils’ 

Innovation Network 

25 OPINION: ROZ HENRY 

CEO of Co-operative Business New 

Zealand on the country’s leadership 

change – and what it means for 

co-operatives 

26-27 SAOS CONFERENCE 

Scottish farm co-ops face up to the 

climate crunch 

28-29 COMMUNITY ENERGY AWARDS The 

awards recognised the resilience of 

community energy in challenging times 

30-33 CRISIS RESPONSE FROM RETAILERS 

How are food and retail co-ops supporting 

members, customers, colleagues and 

communities in the face of high inflation? 

34-35 TROUBLE AT MONDRAGON 

New trouble for the federation as two 

industrial co-ops leave the fold 

36-38 ‘CLOSE TO THE EDGE’ 

The co-ops turning to crowdfunding to 

plug gaps in their finances 

39-41 THE HUMAN COST OF CRISIS 

How are co-ops supporting the mental 

health of their people? 

42-43 THE CARBON OFFSETTING CO-OP A 

new co-op offers climate action to help 

the world’s poorest communities 

44-45 THE TWITTER CONUNDRUM 

Can the co-op model fix our anti-social 

media? 

46-47 SEWA DELHI DECLARATION 

Sewa sets out women’s co-op’s priorities 

ahead of a national co-operative policy 

REGULARS 

5-13 UK news 

14-21 Global news 

24 Letters 

Events 

50 

4 | FEBRUARY 2023

Introduction 

Page 1 

NEWS 

RETAIL 

New Year Honours 

List 2023 recognises 

contributions from 

co-op sector 

The New Years Honours list includes 

a number of figures from the co-op 

movement, including a former Co-op 

Group executive and a key figure in the 

community energy movement. 

Helen Webb, who served as the Group’s 

chief people and services officer from 

April 2017 to July last year, was made OBE 

for her services to equality, inclusion and 

wellbeing. 

Commenting on Webb’s OBE, a 

spokesperson for the Group said: “We 

are delighted to hear that our former 

colleague Helen has been recognised in 

the new year honours, for her ongoing 

work in championing equality, inclusion 

and wellbeing within the workplace and 

throughout local communities in the UK.” 

One of the Group’s member pioneers was 

also honoured. Sandra Roscoe, who has 

been with the Group’s scheme for over five 

years, received the British Empire Medal 

for her voluntary work with the community 

in Rainhill and St Helens, Merseyside, 

during the Covid-19 pandemic. She helped 

out with the Rainhill Community Support 

Group, which provided valuable help to 

local residents, set up a WhatsApp group 

for mutual support, and contacted primary 

schools to get pupils to write letters of 

support to the elderly in the community. 

“For me it is always about partnership 

work and teamwork,” she told the St Helens 

Star. “I don’t feel this award is for me, I feel 

it is for the wider team in Rainhill, but I’m 

honoured to accept it on their behalf.” 

From the community energy sector, Mike 

Smyth from Energy4All was awarded an 

MBE for services to the environment. Chair 

of Friends of the Earth until 2012, Smyth 

joined Energy4All in 2008 and has served 

in a number of voluntary roles. 

A statement from Energy4All said: “It is 

fantastic that Mike has been recognised for 

his dedication and commitment in his roles 

in the energy and environmental sector, 

not only as part of the Energy4All team 

but also as part of the eight co-operatives 

where he serves as a board director.’ 

p Mike Smyth of Energy4All, former Co-op Group executive Helen Webb and Group member 

pioneer Sandra Roscoe 

Smyth said: “I was thrilled to receive the 

MBE. What a lovely but totally unexpected 

surprise. I would like to thank the person or 

persons who nominated me. 

“During my time working in the 

community energy sector we have faced 

many hurdles, but with the involvement of 

local communities and the wider renewable 

energy community, we have been able to 

create ground-breaking projects. 

“Energy4All gives the power back to the 

people. Allowing them to own a stake in 

locally generated renewable energy. This, I 

believe, is the way forward for our energy 

market. As a director of Energy4All it is a 

privilege to work alongside these groups 

and help them to develop and educate the 

next generation about the importance of 

renewable energy.” 

The honours list also included founder 

and CEO of Birmingham Tech CIC, Yiannis 

Celebrating a decade 

of the Community 

Shares Unit 

Authors: Isla McCulloch and John Dawson 

Published by Co-operatives UK, 2023 

A new report from Co-operatives UK reveals 

that, to date, £210 million has been invested 

to create or save vital assets or services 

across the UK using ‘community shares‘. At 

the same time, £2.2 million is being injected 

to further boost communities wanting 

Photo: Nudge Community Builders - Plymouth 

Kyriacos Moas, who will receive an MBE 

for services to the technology sector. 

Birmingham Tech CIC is a not-for-profit 

community business which aims to raise 

the profile of the Birmingham and West 

Midlands tech scene. 

Also receiving MBEs are the founders 

of Freehold CIC, David Mann and Saleem 

Fazal, for services to inclusion in the 

property industry. Freehold is a support 

and networking forum for LGBTQ+ 

professionals working within the real 

estate sector. 

Mann described their inclusion on the 

list as “a validation of all the hard work 

done by Freehold team members since 

its founding in 2011,” adding: “A lot of 

people have put in a lot of long hours to 

ensure that LGBTQ+ professionals feel 

more welcome and represented in the 

property sector.” 

to raise funds using this unique form of 

finance. The report, written by Isla McCulloch 

and John Dawson to celebrate a decade of 

the Community Shares Unit, also highlights 

that to date, 130,000 people have raised 

£210m investing in 539 community 

businesses and organisations through a 

total of 709 share offers. 

“This innovative form of finance is 

uniquely available to co-operative and 

community benefit societies. It provides 

them with much needed money to start, 

grow and be sustainable,” says the report. 

Read more: from p36 


CREDIT UNIONS 

Welsh ministers visit credit unions after £422k funding boost for the sector 

Welsh government ministers have visited 

credit unions across Wales as they 

announced continued funding of just over 

£422,000 a year for the sector. 

A release from the devolved 

administration said credit unions are 

“actively involved in communities 

throughout Wales [and] contribute to the 

economy and the financial wellbeing of 

members, who can save safely and borrow 

at an affordable rate of interest”. 

Cabinet ministers made coordinated 

visits across the country to voice 

their support for the sector, and to 

raise awareness of the services it 

provides, which include ethical and 

affordable lending. 

Among those taking part were first 

minister Mark Drakeford and social 

justice minister Jane Hutt, who called in 

on Cardiff and Vale Credit Union. 

Drakeford said: “This time of year can 

be particularly difficult as people are left 

to deal with the cost of Christmas. We 

know this winter especially, during an 

unprecedented cost of living crisis, many 

are finding it very tough and, sadly, high 

interest doorstep lenders or loan sharks 

will prey on those suffering financially. 

“I would urge those struggling to turn 

to their local credit union, which can 

p Mark Drakeford and Jane Hutt visit Cardiff and Vale Credit Union 

provide access to fair and affordable 

credit – in support of our journey to 

promote social justice and tackle poverty 

across Wales.” 

Credit unions can help those who 

might traditionally find it difficult to save 

through offering schemes such as payroll 

deductions. They also offer Christmas 

savings schemes that only allow 

withdrawals in the lead up to the festive 

season. 

“While many of us may not even want 

to think about next Christmas,” added 

Drakeford,” now could be the perfect time 

to consider starting to save. Credit unions 

can make that process easier. 

The Welsh government provides credit 

unions with revenue funding – which 

it says ensures that they can “develop a 

host of projects in communities aimed at 

boosting membership”. 

Hutt added: “I would urge those who 

might be struggling and tempted to use 

high-cost credit to use their local credit 

union as a responsible alternative to other 

forms of lending. 

“It is clear Welsh credit unions work 

incredibly hard, and I’d like to thank 

them for their commitment to providing 

ethical savings and affordable loans. 

They truly are a lifeline to people all 

across Wales.” 

Welsh credit union pioneer wins award for her service to the movement 

A pioneer of the credit union movement 

has received a Lifetime Achievement 

award from the Credit Unions of Wales. 

Leanne Herberg, CEO of Cardiff & Vale 

Credit Union, received the national title 

from BBC broadcaster Roy Noble at the 

ceremony. She has been a recognised 

advocate within the credit union 

movement in Wales for the past 11 years. 

Herberg, who was due to leave her post 

for a new role in Cardiff Metropolitan 

University, said: “I’m very honoured to 

have won the award, and would like to 

thank my team, board of directors and 

volunteers for their brilliant support. Our 

achievements have all been a team effort, 

and I’m very grateful to them. I’d also like 

to thank all of my Credit Unions of Wales 

colleagues for their wonderful support 

p Leanne Herberg receiving her award from 

Roy Noble 

and friendship. There is a fantastic 

network of mutual support in the sector 

here in Wales, and I’ve loved being a part 

of it.” 

Under her leadership Cardiff & Vale 

Credit Union has grown from a small credit 

union sited in the basement of Cardiff’s 

County Hall, to a financial co-op that has 

more than doubled in membership, with 

two prominent branches one in a prime 

position in the city centre of Cardiff, and 

the second in the heart of Barry. 

Her tenure saw the credit union 

strengthen its approach to ethical finance, 

becoming a Real Living Wage employer, 

achieving Chwarae Teg Fair Play 

accreditation for gender diversity, being 

named Social Enterprise of the Year at the 

Cardiff Business Awards and becoming 

the first financial services provider in 

Wales to receive a five-star accreditation 

by the Fairbanking Foundation for its 

personal loans. 


ENVIRONMENT 

Worker co-op launches fruit tree nursery and heritage orchard in Sheffield 

Worker co-op Sheffield Fruit Trees is 

fundraising to expand its work of filling 

the South Yorkshire city with fruit trees. 

The co-op runs a fruit tree nursery 

which supplies allotments, councils and 

commercial gardens with trees, as well as 

donating trees to community groups and 

organisations. 

It says it wants “Sheffield of the future to 

have fruit trees in every park and on every 

street corner”, and is now embarking on a 

project to further that vision. 

Sheffield Fruit Trees has taken on 0.5 

acres of former hay meadow in Moss 

Valley and successfully crowdfunded over 

£18,500 by 12 January to help set up a tree 

nursery and orchard on the site. 

The Forestry Commission has agreed 

to match fund any money raised, which 

will go towards a borehole, pump and 

irrigation system, an orchard training 

building/nursery office/tool store, a set 

of tools to maintain the site, fencing 

and gates to protect the nursery trees, 

volunteer expenses for orchard-planting 

workdays, and compost, woodchip and 

other organic soil improvers. 

Sheffield Fruit Trees said: “We know 

that the future of food-growing needs to 

be based on techniques that build soil and 

bring in biodiversity, so a key part of our 

project will be to regenerate this patch 

of land so that it can not only support a 

tree nursery but also provide habitat for 

pollinating insects and other creatures.” 

Sheffield Fruit Trees was established 

in 2018 as an offshoot of the Abundance 

project, which maps Sheffield’s forgotten 

fruit trees and distributes fruit that would 

otherwise go to waste. 

Inspired by this project, a group of its 

participants decided to start growing more 

fruit trees in Sheffield through a process 

called grafting, where living wood is taken 

from a mature fruit tree and joined onto a 

rootstock (the lower part of the tree). This 

allows growers to select the varieties they 

wish to grow. 

Since then, Sheffield Fruit Trees has 

been able to grow 400 fruit trees per year, 

including 40 varieties of apple. 

At the new larger site, the co-op expects 

to be able to grow up to 1,000 trees a year, 

as well as setting up a heritage orchard 

of rare local fruit tree varieties. This will 

provide Sheffield Fruit Trees with the 

cuttings to graft new trees as well as 

helping to preserve the varieties. 

Sheffield Fruit Trees added: “We 

wouldn’t be where we are now without the 

support of everyone who’s ever bought a 

tree from us, come to one of our workshops 

or helped out at one of our volunteer days. 

Knowing that people believe in what we’re 

doing is what keeps us going. So we’re 

really grateful for the support and help to 

make this happen.” 

EDUCATION 

Co-operative College presents its Malawi work at Holyrood 

Representatives from the Co-operative 

College were invited to speak about their 

work in Malawi at the Scottish Parliament 

in Edinburgh on 17 January. 

The hybrid event was hosted by the 

MSPs on the Malawi Cross Party Group 

(CPG) and was attended by over 80 

CPG members as well as Professor Iain 

Gillespie, principal and vice chancellor 

of the University of Dundee, and the 

vice chancellors of each of the public 

universities in Malawi. 

The CPG is part of the Scotland 

Malawi Partnership which exists to help 

coordinate, support, and represent 

Scotland’s links with Malawi. The group 

comprises organisations and individuals 

from the UK and Malawi. 

Representing the College was director 

of learning and teaching Ali Longden, 

director of operations and business 

development Jacqui Thomasen, and 

College trustee Chris Jardine. 

Longden presented information on the 

College and discussed its connection with 

Malawi, including its work with Central 

Co-op and the Malawi Federation of Cooperatives 

(Mafeco) on the ‘Our Malawi 

Partnership‘. This project, launched in 

July, aims to improve the livelihoods of 

co-operative smallholder farmers through 

increased access to inclusive economic 

opportunities, sustainable agricultural 

practices, international co-op markets 

and networks. 

The partnership involves Central 

Co-op selling a range of products linked 

to Malawi, with a percentage of the sales 

p Ali Longden, Chris Jardine and Jacqui 

Thomasen 

going to the initiative. The College is 

helping Mafeco administer the funds on 

the ground through a co-design process. 

The event also provided an opportunity 

for the College to share information about 

a potential higher education partnership 

with the University of Dundee, which 

would see the organisations co-produce a 

range of learning options. 


RETAIL 

East of England Co-op announces Doug Field OBE as new CEO 

East of England Co-op has appointed 

Doug Field OBE as its new CEO, replacing 

its joint leadership structure with a single 

chief executive leadership model. 

“I am honoured to have been chosen 

as our co-op’s new CEO,” said Field. “I’m 

excited about what the future holds for our 

family of businesses, and I am committed 

to continuing the great work we have done 

in the past while also looking forward to 

new opportunities and growth.” 

The society previously used a collegiate 

leadership team model, with four joint chief 

executives – of which Field was one – having 

responsibility for individual specialisms. The 

decision to appoint a single CEO was made 

in December, after a comprehensive review 

by the board. Former joint chief executive 

Roger Grosvenor retired last March, with 

the remaining joint CEOs Niall O’Keeffe and 

Nick Denny deciding to move on to pursue 

other interests. 

“The East of England Co-op would like to 

acknowledge the significant contribution 

made to the business by Niall and Nick, and 

wish them well in their future endeavours,” 

the society said in a statement. 

p Doug Field OBE 

“With 14 years of experience at our coop, 

most recently serving as joint chief 

executive responsible for finance, HR 

and technology, Doug has a proven track 

record of utilising data and insight to drive 

positive change,” said East of England Coop 

president, Frank Moxon. “These will 

be fundamental building blocks as we 

look to change how we make decisions 

and focus our energies and resources. 

Doug’s leadership and expertise will be 

instrumental in guiding our co-op into 

the future.” 

Field also chairs the New Anglia Local 

Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and was 

one of several co-operators named in 

the 2021 New Year’s Honours List, being 

awarded an OBE for his work supporting 

businesses across Suffolk and Norfolk. He 

has been with the society for 14 years. 

“To me, co-operation is the way you 

do business, with suppliers, colleagues, 

consumers and the community,” he 

said in a Co-op News interview last year. 

“Co-operation is about working in 

partnership and for a greater good, and 

doing the right thing – even when nobody’s 

looking [...] Our key focus is about making 

sure we make positive local impacts, and 

we do the right thing for our communities. 

We want to improve the daily lives of our 

members, colleagues, customers and 

communities – that’s at the heart of what 

we do.” 

East of England traces its roots back 

to 1846 and today operates 120 food 

branches in Norfolk, Suffolk and North 

Essex, as well as funeral, travel and 

property services, post offices and the 

Co-op Secure Response service. 

Midcounties closes Healthcare division 

Following several years of challenging 

trading conditions for the sector, the board 

of the Midcounties Co-operative approved 

the closure of the Healthcare business, 

which ceased to trade on 25 January. 

Over the last few years, Co-op Healthcare 

had transitioned to an online service, with 

the society’s final community pharmacy 

closing in 2021. During the pandemic 

Co-op Healthcare provided Covid testing 

kits at some of the lowest prices in the 

market and delivered essential healthcare 

and cosmetic products to customers across 

the country. 

However, according to the society, 

“increasing competition, increased costs 

and the continued dominance of the major 

online retailers” limited opportunities for 

growth and the ability for the business to 

offer a service that provides a co-operative 

difference. 

“As a result, it is no longer in the best 

interests of Midcounties’ members and the 

communities we support for the society to 

remain in this market,” said a statement. 

“Our focus will now be on supporting 

our healthcare colleagues, and where 

possible we will seek to find alternative 

roles for them within the Society’s other 

trading groups. We are also ensuring 

that members, customers, and partners 

are supported with finding alternative 

providers where required.” 


RETAIL 

400 jobs at risk as 

Central Co-op shuts 

distribution centres 

Hundreds of jobs are at risk at Central 

Co-op after the retail society announced 

plans to transfer distribution operations 

to the Co-operative Group. 

Central will shut three distributions 

centres under the move, along with a 

garage site, as it moves to the Group’s Lidia 

network, which serves over 4,000 stores 

out of 13 distribution centres and is owned 

by Manchester-based Co-op Group. 

Premises on the Braunstone Frith 

Industrial Estate, Scudamore Road in 

Leicester and a garage in Whetstone will be 

affected. 

A spokesperson for Central said the 

move was part of its “purpose of creating a 

sustainable society for all”. 

“Over the past year we have been 

working on our strategy, across all areas of 

our business, to build a clear growth plan 

to deliver on this mission,” they added. 

“To continue growing the society and 

where we support communities, we have 

given a lot of careful thought to the future 

needs of our distribution operations – 

including the age of our current network 

and its capability to fulfil the future needs 

in our strategy to improve the offer to 

members and customers. 

“We looked at a number of options, 

including investing in a new purpose-built 

modern operation. Approval has been 

reached for Central Co-op to join the Lidia 

network from 2024. 

“This national collective distribution 

and logistics operation, already serves over 

4,000 stores with 13 distribution centres. 

Lidia is owned and operated by the Co-op 

Group on behalf of their own stores and 

other independent co-operatives’ stores in 

the UK. 

“This is a difficult decision for some 

of our colleagues and we are sorry it will 

result in the proposed closure of our three 

distribution operations in Leicester and 

our Whetstone garage, with the transition 

period expected to take a year. 

“We will now enter a consultation 

period with Usdaw (the Union of Shop, 

Distributive and Allied Workers).” 

John Gorle, national officer at Usdaw, 

said: “This is devastating news for staff 

affected by the company’s proposal, our 

members are deeply concerned about 

their future employment prospects. We 

will now enter into a period of meaningful 

consultation where Usdaw reps and officials 

will interrogate the company’s business case 

for the transfer of distribution operations. 

“We welcome that Central Co-op has 

given an early commitment to offering 

alternative roles to all staff affected, both 

within Central Co-op and the Co-op Group. 

Our priorities are to avoid redundancies 

and secure the best support package 

possible. In the meantime we are providing 

our members with the advice, support 

and representation they need during this 

period of uncertainty.” 

Co-op Group appoints new chief membership and customer officer 

The Co-op Group has appointed 

marketing specialist Kenyatte Nelson to 

its operating board, taking up the role of 

chief membership and customer officer. 

Nelson, described by the Group as “a 

seasoned leader“, will take responsibility 

for the Group’s membership, marketing 

and brand strategies. This will include 

supporting the retailer’s presence at 

UK music festivals and the naming 

rights partnership with Co-op Live, the 

new arena being constructed in east 

Manchester. 

Having worked in marketing for 

more than 20 years, 13 of which were 

managing national and international 

marketing for major brands at Procter 

and Gamble, Nelson joins after leading 

roles at retail group Shop Direct (now 

known as the Very Group) and fashion 

retailers Missguided and N Brown 

Group. 

As of September 2020, he is also a nonexecutive 

director for the British Retail 

Consortium. 

p The Co-op Group’s Angel Square HQ 

He said: “I could not be more excited 

about joining the Co-op Group. It is a 

values driven organisation that touches 

and improves the lives of millions of 

people, and I look forward to working 

with Shirine [Khoury-Haq, CEO], the 

operating board and the rest of the team, 

to build on the great work that is already 

happening across the group.” 

All senior marketing leads will report 

into Nelson, who in turn reports directly 

into Khoury-Haq. 

Khoury-Haq said: “Kenyatte brings 

with him a huge amount of marketing, 

digital, customer and brand experience 

– he will be a huge asset to our Co-op 

Group, as he leads our membership, 

marketing and customer activity and 

we are delighted to have him join our 

operating board.” 


TECHNOLOGY 

Bristol Cable granted £40k from Power to Change to expand community tech 

Media co-op Bristol Cable has won funding 

to expand its community tech work with a 

two-year grant of £40,000 from Power to 

Change. 

The city news service, which has won 

awards and plaudits for its campaigning 

journalism and investigative reporting, 

will use the funds to continue the 

maintenance and development of its 

in-house membership and community 

engagement platform. 

It plans to make this more accessible 

for other community organisations to 

use. “The code is already open source,” 

said the co-op, “but this will mean we can 

‘open source’ the processes around the 

software too.” 

Announcing the news, it said it offered 

one of many smaller community platforms 

and companies in the UK which offer “a 

viable alternative to Big Tech”. 

“As the social power wielded by the tech 

industry has exploded over the last two 

decades,” it added, “plenty of examples 

of grassroots tech projects have grown 

healthily alongside … The Bristol Cable is 

one of them.“ 

The grant from Power to Change – 

an independent trust that supports 

community business – will also allow 

the Cable to make improvements to 

other online services, such as our 

communications and mailouts aimed at 

community engagement. 

In recent years its tech lead Will 

Franklin has built and developed Beabee, 

a membership management platform 

which allows the co-op to store member 

data securely without the risk of it being 

sold to advertisers, and also powers 

its callouts to engage our members in 

editorial and operational questions. 

He said: “Our membership and 

engagement platform, built in-house, 

is a core component of the democratic 

engagement we have with our members. It 

allows us to engage with them directly, and 

simultaneously reach wider communities 

in the city, for example, through callouts 

allowing people to respond to questions 

such as ‘How is Bristol’s bus chaos 

affecting you?’ or ‘Should we do more 

culture, or news?’ 

“The grant will allow us to continue 

this work, and build on our innovative, 

grassroots community tech work not only 

for Bristol, but for other community based 

organisations around the UK too.” 

Beabee is already used by a number 

of other small newsrooms around 

Europe already, “making it a community 

technology not only benefiting Bristol, but 

many other developers and communities”, 

the co-op added. 

Power to Change’s Community Tech 

grant is aimed not only at benefiting 

the organisations that win funding and 

those that reap the results directly, but 

also the wider technology ecosystem by 

driving forward innovative, beneficial 

and sustainable solutions for social 

technology. 

It launched the grant with the aim of 

“ensuring communities have access and 

ownership of technology that meets their 

specific needs, respects their autonomy 

and ensures more value is realised within 

a place”. 

Praising the Bristol Cable’s efforts, it 

said: “Off-the-shelf back-office software 

was too expensive, and also not suited to 

their needs. So they have been building 

their systems for membership management 

and democratic participation. In doing 

this, they will actively preserve members’ 

privacy by keeping all their data in-house, 

rather than on third-party platforms. 

“This bespoke customer-relationship 

management (CRM) system is sustainable, 

community-driven, and fully accountable 

to its members.” 

RETAIL 

Scotmid CEO celebrates 30 years at the society 

John Brodie MBE trained and qualified as 

a Chartered Accountant, working eight 

years in practice before joining Scotmid 

Co-op in 1993 as Financial Controller. He 

took over as CEO 18 years ago. 

Brodie has been a Scottish Retail 

Consortium (SRC) Board member since 

2015 and also represents Scotmid on a 

number of boards. He is a member of the 

Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity 

(formally SKFF) and has served as SRC 

chair since 1 January 2018. In 2018, he was 

awarded an MBE for services to business 

and the voluntary sector in Scotland. 

Scotmid is the largest independent co-op 

in Scotland with around 280 retail outlets 

employing approximately 4,000 people in 

Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. 


AGRICULTURE 

Welsh dairy co-op wins 

business award after 

notching up record sales 

South Caernarfon Creameries (SCC), 

a farmer-owned dairy co-op based in 

Gwynedd, was named Large Business of 

the Year in North Wales at the Daily Post 

Business Awards. 

It is the latest in a row of awards for 

Wales’s oldest dairy co-op, which picked 

up 70 cheese and butter making awards 

last year, including three gold global 

prizes at the International Cheese and 

Dairy Awards. A year of growth helped its 

business awards win, with a 17% increase 

in turnover and a 20% rise in profits 

to £4.1m. 

Farmer director Gareth Jenkins said: “It 

has not been easy over Covid but has been 

a team effort with all the farmer owners – 

154 of us. 

“We supply the quality milk to the 

factory and we have excellent staff and 

management there. Congratulations to all 

the team.” 

Managing director Alan Wyn Jones 

said: “Our strategic objective over the 

next few years is to achieve a five per 

cent operating profit, which is above 

average in the sector. We pride ourselves 

on producing Welsh cheese of exceptional 

quality and we have all of the required 

national accreditations in place to exceed 

standards and provide peace of mind for 

our customers, thanks to an AA rating 

from the British Retail Consortium and 

Red Tractor Farm Assurance. 

“Once the milk is collected all the cheese 

is produced and packed on site, giving us 

complete control over the process. 

“We’re proud of our Welsh roots, so 

much so that we have a policy to only 

process Welsh milk and use the Welsh 

language on our packaging. 

“The creamery’s flagship Dragon brand 

now makes up 10% of the business and 

we have plans to increase this over the 

coming years.” 

East of England Co-op gives trees to the community 

East of England Co-op members in 

Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are being 

invited to apply for one of 250 trees that 

the retailer is giving away as part of the 

Queen’s Green Canopy. 

The canopy is a nationwide initiative to 

create a living legacy in memory of Queen 

Elizabeth II, with over a million trees 

planted in her name. 

Regulator to investigate sale of Co-op Group petrol stations 

Image: Co-op Group 

The Competition and Markets Authority 

is to conduct a merger inquiry into the 

£600m sale of Co-op Group petrol stations 

to Asda. 

The deal, agreed last August, involves 

129 convenience stores of between 1,500 

and 3,000 sq ft, with attached petrol 

stations, and three development sites 

spread across the UK. 

Heart of England Co-op reports festive sales boost 

Heart of England Co-op has reported an 

increase in sales during the run-up to 

Christmas, compared with the festive 

trading period in 2021. 

The member-owned retailer saw a total 

sales rise of 6.83% from December 19-24, 

bringing in more than £2m for the week. 

Central Co-op awards £27,750 in Community Dividend Fund 

Central Co-op has awarded £27,750 to 32 

charities and good causes in the latest 

round from its Community Dividend Fund, 

handed out in October and November. 

The retail society invests a percentage 

of its trading profit into local communities 

through the fund, and between January 

and November 2022, £167,734 was shared 

out between 153 causes. 

Lincolnshire Co-op raises £150k for mental health services 

Lincolnshire Co-op has raised £153,153 

through its Community Champions 

scheme for causes providing mental health 

services aiming to prevent suicide. 

Members, customers, and colleagues 

all contributed to this fundraising total 

by shopping with their dividend cards 

which amounted to £47,500, and dropping 

change in collection boxes totalling more 

than £10,000. 


RETAIL 

Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative partners with Giant to open new store 

The UK’s longest-running bike co-op has 

partnered with cycle brand Giant to open 

a new store in Edinburgh. 

Giant Store Edinburgh opened in 

December on Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, 

in partnership with Edinburgh Bicycle 

Cooperative. The new store, the co-op’s 

sixth in the UK, exclusively stocks Giant 

road, commuter and kids’ bikes, as well as 

e-bikes. Customers can also shop for bikes 

designed specifically for women through 

Giant’s Liv brand. 

Worker-owned Edinburgh Bicycle 

Cooperative has been running since 1977, 

when it opened its first store in Bruntsfield, 

Edinburgh. In addition to the Bruntsfield 

store, Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative now 

has a store in Canonmills, Edinburgh, as 

well as in Aberdeen, Newcastle and Leeds, 

all of which are open seven days a week. 

The co-operative’s managing director, 

Alan Nestor, told BikeBiz: “Edinburgh 

Bicycle Coop has over 45 years of 

experience serving cyclists in the capital 

city and has worked with Giant for many 

years; we share many values and are both 

totally focused on delivering the very best 

for all riders.” 

THE ARTS 

Sister Midnight confirms Lewisham site for community-owned music venue 

Sister Midnight, the arts co-op looking to 

create a community-owned music venue 

in Lewisham, has secured an in-principle 

meanwhile use with Lewisham Council 

for the Brookdale Club. A former working 

men’s club in Catford, the space will be 

turned into a 250-capacity live music 

venue supporting local musicians. 

In 2021, the group launched a community 

share offer to bring a Lewisham pub into 

community ownership. The campaign 

raised over £260,000 from 865 investors, 

but an agreement wasn’t reached. 

The new venue is owned by a subsidiary 

of the local council, who “have been a 

huge support,” said Lenny Watson, cofounding 

director of Sister Midnight. 

“They’ve offered us a lease with a 

minimum term of seven years, and the 

entire lease is subject to a peppercorn rent 

– so effectively we won’t pay any rent for 

the whole time we’re there.” 

The organisation wants to be “a hub 

of creativity and community solidarity, 

where we champion the wealth of local 

talent that Lewisham is home to, whilst 

working to effect positive social change 

in our wider community by working in a 

number of ways to support wellbeing”. 

They also hope the venue “will set a 

precedent for community-led regeneration 

of local areas, and give everyone in our 

community a voice in what we’re doing”. 

Watson added: “We hope this 

demonstrates that co-op models are a 

powerful tool that represent a viable future 

p Sister Midnight co-founders Lenny Watson, Lottie Pendlebury and Sophie Farrell with Mayor 

of Lewisham, Damien Egan 

for cultural spaces, which have long been 

strangled by profit-driven models that 

don’t centre the people who make these 

spaces so special. We also hope Sister 

Midnight, in being run by three women 

under 30, inspires other young people to 

get involved in co-ops, especially women, 

non-binary, and other minoritised gender 

groups who are underrepresented in the 

movement.” 

The co-op is reopening its community 

share offer for a second round of 

investment to help raise the remaining 

funds needed to renovate the site. “There’s 

a lot of work to be done (including a new 

roof!) so we’re a way off opening yet,” said 

Watson, “but we are so excited to throw 

the doors open and celebrate with the 

amazing community that have worked 

alongside us to make this happen.” 

The news of the new venue was shared 

at a community meeting on 25 January, 

following a meeting with Lewisham 

Mayor, Damien Egan to discuss the site. An 

impromptu vote agreed to name the venue 

Sister Midnight, “in acknowledgement 

of the name having become synonymous 

with local co-operation, community 

solidarity, and leading the way on a new 

model for supporting culture”. 

Watson added: “We were overwhelmed 

by the turnout to the meeting, it made 

us immensely proud to be part of the 

wonderful South London community. 

We’ve still got challenges ahead, but we feel 

more confident than ever that we can pull 

this off – it’s amazing what can be achieved 

by local people working together.” 

Cllr James Walsh, Lewisham cabinet 

member for culture added: “I’m delighted 

that Lewisham Council continue to 

show commitment to enabling quality 

grassroots arts and culture as legacy to 

our year as London Borough of Culture.” 


MUTUALS 

New chief of LV= pledges support for principles of mutualism 

The new CEO of insurance mutual LV=, 

David Hynam, promised a “new era” for 

the organisation in an interview with the 

Mail on Sunday in January. 

Hynam took the reigns of the 180-yearold 

insurer – an icon of the UK mutual 

movement – in September, following 

the failed bid by his predecessor Mark 

Hartigan to sell the business to US private 

equity firm Bain Capital. 

He told the newspaper that he and new 

LV= chair Simon Moore “’are absolutely 

committed to being part of the mutual 

sector, adding that he will throw his 

weight behind the Co-operatives, Mutuals 

and Friendly Societies Bill tabled in 

Parliament by Labour MP Mark Hendrick. 

Elements of Sir Mark’s bill have received 

the backing of the Treasury, and would 

give co-operatives the option of legally 

guaranteeing that some or all of their 

assets are held in common and nondistributable 

among members. 

It is hoped the bill will reduce the risk of 

demutualisation for the sector and protect 

assets in the long term for members. 

This follows a storm of protest over 

the bid to sell LV=, which saw a fierce 

campaign from the press, including 

the Mail, and MPs on the All Party 

Parliamentary Group on Mutuals, led by 

Labour/Co-op MP Gareth Thomas. 

“We are a big supporter of the bill,” 

Hynam told the Mail. 

Asked about claims by former executives 

trying to sell the business that it was not 

sustainable as a mutual, he said: “All I 

p David Hynam, new CEO of LV= (Image: LV=) 

can talk about is how I see it now, and I do 

think it is sustainable. We see ourselves in 

the mutual sector and have no intention of 

being anywhere else.” 

After members rejected the Bain deal, 

LV= held unsuccessful merger talks with 

another mutual, Royal London. Hynam 

said there were no plans to merge LV= 

with any other organisation. 

Looking ahead, he said: “It is more 

important for mutuals to have good 

financial discipline than it is for listed 

companies. It is members’ money, and you 

should look after it as if it were your own.” 

He added that he was happy with LV=’s 

capital position and is more concerned 

about a previous lack of investment than 

debt; as such, the business is planning a 

strategic spend over the next five years, 

focusing on data, service and IT. 

“It has been a difficult time at LV over the 

past year or two, but we are now on a nice 

stable footing … I want the organisation 

to move forward. There is a risk that a 

transaction that never happened is stuck 

on a permanent cycle, and that is not good 

for members or the organisation.” 

As for the mutual model, he said it has 

the advantage of allowing a long-term 

view “because we don’t have shareholders 

breathing down our neck”. 

Mutuals are also “very focused”, he 

argued. “We don’t try to do everything 

for everyone, and we don’t have a lot of 

products out there. We are not trying to 

stretch the envelope all over the place. 

“Our members told us clearly in a vote 

they wanted to be a mutual. That is the 

mandate they have given me. I think there 

is an opportunity to revitalise. We want a 

modern mutual sector.’ 

Responding to the comments, Gareth 

Thomas MP said: “I welcome the change 

in direction from Mr Hyman and Mr 

Moore. It’s good to see LV in safer hands 

now and backing the modernisation of the 

rules and regulations governing. What we 

need now is ministers determined to help 

make it easier for mutuals like LV to raise 

the capital they need to offer new services 

and expand.” 

p The LV= office in Bournemouth (Image: LV=) 


GLOBAL UPDATES 

GLOBAL 

ICA hunts for a 

new director general as 

Bruno Roelants retires 

The International Cooperative Alliance 

(ICA) has begun the recruitment process 

for a new director general, replacing 

Bruno Roelants who is due to retire. 

The ICA says it wants “an 

inspirational, forward-thinking leader 

who is passionate about the ability of the 

co-operative and mutual sectors of 

the global economy to create positive 

change for people in the quality of their 

daily lives”. 

Roelants, who is retiring after five years 

in the role, also previously spent 16 years 

at Cicopa, the International Organisation 

of Industrial and Service Cooperatives. 

In its job specification, the ICA says 

candidates must have strategic vision to 

help the organisation seek opportunities 

for membership growth and new sources 

of funding, while maintaining focus on 

economic and cultural trends to ensure its 

continuing relevance. 

The ICA is also looking for relationshipbuilding 

and facilitation skills focused 

on forming long-term partnerships with 

international institutions such as United 

Nations agencies, the G20, and global 

development organisations. And it requires 

“sensitivity to the cultural differences 

among ICA members that are central to 

reaching common ground on policy and 

related issues and a personal commitment 

to cultural inclusion”. 

The closing date for applicants is 

3 February 2023. 

Icmif highlights sustainability link for multi-billion assets 

A report by the International Cooperative 

and Mutual Insurance Federation 

(Icmif) shows its members are managing 

US$759bn (£613bn) worth of assets linked 

to sustainable investment frameworks. 

This is a 32% rise from the $576bn 

(£465bn) invested by members in 2021, 

says the Icmif Members Sustainable 

Investment Report 2022, released last 

month. 

The report is based on the federation’s 

Sustainable Investment Framework survey, 

which drew responses from 20% of its 

membership. Respondents represented 

74% of Icmif‘s members’ assets under 

management for 2021, equating to $1.5tn 

(£1.21tn). 

It reveals how Icmif’s members are 

collectively involved in sustainable 

investment frameworks, including green 

bonds, social bonds and resilience bonds 

– many of which target climate change. 

Icmif members use multiple investment 

frameworks, the report finds, with 

the United Nations Environment 

Programme Finance Initiative Principles 

for Responsible Investment (UNEP FI 

PRI) and the Principles for Sustainable 

Insurance (PSI) among the top choices. 

Some 55% of respondents invest 

ICMIF Members 

Sustainable Investment Report 2022 

in impact investing, up from 46% in 

2020 to 15.6bn. Around 85% said their 

organisation invested in sustainable 

bonds including green bonds and 

resilience bonds, amounting to $16.9bn 

(£13.65bn) – up 40% on $12.1bn (£9.78bn) 

in 2021. Furthermore, 37% of respondents 

have made net-zero commitments, up 

from 18% last year. 

Icmif CEO Shaun Tarbuck said: “The 

results are testament to how our members 

have gone from strength to strength since 

the inception of this survey in 2019. Our 

latest findings show continued, solid 

forward-momentum from the mutual and 

co-operative insurance sector towards a 

greener future. 

“It is well documented that sustainable 

initiatives improve a company’s financial 

performance; improve efficiency; re duce 

costs; and drive change. This allows 

the business to gain a competitive edge 

as well as significantly enhance the 

business’s image to employees, potential 

employees and other stakeholders such 

as member policyholders and investors. 

The co-op and mutual insurance sector 

is ideally placed to take a lead in the 

field of sustainability and sustainable 

investments to form a coalition of the 

willing.” 

Mutuals and co-ops account for 30% of 

the world’s insurance market with $10tn 

in assets. 

Full report: bit.ly/3WjG3o6 


BELGIUM 

Members of co-op bank NewB approve partnership with vdk 

Members of Brussels-based NewB bank 

voted in favour of a partnership with vdk 

bank at an extraordinary general meeting 

on 14 January. 

The move comes after NewB ran into 

trouble with the regulators over its 

failure to meet a €40m (£35.20m) capital 

requirement. 

Under the agreement, NewB will become 

a banking and investment agent for vdk. 

This means that NewB will no longer 

have a banking licence. The meeting also 

approved changes to NewB’s statues to 

enable the agreement. While the articles 

of association already authorised NewB to 

act also as an intermediary in insurance 

and investment services, they did not 

authorise it to act as an intermediary in 

banking services. 

Following the loss of the banking 

license and in view of the collaboration 

with vdk bank, it was also necessary to 

modify NewB’s ‘social purpose’ and add 

intermediary in banking services to the 

list of activities that may be carried out. As 

a co-operative society, rather than a bank, 

NewB will have to meet lower capital 

requirements. 

NewB’s banking clients will be 

transferred to vdk, subject to the 

regulator’s approval. NewB will be 

compensated for this clientele via an 

indemnity proportional to the amounts 

held by in the current accounts, 

savings and investment fund accounts 

transferred. 

At the same time, NewB will continue 

to act as an insurance agent for mutual 

Monceau. The agreement will also allow 

NewB to become the intermediary for 

VDK bank’s French-speaking customers 

in banking and investment services – 

for which it will receive a compensation 

from vdk proportional to the volumes 

of products and services used by its 

customers. 

According to vdk bank, NewB customers 

will have access to the new vdk bank 

products and services as of April this 

year. Meanwhile, NewB’s Dutch speaking 

customers will be served by one of vdk’s 

60 or so branches, unless they specifically 

request to continue to be served by NewB, 

in which case the latter will provide 

remote digital services for them. 

p NewB held an extraordinary general meeting on 14 January (Image: ©NewB) 

Although NewB will not have a seat on 

official governance bodies of vdk bank, 

in the event of reaching a certain level of 

business, NewB could be able to propose a 

member to the board of vdk bank. In such 

an event, the proposal will be examined 

by both parties, within the existing 

regulatory framework for banks. 

The amendment to the articles of 

association was approved with 95% 

of votes among the individual cooperators 

and civil society organisations. 

Meanwhile, the institutional actors 

voted unanimously in favour of the 

amendments. As such, the required 80% 

threshold was met. 

Bernard Bayot, chair of the board of 

NewB, said: “Our co-operators have sent a 

particularly strong signal today. They feel 

there is a big need for a Belgian bank in 

the service of our planet and society. And 

they have truly voted for the alliance of 

their co-operative with vdk bank, which 

will allow them to achieve this ambition 

more quickly and more completely. We 

are impatient to begin this collaboration, 

which will allow the emergence of a solid 

and sustainable bank for all people in 

Belgium.” 

Leen Van den Neste, chair of the 

management board of vdk, said: “We are 

extremely satisfied with the result of the 

vote. The fact that such a large majority 

of co-operators say ‘Yes’ to our common 

project gives us wings. We look forward to 

welcoming NewB customers and making 

sustainable banking a reality for the 

whole of Belgium with NewB.” 

She added: “Our ambition is clear: we 

are in the process of building a solid and 

sustainable bank for all of Belgium. All 

the lights are now green for it. We are 

delighted.” 

Launched in 2019, NewB obtained 

its banking licence in January 2020. Its 

products included accounts, payment 

cards, insurance, investment products 

and green credits, with a total of 20,000 

clients with €180m in deposits. In 2022 the 

bank was placed under the supervision 

of a court-appointed administrator last 

year after failing to meet a €40m capital 

requirement set by the National Bank of 

Belgium. 

In response, NewB launched a 

petition on 22 September 2022 calling for 

an ethical and sustainable bank which 

attracted signatures from 37,060 citizens 

and 110 organisations. The bank also 

launched two online forums, in French 

and Dutch, which brought together over 

700 people to discuss its activities and 

plans. 

A Flemmish co-operative bank rooted 

in the Christian labour movement, vdk 

has similar policies to NewB – it excludes 

fossil fuels from its investment portfolio 

and is a member of the Global Alliance for 

Banking on Values. 

The two co-operatives have not 

disclosed how much vdk will be paying 

for NewB’s customer portfolio. 


IRELAND 

ICOS co-op apex launches survey of farmers on sustainability 

The Irish Co-operative Organisation 

Society (ICOS) has launched a survey of 

farmers to offer them a voice in “future 

co-operative processes” as it looks to drive 

sustainable agricultural practices. 

The research is funded by the Golden 

Jubilee Trust, a philanthropic organisation 

whose objective is to improve and develop 

Irish agricultural and rural life. 

ICOS represents around 130 co-ops 

including farms, dairy processors and 

livestock marts and has over 150,000 

individual members; its co-ops have a 

combined turnover of €14bn and employ 

more than 12,000 people. 

It wants farmers from all sectors 

and all farm sizes to take part in the 

survey, which follows a recent gathering 

of co-operative industry leaders and 

environmental experts at a national 

bioeconomy workshop organised by ICOS. 

This discussed progress already being 

achieved by the industry and the potential 

to accelerate this. 

From that meeting, ICOS says it is 

establishing a ‘co-operative framework’ 

for Irish co-operatives to share information 

and best practice on sustainability and the 

bioeconomy. The results of the survey will 

be combined with the recommendations of 

the national bioeconomy workshop and the 

co-operative framework. ICOS says this will 

drive strategy, with a series of measures to 

be delivered from this year onwards. 

“It’s essential for us to hear directly 

from farmers in every community across 

Ireland so that their views can be included 

in our future co-operative processes 

aimed at ensuring the sustainability of 

Irish agriculture now and for the future,” 

said ICOS bioeconomy executive John 

Brosnan. 

“This forms part of our larger research 

programme into farmer attitudes and 

intentions on sustainability measures and 

the bioeconomy generally which has been 

supported by the Golden Jubilee Trust. 

“Implementing projects centred 

around bioeconomy principles will allow 

for greater value to be unlocked from 

the food, feed, fibres, chemicals, fuels 

and energy that we can derive from our 

land, crops and natural resources. What 

was once considered a ‘waste’ is now a 

valuable by-product or co-product. 

“By moving towards new business 

models, the ‘win-win’ of helping climate, 

biodiversity and water quality can be 

coupled with greater economic return and 

sustainability for farmers and agriculture 

in general.” 

ICOS says the online survey is entirely 

confidential and takes about 10 minutes 

to complete. Farmers can find it on the 

news section of the ICOS website. 

SERBIA 

Elektropionir 

starts work on country’s 

first co-op solar sites 

Serbia’s first two co-op energy sites are 

due to be installed this spring, following 

the successful fundraising efforts of 

energy co-op Elektropionir. 

The Solarna Stara project will install 

two solar power systems on the Stara 

planina mountain, in south-east Serbia. 

The solar panels will be on the roofs of 

a local council building in the village of 

Temska and on the cultural centre in the 

village of Dojkinci. 

Elektropionir co-founder Ana Džokić 

told Balkan Green Energy News that the 

project is a partnership between the local 

authorities who own the buildings, the 

local community associations who use 

them, and Elektropionir. A contract has 

been drawn up between the three parties, 

which when signed will lay out the terms 

for future co-operation. 

The revenues from the energy will be 

distributed across local initiatives and 

projects, says Džokić. 

Last June, Elektropionir launched 

a crowdfunder to support the Solarna 

Stara project. In one month, 229 donors 

donated a total of RSD 972,452.00 (GBP 

£7,311), 116% of the target amount. The 

extra funds have allowed the project to 

add two more solar panels, raising its 

power from an expected 5.25 kWp to 6 

kWp. 

Founded in 2019, Elektropionir is one 

of just two energy co-ops in Serbia. The 

co-operative has members from cities and 

towns across the country and is not tied 

to a specific region. Elektropionir was 

founded with the aim of democratising 

energy and works to enable citizens to be 

actors in the energy transition. 

With the Solarna Stara project, 

Elektropionir says that it wants to “show 

that all citizens can be initiators of change 

towards sustainable energy and that this 

is not a position reserved exclusively for 

large investors”. 

Elektropionir states that “energy must 

be clean and can be jointly owned”, 

adding: “The co-operative tradition exists 

in Serbia, and now we apply it to the 

production of energy from sustainable 

sources. 

“Our first co-operative rooftop solar 

power plants on Stara planina will be a 

demonstrative example that, through the 

association of citizens and solidarity, we 

are ready to turn from destructive and 

unsustainable technologies to greener 

and nobler solutions.” 


AUSTRALIA 

Grain co-op 

CBH boosts investment 

to help process 

increased harvests 

Grower-owned grain co-op CBH Group, 

based in Western Australia, says it will 

continue its increased investment in its 

network,following record exports in 2022. 

CEO Ben Macnamara said other 

unprecedented factors included the 

ongoing fallout from Covid-19 and 

domestic labour shortages, and the 

record harvest put the co-op’s network 

under pressure. 

“For the first time in our co-op’s history, 

the record 2021/22 receivals of 21.3 million 

tonnes exceeded the logistical capacity of 

the network, with the size of the crop 50% 

bigger than the five-year average. 

“Unsurprisingly, the record harvest 

placed pressure on the supply chain, but 

our people worked together to overcome 

all the challenges thrown at them to 

receive, store and outturn the crop, 

while also delivering the largest network 

investment programme on record, and 

navigating through significant global 

market volatility. 

“I’m especially pleased to say that 

the team were able to achieve all this 

safely, with the team reporting the safest 

12-month period on record. 

“The record 18.1 million tonnes that the 

team delivered to our international and 

domestic customers is testament to the 

resilience of the network and should put 

to bed any commentary that the supply 

chain is broken.” 

He added: “While we were able to 

mitigate some of the significant pressure 

throughout the year, it highlights the need 

to continue our increased investment 

in the network so we can improve our 

logistical capacity, particularly with 

moving grain from upcountry to port.” 

Macnamara said the co-op’s strong 

financial result – with a record net profit 

after tax of AU$497.7m (£286m) “positions 

us well to continue the investment in 

the network over the coming years and 

execute the vision of our ‘Path to 2033’ 

Strategy.” 

The key driver for the co-op’s 

performance was the Marketing and 

Trading division, which reported a 

surplus of $437.9m (£251m). The division 

accumulated 50% of the record Western 

Australia crop and paid a record $5bn to 

growers during the year. 

The division will retain 62% of its 

surplus to bolster its equity position, 

allowing it to purchase the current and 

forecast larger crops, manage market risk 

and offer higher prices for growers. 

The remaining 38% or $168m (£96.54m) 

will be reinvested in the network in 

line with the CBH Strategy, which was 

refreshed during the year. 

Operations recorded a surplus of $57.9m 

(£33.27m) driven by record receipt of 21.3 

million tonnes combined with strong 

shipping demand. 

While the team safely received the 

record harvest, the size of the crop 

challenged the outloading programme, 

which was compounded by disruptions 

from Covid-related absenteeism and 

labour shortages, including truck and 

train driver availability. 

“Despite these challenges, the team 

came together along with existing 

and new contractors and growers, to 

collectively export 16.7 million tonnes 

and deliver 1.4 million tonnes to domestic 

customers,” said Macnamara. 

CBH’s fertiliser business reported an 

11% increase in tonnes sold, with a new 

purpose-built facility in Kwinana due to 

start supply early this year. 

In 2022, the co-op invested a record 

$348m to improve its network, including 

three site expansion projects, more than 

230 sustaining capital projects, a large 

maintenance programme and preparation 

for another massive 2022/23 harvest. 

“We currently have a once-in-a-lifetime 

opportunity to strengthen and reinvest 

in the co-operative,” said Macnamara. 

“It is that type of forward-looking vision 

that allowed the co-operative to deliver 

major projects such as the Kwinana Grain 

Terminal in the 1970s, which are still 

delivering value growers today. 

“While we have invested significantly 

in the network over the past five years, we 

are committed to investing a further $4bn 

(£2.30bn) over the next decade, which 

is crucial to increase the capacity of the 

network and deliver sustainable, long-term 

value for Western Australian growers.” 

Meanwhile, CBH’s Marketing & Trading 

division hitting the $2bn (£1.15bn) mark in 

total payments to growers during the first 

week of 2023. 

Chief marketing and trading officer 

Jason Craig, said: “WA growers have 

shown enduring commitment and 

patience as we have worked through 

significant challenges this year. These 

financial milestones represent the long, 

hard work put in by WA growers and their 

families and underscore our unwavering 

co-operative commitment to delivering 

value for them.” 


USA 

Fellowship call from the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy 

The Institute for the Cooperative Digital 

Economy (ICDE), based at the New School 

in New York City, is seeking applications 

for its 2023/2024 cohort of fellows that will 

focus on the nexus of the climate crisis, 

the digital economy, and co-ops. 

The non-residential programme, now in 

its third cohort, is accessible to activists 

and academics (often Ph.D. students) 

from a wide range of disciplines and 

backgrounds, including economics, 

sociology, political science, anthropology, 

business and labour studies. 

The Institute is also seeking two artists 

to join the fellowship cohort and use their 

creative practices to investigate the nexus 

of art, environmental justice, and co-ops. 

The programme runs for one year, 

beginning on March 15, 2023, and will 

provide fellows with a stipend to attend 

the 2023 conference, which will probably 

be held in India. 

Founded in 2019, the ICDE is the 

research division of the Platform 

Cooperativism Consortium (PCC), 

and investigates business models and 

strategies that encourage co-operative 

ownership and democratic governance in 

the digital economy. 

It says its work “is particularly urgent 

given the rapid changes occurring in the 

digital economy. Advances in artificial 

intelligence, automation, and data 

processing are shifting responsibilities 

from workers to machines. It is essential to 

understand and address these disruptions 

in order to navigate the challenges 

they present and create a fair future of 

work. To navigate these disruptions, we 

need research that imagines, builds, 

and explores new visions of fair work. 

One potential solution is the adoption 

of co-operative principles in the digital 

economy.” 

It adds: “The Institute is committed to 

filling these research gaps by providing 

platform co-operatives with applied 

and theoretical knowledge, education, 

and policy analysis. We are dedicated 

to building a fair future of work based 

on relevant research and imaginative 

proposals. Our goal is to create a body 

of knowledge that advances platform 

ownership and democratic governance for 

both workers and all internet users.” 

It adds that fellows will “become part 

of our community, which provides access 

to affiliated faculty and centres at the 

New School, former fellows, PCC Council 

of Advisor members, hundreds of former 

PCC conference speakers, and platform 

co-op pioneers from around the world. 

The fellowship includes monthly online 

gatherings, contribution to the annual 

PCC conference, and other opportunities 

to connect with the ICDE’s global network 

of researchers and co-operators. 

The PCC is also running the Platform 

Co-op School – a series of 22 online 

learning sessions as part of its efforts 

to encourage the development of 

democratic, co-operative platforms in the 

digital economy. Running until 15 July, it 

has been developed by the Platform Cooperative 

Consortium alongside more 

than 45 organisations from 24 countries, 

“to research, learn about, and build 

fair, co-operative digital platforms that 

promote accountable and fair work”. 

Full details fellowships: bit.ly/3WAixTO 

Details of the Platform Co-op School at 

platform.coop/school/ 

INDIA 

Data-gathering under way for national co-op mapping project 

A project is under way to create a national 

database of India’s co-operatives, led by 

the country’s Ministry of Cooperation. 

The Ministry says the National 

Cooperative Database will provide a 

single point of information on co-ops in 

all sectors across the country, to increase 

understanding of the movement and 

strengthen it in India. 

In a presentation last year, the Ministry 

said the database “is envisaged to facilitate 

in policy making, improve governance and 

improve transparency”, as well as helping 

the sector better position itself in the 

business environment. 

Entries to the database are voluntary for 

co-ops, and those wishing to be included 

will be asked for static information and 

financial figures that will need annual 

updates. 

The database could potentially be linked 

with India’s Government E Market(GEM), 

which would enable co-ops to sell via this 

platform, adds the Ministry. 

In 2022, the Ministry held a series 

of consultations with stakeholders to 

identify sector-specific parameters for 

data collection, and produced a set of data 

collection templates. 

The first phase of development, due for 

completion at the end of last year, collected 

basic data from co-operative fisheries, 

dairy co-ops and primary agriculture credit 

societies (PACS). 

The second phase of data collection 

starts in February, taking data related to coops’ 

operations, use of ICT, employment, 

economic activities, revenue, expenses, 

assets and liabilities. 


GLOBAL 

First keynote 

speakers announced 

for 2023 World Credit 

Union Conference 

The World Council of Credit Unions 

(Woccu) has announced the first keynote 

speakers for its conference, organised for 

23–26 July, in Vancouver, Canada. 

It is expected to draw credit union board 

members, practitioners and executives 

from 60 countries, with speakers including 

corporate advisors Alison Burns and James 

Taylor, writer and researcher Kim Lear, 

and broadcaster and author Riaz Meghji. 

Burns and Taylor are keynote speakers 

on sustainability and future trends who 

run the Ethical Futurists platform. Burns 

is an award-winning performer, keynote 

speaker and expert in business ethics, 

sustainability and ethical leadership. 

Taylor started his career managing highprofile 

rock stars, but for the past 20 years 

has been advising CEOs, entrepreneurs, 

educators, governments, leaders, writers 

and rock stars on how to build innovative 

organisations, unlock creative potential 

and increase productivity. 

Lear is the founder and content director 

of Inlay Insights, a generational research 

and public speaking firm. She uses a mix of 

data, storytelling, humour and actionable 

takeaways to discuss the trends that most 

impact the bottom line of organisations. 

Previously, she was content director at 

a research firm dedicated to generational 

and millennial trends, drawing on 

statistics, stories and case studies. 

Meghji is the author of the bestselling 

book Every Conversation Counts: The 5 

Habits of Human Connection That Build 

Extraordinary Relationships. He has 17 

years of television experience which he is 

now using to deliver keynote speeches on 

the key habits of human connection that 

build relationships and move businesses 

forward. 

The full conference agenda at 

wcuc.org. Early-bird registration rates 

will be available until 14 April. 

Nominations open for two credit union awards 

Nominations are now open for two awards 

that recognise achievements in the credit 

union sector. 

The World Council of Credit Unions 

(Woccu) is inviting nominations for both its 

Digital Growth Award and Distinguished 

Service Award. 

The 2023 Digital Growth Award 

will recognise one or more of Woccu’s 

member credit unions or associations for 

successfully working toward its Challenge 

2025 goal of digitising the global credit 

union system by 2025. 

An independent panel of expert judges 

will evaluate the nominees, who will need 

to show that they have implemented an 

inclusive, innovative and scalable digital 

solution. 

Last year’s winners were Brazilian credit 

union system Sicredi, for CPR Facil – a 

digital agribusiness product that allows 

members to take out loans using a mobile 

phone, and Northpark Community Credit 

Union for its Virtual Branching initiative. 

“With the Digital Growth Award now 

in its third year, we hope to see more 

nominations than ever before,” said 

Woccu president and CEO Elissa McCarter 

LaBorde. 

“We are excited to showcase how 

credit unions are using innovative digital 

solutions to reach underserved populations 

and to build resilient communities across 

the globe.” 

The deadline for World Council members 

to make a nomination for the 2023 Digital 

Growth Award is 5:00 pm US Central 

Standard Time on 3 March. 

Also open for nominations is Woccu’s 

2023 Distinguished Service Award (DSA), 

which honours individuals and institutions’ 

contributions to credit union development 

outside of their home country. 

The DSA was first presented in 1986, and 

is not an annual award but is presented 

based on the merits of individual 

nominations. Last year, president and 

CEO of Peach State Federal Credit Union, 

Marshall Boutwell, was presented with the 

award for his work with Polish and British 

credit unions. 

“Individuals or institutions that have 

worked to further World Council’s vision 

of expanding financial inclusion through 

credit unions beyond their national 

borders are eligible for the Distinguished 

Service Award,” said Thomas Belekevich, 

World Council director of member services. 

“We strongly encourage our member 

organisations to nominate any and all 

credit union leaders or institutions that 

exemplify the international spirit of cooperation 

and service.” 

This year’s nomination process is fully 

digital, and can be completed online by 

World Council members before 10 March. 

Both the Digital Growth Award and 

Distinguished Service recipients will 

receive one free registration (per person 

or organisation) to the 2023 World Credit 

Union Conference in Vancouver, Canada, 

July 23-26, where the awards will be 

presented. 


EUROPE 

Cecop welcomes 

EU progress towards 

the regulation of 

platform work 

On 12 December the European Parliament’s 

Committee on Employment and Social 

Affairs (EMPL) adopted a report on the 

European Commission’s proposal for a 

directive improving working conditions in 

platform work. The text, which will serve 

as a draft-negotiating mandate on new 

rules to improve the working conditions in 

platform work, includes new measures to 

combat false self-employment in platform 

work, a human oversight on all decisions 

affecting working conditions and making 

platforms share more information with 

national authorities. 

The text was welcomed by the European 

confederation of industrial and service 

co-operatives (Cecop), whose members 

include co-ops of freelancers, truck 

drivers, taxi drivers, journalists, masons, 

graphic designers, consultants, doctors 

and lawyers, among others. 

Under the draft text adopted by EMPL, 

workers for digital labour platforms 

are presumed to be in an employment 

relationship with the platforms, as 

opposed to being self-employed. In the 

event of a dispute between the platform 

and a worker, the platform – rather than 

the worker- would have the responsibility 

to prove that they do not employ the 

worker. 

Non-mandatory criteria would also 

be introduced to determine a worker’s 

employment status, including a set salary, 

defined time schedule and working time, 

rating systems, tracking or supervision 

of a worker, rules regarding appearance 

or conduct, restricted options to work for 

any third party or restricted freedom to 

choose accident insurance or a pension 

scheme. 

The text also introduces provisions 

to boost the exchange of information 

between competent labour, social 

protection and tax authorities in crossborder 

cases and dissuasive penalties. 

Cecop welcomed the employment 

presumption noting that “while the text 

of the report does not openly mention cooperatives 

as entities ensuring democratic 

p 28 million people work in the platform economy in the EU (Image: iStock) 

worker representation, it nonetheless 

defines workers’ representatives and 

representatives of persons performing 

platform work in a way that is inclusive of 

co-operative business forms.” 

The text also recognises “the significant 

economic and social role of social economy 

entities as an example of participatorygoverned 

businesses which use digital 

platforms to facilitate citizen engagement 

and the selling of locally produced goods 

and services, aiming to achieve better 

working conditions for their members.” It 

adds that co-operatives could constitute 

“an important instrument for the bottomup 

organisation of platform work and 

could encourage competition between 

platforms” and calls on member states 

to “protect and promote co-operative 

undertakings and small businesses by 

means that aim to safeguard employment 

and ensure their capacity for sustainable 

development and growth.” 

The report warns that “the use of 

subcontracting chains has been used as 

a way of circumventing the application 

of labour law to platform workers”, and 

sets up measures to prevent situations in 

which platforms manage to avoid their 

employers’ responsibilities through the 

use of subcontractors. 

Cecop also acknowledged the report’s 

provisions on transparency, fairness, 

human oversight, safety and accountability 

in algorithmic management, including for 

self-employed workers. 

It added: “The European Parliament’s 

report represents a significant, progressive 

step in regulation of platform work. 

According to the European Commission’s 

estimates, 28 million people in the EU 

worked through digital labour platforms, 

and this number will reach 43 million by 

2025. Currently, millions of workers are 

misclassified a s s elf-employed, w hich 

deprives them of social protection and 

labour rights, and undermines honest 

businesses, which do comply with the 

relevant labour legislation. For cooperative 

businesses in particular, a 

stricter European regulation on digital 

labour platforms is important as a way 

to ensure level playing field a nd t heir 

competitiveness in the single market. 

We call on the members of the European 

Parliament to support EMPL committee’s 

report in the plenary vote.” 

The text was adopted with 41 votes to 12 

and will act as a negotiating mandate for 

the upcoming talks with EU governments. 

Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D, IT), the lead 

rapporteur, said: “Too many platform 

workers today are bogusly self-employed, 

stuck in limbo with no labour rights and 

social protection. With this report, we 

are making sure that they are recognised 

as either employees or self-employed, 

depending on their actual conditions of 

work. Moreover, this is a first crucial step 

towards protecting all workers against the 

abuse of algorithms. Automated decisionmaking 

systems cannot be black boxes; 

social partners will be able to negotiate 

how algorithms take decisions regarding 

working conditions.” 

The European Commission estimates 

there are 516 platforms operating across 

the European Union, with 28 million 

people working for these platforms. 

CECOP’s full position on the platform 

work directive is available at: bit. 

ly/3GMgExu. 


GLOBAL 

Informal women 

workers’ network Wiego 

receives award at Davos 

Women in Informal Employment: 

Globalizing and Organizing (Wiego), a 

global network supporting women in the 

informal economy, has been recognised 

at the 2023 Schwab Foundation Social 

Innovation Awards, held at the World 

Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. 

One of 16 winners, Wiego received the 

award for Collective Social Innovation, a 

new accolade introduced to recognise the 

growing importance of collaboration in 

nurturing grassroots action. 

A sister organisation to the WEF, 

the Schwab Foundation for Social 

Entrepreneurship was set up by Hilde 

Schwab and her husband Klaus, executive 

chair of the WEF – which met in Davos 

from 16 to 20 January under the theme 

“Cooperation in a fragmented world”. 

Wiego was represented at the ceremony 

by its international coordinator Dr Sally 

Roever, Janhavi Dave – international 

coordinator of HomeNet International 

– and Lorraine Sibanda – president, 

StreetNet International. It now joins 

Schwab’s global community of 435 social 

innovators operating in more than 190 

countries, and will be integrated into WEF 

meetings and initiatives for three years. 

Dr Roever said: “At Wiego, we advocate 

for fairer incomes and better working 

conditions for workers in the informal 

economy: the people who feed our cities, 

stitch our garments, keep waste out of our 

oceans and care for our young and old.” 

Wiego sees co-ops as an important form 

of democratic organisation and solidarity 

for informal workers, bringing access to 

services and markets and engaging in 

collective negotiations. It works with coops 

in many regions, including waste 

picker co-ops in Brazil and women’s 

co-ops in India. 

Electric co-ops in the Philippines take action to help peers 

Electric co-ops in the Philippines are 

putting principle 6 – co-operation 

among co-ops – into action by donating 

thousand of electric meters to some of the 

movement’s struggling businesses. 

Around 47,000 electric meters are 

being donated to two energy co-ops in 

the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in 

Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). 

Romania’s first non-bank financier for social enterprises 

gets nod from regulator 

Romanian social enterprises, including 

co-operatives, will be able to secure loans 

from the country’s first non-bank financial 

institution dedicated exclusively to social 

entrepreneurs. 

Set up in May 2022, the Alternative 

FINancing Institution (AFIN IFN S.A) this 

month received an authorisation from the 

National Bank of Romania (BNR). 

Woccu gives global update on key regulatory issues 

Image: iStock 

In its latest annual Global Regulatory 

update, the World Council of Credit Unions 

(Woccu) says the key issues for the sector 

this year will include proportionality in 

regulation, sustainability and financial 

inclusion. 

And the apex has repeated its call on 

regulators around the world to recognise 

the ability of credit unions to weather 

financial shocks. 

US farmers launch egg co-op to strengthen supply chain 

Image: GettyImages 

Eight businesses have joined forces 

to form a new egg farmer co-op in the 

western United States. 

ProEgg says that its members are 

pooling their eggs together with the aim of 

creating a more stable and consistent egg 

supply chain across the 13 states it serves. 

Multi-state seed co-op launched in India to drive productivity 

Image: GettyImages 

The Indian government has approved the 

incorporation of a new multi-state seed 

co-op called Bharatiya Sahakari Beej 

Samit (BSBS). 

Five co-operative societies including 

the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative 

Limited (IFFCO) and the National Diary 

Development Board (NDDB) will be the 

promoters of the co-op. 


MEET 

Councillor Louise Gittins 

Chair of the Co-operative Councils’ 

Innovation Network 

Louise became the leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council 

in 2019, and says that from the start, she has embedded cooperative 

values and principles into her work. One of her first 

objectives was for the Council to become a Co-operative Council 

and join the Cooperative Councils’ Innovation Network, of 

which she was recently elected chair. 

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED IN LOCAL 

GOVERNMENT? 

I have been an active member of the Labour Party 

since 1999 and always helped out in local and 

national elections. In 2011 I was the candidate in 

a ward where I live, for the newly formed Cheshire 

West and Chester Council. I wasn’t expected to win, 

but I did and made it my pledge to work hard for 

and with my local community. 

The Labour group was in opposition until the 

2015 all out elections. When we took control of 

the Council, I was deputy leader until the 2019 

elections and became leader when Samantha 

Dixon stood down as leader after the elections (Sam 

is now the new MP for Chester City Constituency). 

As well as chairing the CCIN, I am chair of the 

Local Government Association (LGA) Children and 

Young People’s board, Cheshire and Merseyside 

Health Care partnership and vice chair of transport 

for the North. I am passionate about improving 

health inequalities and the subsequent role of local 

As chair of the CCIN I will bring 

passion and enthusiasm and a 

drive to spread the co-operative 

word and increase our network 

across the country. 

government, whilst recognising that co-operation, 

collaboration, and partnership working is how we 

get things done! 

HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT CO-OPS? 

I was always aware of the Co-operative party and 

the model of co-operatives but then learnt about 

Co-operative Councils during an inspirational 

presentation at an LGA conference in 2015. The 

presentation highlighted the benefits and gave 

examples of co-operative working underpinned by 

values and principles. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CONNECTION IS 

BETWEEN THE TWO? 

In 2019 I became leader of Cheshire West and 

Chester Council: one of my first objectives was for 

the Council to join CCIN and become a Co-operative 

Council. The values of CCIN closely aligned to both 

our values as a Council and my own personal 

mission to build a stronger, fairer, greener, future, 

for and with our communities. 

At CCIN we acknowledge that Councils are not 

themselves registered co-operatives, however 

we and our members have developed principles 

that have grown from those of the International 

Cooperative Alliance and are relevant to us in local 

government. The CCIN has developed 10 icons to 

represent these principles and use them throughout 

our website and reports to show how Co-operative 

Councils are putting our co-operative principles 

into practice, highlighting the co-op difference in 

the work we are doing. 


Embedding co-operative values and principles 

into our work in Cheshire west has enabled us 

to make great strides towards empowering our 

communities, strengthening partnerships and 

growing our local economy. Through working with 

the network we realised the power of community 

action and engagement and the difference 

the co-operative way makes to how we deliver 

services. Taking part in and leading on policy labs 

(Understanding the Digital Divide), sharing good 

practice case studies, and signing up to the Fair Tax 

Charter are some of the ways we have demonstrated 

our commitment. 

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CCIN IN 2023? 

In 2023 we want to continue to grow our network 

and welcome new members. We will be encouraging 

councils and other organisations to join the CCIN 

to be part of a growing and influential network 

committed to developing a new relationship 

with citizens. There is increasing interest, across 

the political spectrum, in how to share power 

and responsibility with citizens, support the 

development of community and civic life and find 

more cost-effective ways to create successful and 

resilient communities. Membership is open to 

all councils, opposition groups, and businesses 

wishing to show their support and engage in the 

processes of developing innovative co-operative 

councils. Individuals and organisations can also 

join as supporters. 

This year we will update and refresh our Strategy 

and Action Plan 2021-2023, this has focused on four 

themes: 

• Theme 1: Better effectiveness in information 

sharing, accessible information, sharing best 

practice and encouraging more co-production. 

• Theme 2: Developing a range of networks to 

increase engagement. 

• Theme 3: Training and support to better promote 

values and principles across organisations and 

networks. 

• Theme 4: National Influence and lobbying, 

growing the network and events. 

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE AS THE CHAIR? 

As chair of the CCIN I will bring passion and 

enthusiasm and a drive to spread the co-operative 

word and increase our network across the country. 

I am committed to our role as a non party-political 

hub for co-operative policy development and 

advocacy. As chair I will ensure that everyone’s 

voice is heard and that all members, associates, 

and affiliates from across the network, can 

participate in a meaningful cooperative way, share 

good practice, and develop innovative ideas. 

WHAT ARE THE ORGANISATION’S BIGGEST 

CHALLENGES THIS YEAR? 

Today, in the face of the cost of living crisis, the 

climate emergency and the financial challenges 

facing the public sector, our collective work 

is crucial and together we need to continue 

reclaiming the traditions of community action, 

community engagement, and civic empowerment 

that can transform communities. I will ensure this 

work progresses and develops across our network 

and actions are delivered at pace. 

WHAT ARE THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES? 

To overcome the challenges society is facing we do 

have an opportunity to look at these from a different 

perspective and our collective policy lab reports 

will help shape how services can be delivered. In 

2022 we published a number of reports including 

Cooperative Difference in Care, Understanding 

the Digital Divide and Cooperative Approaches to 

Reaching Net Zero. In 2023 we will work together 

as a network and focus on three new policy labs of 

cooperative difference and will continue to share 

our case studies of good practice (to date 420 have 

been shared). 

For more information on CCIN, visit councils.coop 


YOUR VIEWS 

Leaving Lincolnshire Co-op: CEO 

Ursula Lidbetter retires 

Ursula is the last of the Institute 

of Cooperative Directors executive 

graduates, specifically trained to run 

co-ops. All co-op managers are now 

general management trainees (with all 

the inherent growth and profit priorities) 

and just ‘on the job’ co-op experience. No 

wonder some lose their way. 

Bob Cannell 

Have your say 

Add your comments to our stories 

online at thenews.coop, get in 

touch via social media, or send us 

a letter. If sending a letter, please 

include your address and contact 

number. Letters may be edited and 

no longer than 350 words. 

Memories of Bill May 

My father, Bill May, dedicated much 

of his working life to the co-operative 

movement. He was an education officer 

for the RACS for 14 years and at the time of 

his retirement in 1991 he was secretary for 

the Northern and Scottish sections of the 

Co-operative Union. 

Dad passed away in 2021, but a book 

about his life is now in print. It’s called 

Bill May - Memories of a Life Worth Living. 

The book is in two parts. The first part 

Co-operative News, Holyoake 

House, Hanover Street, 

Manchester M60 0AS 

letters@thenews.coop 

@coopnews 

Co-operative News 

is dad’s reflective memoir but there’s 

also a section devoted to other people’s 

recollections of him. I’d be interested in 

making contact with anyone within the 

movement who remembers Bill May and 

who might like a copy of the book. It’s free. 

In addition though, as I’m contemplating 

another print run, I’d certainly include 

further memories of dad in a second 

edition of the book. This means I’d 

welcome any recollections of Bill May from 

members and former colleagues (if they’re 

still alive) to accompany those already in 

the book from family and friends. 

I can be contacted at canwellmay@ 

gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from 

anyone from dad’s past. 

Martin May 

Correction: In the article ‘Regulation 

inspiration’ (News, January 2023), it was 

implied that the 10,000 mutuals registered 

with the FCA were included within the 

figure of 50,000 firms it regulates. They 

are in addition. 

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OPINION 

New Zealand’s leadership change – 

and what it means for co-ops 

As its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, 

resigns and New Zealand faces into an 

election year, Roz Henry (CEO of co-op 

apex Cooperative Business NZ) looks at 

what the leadership change means for 

co-operation 

New Zealand is recognised internationally 

as one of the most co-operative nations 

globally with 18% of our GDP by revenue 

(as noted in the World Co-op Monitor) 

being generated by co-operatives and 

mutuals. 

Given this, you would assume that 

our government would be well-heeled in 

understanding the sector, especially when 

you take into account their 1.5 million 

members in a population of only 5 million. 

Not to mention, the overall supply chain 

that wraps around these businesses has a 

major impact on the country economically 

and socially across all regions. 

Unfortunately, this is not the case. 

A lot of this stems from a lack of 

education on the business model at 

secondary and tertiary levels. This isn’t 

helped if those who do have a voice, 

spread the word about the model being 

out of date or counter to a free economy. 

But this doesn’t add up… 

As distinct from many other 

countries, the model in New Zealand 

is mainly applied against commercial 

operations. Many of them are some of 

our most successful, enduring businesses 

alongside being major exporters. They 

are significant employers and support 

a substantial number of SMEs to thrive. 

On a smaller scale, there are communitybased 

schemes throughout the country 

that enable social outcomes. 

The recent announcement of the 

resignation of our Prime Minister, Jacinda 

Ardern, head of the Labour Party, has 

come to many as a shock given her 

prominence. However, it also opens doors. 

What we need is a brave government and 

leadership to come in and be prepared to 

support doing things differently, at speed. 

Remove the barriers to support these 

p Former prime minister Of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, visits The EU Commission 

(Image: Thierry Monasse / GettyImages) 

businesses’ establishment, recognise the 

opportunities they present, and get in 

behind them. 

The world we live in today is not the 

world of five or ten years ago. There is a 

global shift from profit-driven businesses 

to refocusing on taking care of people and 

planet as a priority. Co-operatives play a 

part in the solution. 

There is often an expectation that they 

will be more socialistic in their thinking 

when compared to their right-leaning 

counterparts. However, in New Zealand, 

there is little distinction. 

With our upcoming election in October, 

the incoming government needs to be 

prepared to look outside the box to 

consider how we might make a major step 

change. 

We have a significant gap between the 

haves and have-nots. All signs point to 

this only increasing. The co-operative 

model has the potential to change the dial 

and enable individuals and families sitting 

within lower socio-economic communities 

to change their circumstances. Whether 

it be through the establishment of cooperative 

collective businesses such 

as trades, agriculture, horticulture, 

aquaculture, technology; housing, or 

infrastructure, the opportunities are 

broad. 

We are seeing a significant increase 

in businesses recognising the need for 

change to achieve Carbon Zero and aiming 

to get B Corp certified. We know that 

operating under the ICA’s co-operative 

principles takes these businesses a 

significant step closer as it is built into 

their fundamental psyche. 

As the election year begins, Cooperative 

Business NZ is advocating for increased 

engagement with government officials 

to showcase why there needs to be a 

greater understanding of this business 

community and the role they can play 

to support responding to the changed 

environment. Whether it be through 

education, policy and legislation 

(enabling the ILO, 193 recommendations) 

or supporting the establishment of these 

businesses, the incoming government will 

need to play a key role in ensuring the 

social and economic opportunities these 

businesses present can be realised. 

We hope that they are able to put in place 

the foundations for the next generation 

of co-operative to continue to thrive by 

recognising this business community and 

the benefits they have to offer. 


SAOS 

Conference 

SCOTTISH FARM CO-OPS FACE UP TO THE CLIMATE CRUNCH 

By Miles Hadfield 

Farmers are on the frontline when it comes to 

climate crisis: it threatens huge disruption to 

their operations – and puts them under pressure 

to cut emissions while increasing production. 

This year’s conference of the Scottish Agricultural 

Organisation Society (SAOS), held in Dunblane 

last week, looked at how co-operative working 

can find answers to this problem. 

First up to speak was Mike Robinson, head of 

the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, who 

chaired the Scottish government’s 1.5° Inquiry to 

find out how the agriculture could play its part 

in keeping the temperature rise to 1.5°C. During 

consultation, one farmer told him: “There’s 

no such thing as climate change so we’re 

wasting our time”. But this no longer matters, 

said Robinson, because the threat of climate 

change is accepted by scientists, businesses, 

governments from local to global level, farmers’ 

unions and, crucially, consumers demanding 

sustainable food. “This is an inevitable direction 

of travel,” he added. 

It also makes sense for farmers: while warmer 

temperatures bring some benefits, like a longer 

growing season, the increased risk of storms, 

drought, flood, pests and crop disease hugely 

outweigh them. 

Policymakers are demanding action: farming 

makes up 11% of UK climate emissions – 18% for 

Scotland – impressive reductions in the sector 

have slowed over the last decade. “Scotland will 

not hit its climate targets without agriculture 

delivering,” warned Robinson, adding that 

farmers are a solution, not a problem. 

There are also commercial incentives to climate 

action. Andrew Niven, from Scotland Food 

and Drink, noted that urbanisation around the 

world has triggered feelings of alienation from 

nature which consumers are trying to remedy by 

focusing on heritage foods, ordering veg boxes 

and demanding food chain transparency. 

These trends offer market openings to farmers – 

but while opportunity knocks, meeting climate 

targets is not so simple. During the day a number 

of options were suggested, such as agroforestry, 

which grows timber on grazing land to absorb 

carbon. This has added benefits to animal 

welfare, with trees offering a more sheltered 

environment than a bare field. 

Alison Hester from the James Hutton Institute, 

a farm science research centre, discussed 

small scale electrolysers, which can use solar 

and wind energy generated on farms to create 

hydrogen fuel – allowing farms to decarbonise 

their heating, machinery and vehicles. 

The Institute has been running a trial, 

HydroGlen, on its prototype farm. It found that a 

unit taking up 30sq m can generate 100% of the 

farm’s energy needs. The drawback is the £6m 

build cost for a unit, including a wind turbine – 

but co-operation can help, said Hester, building 

economies of scale and a shared data set that 


will convince government to provide finance. 

The good news, she added, is that “everything 

we are using is commercially available now – 

it can be build-ready … it’s replicable, and has 

modular and scalable components”. There 

is also potential to create employment with 

apprenticeships to develop green job skills. 

“We need to work in partnership to develop 

this – SAOS is an important partner,” added 

Hester. “SAOS and the National Farmers Union 

Scotland are conducting outreach action 

to realise hydrogen’s potential through cooperation 

and collective procurement.” 

If it works, the benefits could be considerable: 

the Hutton Institute wants to make Scotland “a 

leading hydrogen nation” using local production 

hubs and a mix of public and private sector 

support. The tech potentially offers farms total 

energy independence, rural decarbonisation 

and – by creating hydrogen fuel – also solves the 

problem of intermittent energy supply. 

More research is being carried out by Scottish 

Agronomy, a co-op formed in 1985 to help 

farmers increase crop production. Managing 

director Adam Christie repeated the message 

that climate innovations present an opportunity 

for farmers, but added a warning. “We are under 

pressure to move on this and there is a danger we 

will be forced to move at a rate the science can’t 

keep up with.” 

Innovations should always be tested on 

farms, he said, giving the example of Encera, a 

fertiliser hailed as a replacement for nitrogen: 

but although it worked perfectly in greenhouses, 

it was a failure in the field. 

But nitrogen use needs tackling, he said: half 

of arable farming’s climate emissions come from 

fertilisers. Efficient nitrogen use is the key here, 

delivering lower emissions while maintaining 

production. “There is a moral responsibility on 

arable farmers to make the maximum use of the 

land they have,” said Christie. “There’s eight 

billion mouths to feed on this planet.” 

There are processes that can help – tilling the 

land, moving from simple spraying to integrated 

pest management, and the use of cover crops 

like oil radish to maintain soil structure. 

“There is a limit to what we can do in an arable 

setting if we want to maintain production,” said 

Christie, “but there is massive pressure on the 

issue of climate.” Big industry customers like 

PepsiCo, themselves urged to act by consumers, 

are demanding sustainability from all suppliers, 

which means farmers “have to change”. 

While there are subsidies for using 

unproductive land for biodiversity, they do not 

currently compensate for taking land out of 

production, said Christie. But if big businesses 

want to improve their profile by paying farmers 

to use low-yield land for biodiversiy “it would 

be foolish of us not to get involved in that … end 

users are much more involved than at any time 

I’ve ever known in engaging with growers”. 

For a benchmark in dealing with climate, 

Christie recommended dairy co-op Arla, which is 

trialling green hydrogen, gene editing of plants 

and alternative livestock feed to reduce methane 

emissions. But although Arla is “miles ahead 

of where we are,” Christie said its leaders have 

accepted they cannot face the climate challenge 

alone. Co-operation will be key, and will help to 

stimulate new ideas. 

The conference also heard from Richard 

Simmons of Carbon Capture Scotland, which 

extracts carbon dioxide emitted by whisky 

distilleries. Some of this is put to industrial use – 

in the manufacture of dry ice and even the Pfizer 

vaccine – but there is no use for the vast bulk 

of the carbon generated by industry and it will 

have to be buried. Simmons called for input from 

farmers to help drive this; in Scotland there are 

a million tons of CO2 that can be removed easily 

and in long term, the figure rises to 4.6 million. 

Farm data is a staple topic at the SAOS 

conference, and the apex’s data and connectivity 

manager George Noble gave an update on how it 

can drive climate action. 

Data on soil quality, weather, crop yields, 

river levels and pollinator numbers is vital to 

drive climate action and demonstrate a farm’s 

sustainability credentials. But poor internet 

connectivity in rural Scotland is blocking 

progress. To remedy this, SAOS has launched 

collaborative businesses to build infrastructure. 

But if this is to work, it has to be tailored to 

the needs of farmers, and Noble said SAOS needs 

to hear from then to learn what they want. One 

thing farmers in the session made clear is that 

they want control and ownership of data from 

their farms. 

p The James Hutton 

Institute’s Glensaugh 

farm, where it tests 

ideas including the 

use of renewables to 

create green hydrogen 

There is 

a moral 

responsibility 

on arable 

farmers to 

make the 

maximum use 

of the land 

they have 


Awards 

celebrate 

resilience 

OF COMMUNITY ENERGY SECTOR IN CHALLENGING TIMES 


The Community Energy Award winners were 

announced in London in January, showcasing 

the efforts of the sector to develop new energy 

solutions and tackle the climate crisis. 

Run by sector body Community Energy 

England (CEE), the ceremony is the first edition of 

the awards since 2019, and was supported by the 

Co-operative Party, Greater London Authority, 

Younity and Naturesave Insurance. Speakers at 

the event included Joe Fortune, general secretary 

of the Co-op Party, and Nadia Smith, sustainable 

futures project manager at South East London 

Community Energy (SELCE) and winner of 2019’s 

Young Person Champion Award. 

CEE said: “Despite the community energy 

sector’s most challenging year ever following 

the curtailment of government policy support 

in numerous areas, the sector remains resilient, 

passionate and innovative. The awards 

showcase new areas of development, as well as 

the benefits that these projects bring to people 

living in the community.” 

The winners are: 

Community Energy Champion (Individual): 

Kate Gilmartin, NW Net Zero Hub 

CEE says Gilmartin was chosen for her “proactive 

and creative approach to maximising the impact 

of the Rural Community Energy Fund in the NW 

Net Zero hub region.” 

It added: “She has been instrumental in 

building a wide ranging portfolio of projects by 

proactively engaging with communities to bring 

them forward and supporting them through 

the feasibility and development process ... Not 

only has Kate got decades of community energy 

experience, she still has as much passion, 

commitment and up-to-date knowledge as ever.” 

Social and Environmental Impact Award, 

Community Photo of the Year Award: SELCE 

South East London Community Energy (SELCE) 

won the Environmental Impact Award for its 

delivery of fuel poverty and energy efficiency 

advice. CEE notes that it has increased its activity 

and now employs a professional delivery team. 

It delivers energy cafés, online or in person 

workshops for organisations, one-on-one 

consultations, and attends community events 

to give advice and do home visits. SELCE also 

collaborated with Repowering London on kickstarting 

the Community Energy Winter Support 

initiative involving many London CE groups. 

According to Bristol University research, its 

fuel poverty work has generated £9-10 social 

benefit (including ~£3 per year savings on bills 

to residents) per £1 spent. One project supported 

996 vulnerable households, saving residents 

£312,996 on bills and 173,225 kg CO2e. 

Community Energy Champion (Team): 

Community Energy London (CEL) 

Judges noted CEL’s “excellent relationship 

building with London councils, which has 

directly led to the creation of a London 

Community Energy Fund (LCEF) … a key 

campaign goal for CEL, following the premature 

closure by the government of the Urban 

Community Energy Fund (UCEF)”. 


Community Energy Organisation of the Year; 

Local Authority Collaboration, and Scaling 

Up Community Energy (three categories): 

Community Energy South 

Community Energy South (CES) scored an 

impressive triple on the night, with judges 

noting its “continued commitment to develop 

and deliver the Community Energy Pathways 

Programme to directly capacity build and 

support the growth of the community energy 

sector”. 

The Pathways programme works with local 

authorities and aligns with their Climate Change 

Strategies delivering a bespoke Community 

Energy Pathway that is adopted by the local 

authorities and supports their Net Zero 

approaches. 

Community Engagement and Inclusion 

Award: Repowering London 

Repowering London won for its volunteer-led 

work in their local communities, taking in a 

range of projects to develop and grow its cooperatives 

(Lambeth Community Solar, North 

Kensington Community Energy, and Aldgate 

Solar Power). Activities include organising local 

climate events and workshops on energy advice 

and solar panel making. 

CEE says the co-ops are “continually 

contributing to building a local climate 

movement and their volunteers and champions 

are a driving force behind building these links 

with local groups and getting more people 

involved in climate justice and working for the 

benefits of communities”. 

Finance and Innovation Award: Ambition 

Community Energy (ACE), Thrive 

Renewables, Bristol & Bath Regional Capital 

(BBRC) and Bristol City Council 

ACE, Thrive, BBRC and Bristol Council won this 

category for working together to provide capital 

for impactful projects in the West of England. 

In late 2019 Bristol Council and BBRC launched 

City Funds – a specific impact investment fund 

for the city and its immediate surroundings, and 

the first of its kind in the UK. 

Mandated to invest in impact themes across 

social and environmental priorities, ACE 

approached BBRC in late 2019 with a plan for a 

community-owned wind turbine. 

“City Funds took the decision to invest even 

before these critical risk points had been 

crossed,” says CEE. “As a place-based impact 

investor, BBRC was able to understand the local 

conditions intimately. Combining this loan with 

match-funding from Power to Change, it was this 

step that ACE tell us allowed the project to move 

ahead; without it, ACE may well have failed.” 

Fuel Poverty Action Award: Energise Sussex 

Coast 

Energise Sussex Coast (ESC) won for its 

“high quality energy advice and support to 

communities in East Sussex”. It offers broad 

ranging energy advice in person, at community 

locations, or via telephone appointments. 

In response to the energy crisis its focus has 

been to help people bring their energy costs 

down and save carbon. It also holds regular 

information evenings and workshops open to 

the public which address energy related issues. 

Youth Energy Award: Energy Heroes 

The Energy Heroes programme was chosen for 

its “innovative approach to engaging young 

people in the community energy sector”, which 

is based on the Department for Education’s 

expected learning outcomes from the maths 

national curriculum. 

The basis of the programme is that the learning 

and activities also provide the nudge for their 

families to engage with energy matters (bills, 

meters and energy efficiency). Its programme 

delivery consists of teacher training, lessons, 

teaching and learning materials and resources. 

Energy Heroes has now been delivered to just 

over 200 schools since its inception in 2016, 

Helen Seagrave, interim chair of CEE, said: “The 

Community Energy Awards is one of our favourite 

events of the year as it highlights and reminds us 

what can be achieved when communities come 

together and invest in their future. 

“We are recognising the achievements of 

organisations from across the country, which go 

far beyond the generation of clean energy. 

p SELCE’s winning 

image shows the 

work of its energy 

champions in 

providing home 

energy advice, helping 

those at risk of fuel 

poverty cut carbon 

and costs 

Despite the 

community 

energy 

sector’s most 

challenging 

year ever, 

the sector 

remains 

resilient, 

passionate 

and 

innovative.” 


How are 

food & retail co-ops 

RESPONDING TO HIGH INFLATION 

IN THE UK? 

By Anca Voinea 

p Cooperation Town 

is a network of 21 

food co-ops – and it’s 

growing 

With food inflation at 16.8%, the festive season 

was a challenging time for UK households. After 

a 41-year high in October 2022 (11.1%), inflation 

in the UK began easing in December but remains 

high at 10.5%. 

In this context initiatives like Cooperation 

Town, a network of community food co-ops, 

organising on streets and estates across the UK, 

are becoming increasingly popular. Launched in 

2019, Cooperation Town has grown to include 21 

food co-ops. 

“Anyone could start a food co-op on their 

streets or their estates and they don’t need to 

have any particular background or knowledge or 

experience to be doing this,” says Shiri Shalmy, 

one of its founding members. 

All groups are self-organised, she adds, which 

means that there may be even more co-ops not 

formally affiliated to Cooperation Town. 

“Once a co-op is too big, there’s a waiting list 

and so the co-op splits and people support each 

other to organise so they don’t need us to come 

and introduce the model – there are already 

community organisers and they can support 

their neighbours organise. So it’s a proliferation 

and a self-organising transmission built into it,” 

she adds. 

Meanwhile, the actual worker co-op behind 

the project employs five workers and one project 

worker who is not a member. 

“We have seen an increase in the number of 

food co-ops, more people are asking to join 

co-ops or starting co-ops,” says Shalmy, but 

adds that this could also be due to more people 

finding out about their work. 

The cost of living crisis has had an impact on 

the food co-ops that form part of the network, 

with purchasing power dropping. However, 

Cooperation Town food co-ops are still able to 

help members save up to 30% on food prices. 

“Because our model is based on purchasing in 

bulk, and supplementing that with surplus food, 

which is free in London, we are able to maintain 

that level of saving. So co-ops and their members 


q The Co-op Group 

partnered with Your 

Local Pantry 

still save a lot of money. Outside of London, it 

is a slightly different ratio because there is less 

free surplus food so co-ops have to pay the 

surplus food distributors. But they still make a 

big saving,” she says. 

The crisis has also led to small grants being 

made available to community groups looking 

to make a difference, such as Cooperation Town 

food co-ops. She adds that while this has helped, 

small grants by themselves cannot solve the cost 

of living crisis. 

One of the most recent initiatives led by 

Cooperation Town is the Gospel Oak Living 

Room, a warm hub where neighbours can spend 

time different times of the day. The hub is a 

partnership between them and tenant residents 

associations. 

Shalmy, who has a trades union background, 

says she wanted to explore organising outside of 

the workplace community organising but also 

thinking about social production – and came 

across the co-op model. 

“I had no co-op background, so I didn’t know I 

had to teach myself – I’m still learning,” she says, 

adding that having conversations with some of 

London’s most well-known worker co-ops, such 

as Calverts and Outlandish also helped. 

“People in the movement were very supportive 

and helped us, and we’re always chatting to 

people at Calverts or at Suma or other co-ops. 

You really get a sense that the principle of cooperation 

between co-ops is real and it proves 

itself to be super useful,” she adds. 

Did they expect the model to take off in the 

way it did? “When we started the project we 

didn’t know that it would be anything like that. 

We never imagined that we would be employing 

five people or six people and supporting so 

many people to self-organise. It started as an 

experiment. So it’s very encouraging that it grew 

so spontaneously and so nicely and that we 

We have seen an increase 

in the number of food 

co-ops. More people are 

asking to join co-ops or 

starting co-ops 

were able to respond to something like Covid-19 

whereas it could have, completely killed this 

project. It actually gave us time to develop and 

to experiment, but also meant that we could 

answer really crucial need at the time when it 

was happening,” she says. 

As to the future, Cooperation Town plans 

to continue its work and has secured funding 

to keep going for the next two years. Shalmy 

expects the number of co-ops within the network 

to double by 2024. 

Other co-ops have also taken a series of 

measures to support their members, customers 

and employees with the rising cost of living. In 

November 2022 the Co-op Group teamed up with 

Your Local Pantry, a network coordinated by 

Church Action on Poverty, which helps people 

enjoy big meals on smaller budgets. The Local 

Pantry creates spaces for communities to come 

together around food. Each pantry within its 

network stocked with surplus food. With small 

weekly amount of around £3.50 (depending on 

location), those using the pantries can select at 

least ten items from a wide selection of groceries, 

meaning that they save on average £15 per shop. 

The partnership with the Co-op Group is helping 

to triple the number of Pantries in the UK, from 

75 to 225 over the next three years. 

Rebecca Birkbeck, director of community 

and membership at the Group said at the 

time: “Things are tough for many of us at the 

moment and we are proud that pantries will 

be there to support people and their local 

communities in dealing with the challenges that 

are thrown at them, it feels like a real step in 

the right direction to make the world that little 

bit fairer.” 

James Henderson, network development 

coordinator for Your Local Pantry, said: 

“Communities have long wanted to improve 

food security while upholding dignity, choice 

and hope, and Pantries are a proven win-win 

solution. We’re really excited to be teaming up 

with the Co-op, so another 150 neighbourhoods 

can open pantries of their own.” 

u 


q Channel Islands 

Co-op teamed up with 

the Jersey Evening 

Post to profile top 

island chefs (including 

Callum Graham, 

head chef at Bohemia 

Restaurant, below) 

cooking meals using 

co-op ingredients 

costing no more than 

a fiver. 

To tackle food waste the Co-op Group also 

launched Caboodle, a new tech platform 

designed to stop food waste. Caboodle, which 

was developed in partnership with Microsoft, 

connects retailers, cafés and restaurants to 

community groups and volunteers to redistribute 

surplus food to the households most in need. 

Meanwhile, the Channel Islands Co-operative 

Society partnered with Jersey Evening Post to 

promote recipes created by local chefs with 

ingredients costing a total of less than £5 using 

their co-op honest value and co-op own brand 

ranges. 

A similar initiative is run by Waitrose, which 

forms part of employee owned John Lewis 

Partnership. In September 2022 the food retailer 

launched ‘Super Saver recipes‘ for under £2 per 

portion meal inspiration. The retailer also ran a 

Great Saving Event in January with offers across 

thousands of staple products. 

Leyla Page, Commercial Planner at Waitrose, 

said: “With the cost of living crisis, we know 

customers are keener than ever to find a good 

deal. That’s why we introduced ‘Waitrose Ways 

to Spend Less’, highlighting value-for-money 

deals that customers can take advantage of all 

year round.” 

Research commissioned by John Lewis and 

Waitrose among 2,000 UK adults who celebrated 

Christmas found that many households aimed 

to save money on bills when cooking their 

Christmas dinner, with nearly a fifth said they 

will use an air fryer and a similar number said 

they will use a microwave (18%) and cook more 

on the stove to reduce oven time (18%). The 

We have been 

overwhelmed by the 

responses regarding 

the anxiety, stress and 

increased mental health 

issues that the current cost 

of living crisis is causing 

research revealed that only 12% of respondents 

expected to have their heating on more than 

other days with a quarter (26%) planning to have 

it on less. 

An analysis by the Joseph Rowntree 

Foundation also found that a fifth of the 2.5 

million low-income households were going 

without food and heating in November. It 

revealed that over 3 million low-income families 

could not afford to heat their homes to protect 

themselves from the cold. 

In response to these concerns, in December 

the Co-op Group became first retailer to launch 

a match-funding platform with Crowdfunder 

to provide support to local community 

organisations across the UK, as they help 

communities cope with rising energy costs 

during the cold winter months. Since launching 

the Warm Spaces match funding platform over 

£240,000 has been paid out by Co-op to help 300 

groups provide warm spaces in communities 

across the UK. On 19 January the Group 

announced it would increase the flow of funds to 

community groups through its £1 million ‘Warm 

Spaces’ funding boost. 

Birkbeck commented: “Launching this 

funding boost will help groups keep their lights 

and heating on as they bring communities 

together to keep warm in the coldest months of 

the year– increasing overall wellbeing. It may 

also mean people don’t have to choose between 

accessing food or heating this winter. Plus, 

having a warm space allows the community 

to take a break from their everyday worries, 

improving their mental wellbeing. 

Sue Collins, Caxton House Community Centre, 

a multi-purpose Community Hub based in North 

London said: “We have lots of different activities 

on different days that include arts and crafts, as 

well as access to advice including money saving 


energy tips, budgeting and debt advice, mental 

health and well-being support. Residents can 

also charge electrical equipment and fill flasks, 

with some sessions allowing access to hot food, 

and pre-prepared meals that can be microwaved 

at home, saving having to put on an oven.” 

Similarly, the East of England Co-operative 

donated £100,000 from its Christmas marketing 

budget to help people in its region keep warm 

and fed this winter. Of this, £70,000 was split 

among warm hubs with the remaining £30,000 

being allocated to 25 local foodbanks. 

Vicki Mann, manager of Chantry Library in 

Ipswich, one of the organisations benefiting from 

the East of England Co-op’s warm hub donation, 

said: “We’re open as a community hub, where 

people can just come and be themselves and 

meet new people. It’s a warm space for people to 

come, which is needed at the moment, especially 

with the cost of living.” 

The co-op’s members and customers helped 

to raise over £44,500. Kat Reading, Community 

Development manager at the East of England 

Co-op said: “We’re blown away by the generosity 

of our customers this winter. We know that 

household budgets are extremely stretched, but 

our community has, yet again, pulled together to 

support each other.” 

Many co-operative retailers have also taken 

steps to support employees cope with inflation. 

For example, the Co-op Group increased pay 

for all store-based employees, with hourly rates 

going up between 4.2% and 5.3%. 

Co-op colleagues needing loans can also 

become members of the two credit unions 

associated with the Co-op – Keep Credit Union 

and the Co-op Credit Union or access interestfree 

rent deposit loans for employees which 

allows them to receive up to a maximum of 

80% of earnings over a four-week period, with 

repayments taken direct from salary over the 

next 10 paydays after the loan is received. Other 

initiatives include partnering with StepChange 

to help receive help with debt. 

Helping members during these difficult times 

was also a priority for the Southern Co-op. 

“As a Co-op that works for the benefit of our 

communities, we have considered what we can 

do to help with the external pressures being 

faced by many,” said chief executive Mark Smith. 

Recognising the rising energy costs, the 

society made a one-off payment to all colleagues 

of £300, sent a £50 gift card to every colleague 

to support with the cost of food, and invested in 

enhanced colleague discount events including a 

50% discount in September and December 2022. 

“We hope these measures have gone some 

way in supporting our colleagues during these 

challenging times, and we’ll continue to review 

what other support we can offer during 2023,” 

added Smith. 

In addition to its ongoing support for food 

banks, local pantries and community fridges, 

Southern Co-op sent a £40,000 worth of gift 

cards to its local food bank partners, donated 

£25,000 to Neighbourly’s Warm Communities 

Fund and raised over £50,000 for its local food 

bank partners. The retailer has donated 2p every 

time its members buy food, drink and groceries 

in its food stores and scan their membership 

card. 

With high inflation likely to continue, UK 

retail co-ops will have to continue to support 

customers and employees. Commenting on 

the impact of inflation on retailers and their 

customers, Helen Dickinson, chief executive of 

the British Retail Consortium, explained that 

“while there is some indication that inflation 

may have reached its peak, prices will remain 

high in the coming months.” She added that 

retailers are taking steps to support their 

customers throughout this cost-of-living crisis. 

“They are keeping the price of many essentials 

affordable, expanding their value ranges, raising 

pay for their own staff, and offering discounts for 

vulnerable groups,” she said. 

Insight provider IGD Retail thinks retailers will 

have to focus on “driving out costs, improving 

the efficiency of supply chains and delivering 

value to consumers in new ways over the next 

12 months.” 

Toby Pickard, Global Insight Leader at IGD, 

said: “While many of these initiatives from 

businesses have been reactionary, they are 

helping retailers to reset the cost base and 

develop go-to market models for the future. 

“Alongside this, retailers will continue to 

progress their key initiatives centred on health 

and wellness, sustainability and digitisation. 

Progress in these areas is incremental but we 

predict it will drive significant long-term change 

in the shape of our industry.” 


New 

trouble 

for 

Mondragon 

AS TWO INDUSTRIAL 

CO-OPS LEAVE THE FOLD 


p ULMA 

Architectural 

Solutions 

One of the world’s leading co-op federations, 

Mondragon Corporation, suffered a blow at the 

end of last year when two of its key member 

organisations voted to leave. 

Ulma Group and Orona Cooperative both 

hosted votes on 16 December which saw their 

partners opt for the exit door. The move follows a 

period of tension with both co-ops wanting more 

autonomy – and means the co-ops will cease 

contributions of 10% of their substantial profits 

to a common fund, operated by Mondragon to 

sustain member co-ops which are going through 

lean times. 

Both organisations are looking for ways to 

continue collaboration with Mondragon, and 

will continue to insure their worker-owners 

through the federation’s Lagun Aro system. They 

will also maintain their collaborative work with 

Mondragon University and other co-ops in the 

federation. 

Their departure is a significant blow for the 

Federation – held up round the world as an 

example of what co-operation can acheive, 

and a business which has allowed its corner of 

Spain’s Basque Country to buck national trends 

for unemployment and other economic woes. 

Ulma is a group of nine co-ops with a presence 

in 81 countries and a 60-year market presence in 

a wide range of sectors: Ulma Greenhouses, Ulma 

Architectural Solutions, Ulma Maintenance 

Services, Ulma Conveyor Components, Ulma 

Embedded Solutions, Ulma Handling Systems, 

Ulma Construction, Ulma Packaging and Ulma 

Advanced Forged Solutions. 

Elevator manufacturer Orona is another global 

name; between them, the two organisations 

take away 11,000 of Mondragon’s 80,000-strong 

workforce – shrinking it by 13% – and 15% of the 

group’s sales go, adding add up to more than 

€1,700m in billing. 


Orona has 1,700 members and a turnover of 

more than €800m, while Ulma employs 5,426 

people with a turnover of E910m and a profit of 

€75m. 

The vote follows a failed bid by Orona and Ulma 

to introduce an alternative governance model to 

guide the relationship of member co-ops with 

Mondragon’s central services. The proposal was 

rejected in June and no discussion was permitted 

at the Federation’s annual congress in November 

because it had been submitted to late. 

Orona and Ulma complained of “pressure” 

and “interference” and have now opted for “new 

relational framework” with Mondragón. 

It is not the first exit in Mondragon’s history 

– in 2008, worker-owners of the metal casting 

co-op Ampo and coach maker Irizar voted 

out. Nor is it the first crisis. Between 2002 

and 2007, member co-ops Fagor and Eroski 

issued bonds, which they advertised as safe 

deposits, but they were classed by courts as 

riskier debt instruments – and when their 

value was hit in the wake of the 2008 crash, the 

bond-holders sued. 

The financial crisis also brought a shock 

casualty for the federation: in 2013, white 

goods maker Fagor Electrodomésticos filed 

for bankruptcy to renegotiate €1.1bn of debt, 

followed by the bankruptcy of the whole Fagor 

Group. This led to the €42.5m sale of Fagor in 

July 2014, to Catalonian company Cata. 

Fagor’s collapse brought a bitter dispute, 

with workers occupying its Edesa plant, south 

of Bilbao, 

There has also been criticism in some 

parts of the co-op movement of Mondragon’s 

global supply chain, with its more than 100 

overseas operations structured as conventional 

businesses. Mondragon stresses there are 

practical obstacles to setting up foreign 

subsidiaries as member co-ops – particularly 

with regard to its safety net that allows 

redundant workers to be redeployed from one 

co-op to another – a facility Ulma and Orona 

will retain. 

Mondragon has expressed ongoing interest 

in converting its overseas operations to worker 

ownership, and in converting the 35,000 nonmember 

retail workers at Eroski (out of a total 

of 50,000) to membership status. These are on 

the backburner while the federation rides out 

the economic disruptions from Covid-19 and the 

Ukraine conflict which have hit profits at Eroski 

and the Caja Laboral credit union. 

But while the latest furore is not unprecedented, 

it has prompted press speculation in Spain that 

more is to come. “From now on it will be seen 

if the scope of the crisis of the co-operative 

giant goes beyond the figures,” wrote online 

paper elDiario, “if the very management model 

of the corporation based on solidarity between 

the co-operatives is called into question, if the 

departure of Ulma and Orona is the beginning 

of more of the big leaks – or if, on the contrary, 

Mondragon reinvents itself … and emerges 

stronger and with more united companies.” 

The federation’s management said the news 

means that “Mondragon begins a new stage,” 

while the CEO of supermarket chain Eroski – 

one of its key members – defended the right of 

co-ops to leave if they wished. 

Rosa Carabel told a Radio Euskadi interview 

that she wished the co-ops had stayed but 

added: “We have to respect the decisions that 

Orona and Ulma can make because they are 

sovereign decisions.” 

However, Eroski remains committed to the 

Federation, she added. “Eroski understands 

that the co-operatives that are in the corporation 

share the same values of cooperation and joint 

learning. Between all of us we have the capacity 

to enrich each other and we want the voice of 

cooperativism to be loud and clear. 

“What we want from the corporation is that 

we are all there, but if they decide to leave it, the 

corporation will continue.” 


Close 

dge 

to the 

By Alice Toomer- 

McAlpine 

THE CO-OPS TURNING 

TO CROWDFUNDING IN 

TIMES OF CRISIS 

One of the benefits of being a co-op is having 

a membership, and often a wider surrounding 

community, backing you. 

This is something co-ops often use to their 

advantage through crowdfunding, which can 

be used to support them during their start-up 

phases, launch new services or products, or 

expand capacity. 

Sadly, over the past year there have been a 

number of cases where co-ops had to turn to 

crowdfunding to plug gaps in their finances 

caused by the economic crisis. These efforts have 

brought mixed results. 

Vegan grocery Rice Up Wholefoods ran a 

crowdfunding campaign when its costs became 

unmanageable last year, but despite raising over 

£10,000 from 530 donors, it was only a little 

over half of what it needed to survive and it was 

forced to close. 

A similar story occurred with co-operative 

community hub Bread + Roses, which managed 

to raise over £30,000 last summer from 233 

supporters and match funding from Power to 

Change and The National Emergencies Trust, but 

still had to close in November. 

The Solidarity Economy Association (SEA), 

is currently crowdfunding for £18,000 to cover 

staffing costs in 2023 – but despite having 

extended the length of the campaign it is still 

some way off its target. 

Worker-owned queer club and community 

space in Glasgow Bonjour announced an 

emergency fundraiser last year in response to 

rising energy bills and staffing costs, alongside a 

raft of other measures including cutting opening 

hours and increasing prices. 

Organisations that support co-operatives are 

reporting increased vulnerability in their client 

businesses. 

Chris Cowcher of the Plunkett Foundation, 

which supports rural community businesses, 

says the sector is facing its biggest crisis in recent 

times. Plunkett’s research shows that as many 

as one in five businesses are vulnerable as a 

result of the UK’s mounting financial pressures. 

“Groups are fighting on multiple fronts,” says 

Cowcher. “Fatigued volunteers, diminished 

reserves, dealing with the governance of running 

an organisation, responding to local residents 

and having to try and plan ahead to make sure 

the shop’s still viable next winter.” 

Another apex, Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), 

warns of “significant closure rates” among 

social enterprises, particularly in the last three 

months, estimating that as many as 10,000 

social enterprises are at risk of closure. 

“We’ve definitely seen a drop in cash flow 

and reserve positions,” says SEUK’s director 

of research Emily Darko, who helps track the 

sector’s finances through a quarterly survey. 

Darko points to recent responses to these 

surveys which show that social enterprises’ 

“vulnerability is increasing and people are 

draining their reserves in order to hang on”. 

“We’re seeing a mixture of things happening,” 

she explains, “and some of it is quite similar to 

what we saw during Covid. 

“But the overall sense that we have is that this 

is quite a bit more acute. We’re aware anecdotally 

that a significant number of social enterprises 

have already gone to the wall, and several more 

are pretty close to the edge.” 

Tim Coomer, business development manager 

at Co-operative and Community Finance (CCF) 

says that when Covid broke out, CCF went 

into “protect the portfolio” mode. “We were 


doing less lending but we wanted to be able 

to support our borrowers in the portfolio 

more, so we’ve certainly been doing a bit more 

intensive support.” 

During this time, co-ops and community 

businesses had to get creative with their finances 

to stay afloat, using a variety of survival tactics. 

While the kinds of emergency fundraisers 

mentioned earlier do crop up from time to 

time, Darko says there has not been a surge in 

this activity among the social enterprises SEUK 

works with. 

“It definitely isn’t a primary solution for the 

challenges that people are facing at the moment, 

from what I’ve seen,” she adds. 

A possible reason for this is that wouldbe 

donors are also feeling the effects of the 

economic crisis, so are less able to give, making 

crowdfunding a less viable form of fundraising. 

But if crowdfunding is less of an option in 

times of crisis, what are the alternatives? 

“In terms of what those who are close to 

the edge are doing, it’s a mixture of things. 

We’ve seen quite a lot of talk about reducing 

overheads,” says Darko. 

“We’ve seen social enterprises looking to 

absolutely pare back on what they need to spend 

on, getting rid of any non essential spends, 

looking at their supply chains and thinking 

about where they can cut costs.” 

Cowcher also speaks of community businesses 

“cutting their cloth”. Plunkett is supporting its 

members through this process when needed 

– offering services like its free online business 

appraisal tool, and in-person health checks from 

business advisors. 

“We’re seeing people making very simple but 

quite effective changes,” says Cowcher, “like 

turning off chillers in shops – working out that 

it’s costing more to run a chiller than to actually 

stock it and sell the products that are in it. So 

people are becoming more acutely aware of the 

margins of their business operation.” 

This kind of cost cutting might mean reducing 

services or opening hours, says Cowcher. “That 

has its knock on effect because it reduces the 

social impact, because then less people are able 

to access the services that are available.” 

Darko explains that while some are reducing 

staff, this isn’t often a primary go-to for social 

enterprises. “Mainstream traditional businesses 

are more likely to shed staff when they’re 

reaching financial difficulty, social enterprises 

don’t. They tend to try and retain staff. We’ve 

seen staff hours being cut and things like that, 

and ‘natural attrition’ – staff not being replaced 

when people leave. We’ve also seen social 

enterprises increasing wages and providing nonfinancial 

support to struggling staff, including 

support with food.” 

Both Plunkett and SEUK highlighted pivoting 

as another key survival method for community 

businesses and social enterprises. 

Cowcher gave a number of examples of 

community businesses that have pivoted towards 

the needs of their communities in recent months. 

Broughton Village Store in South Lanarkshire, 

Scotland, has started a welfare scheme to enable 

those who are struggling to access a fund which 

has been donated to by the local community to 

help pay for weekly groceries and shops. 

“They’re retaining their customer base,” he 

says, “but they’re making sure the crisis is being 

shouldered by those with the broadest shoulders 

and that they are able to help those that are more 

vulnerable.” 

Meanwhile, the Blue Bell community pub 

in Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, is providing a warm 

place where people can enjoy a hot meal and 

a bottomless pot of tea for £4, and Yr Heliwr 

pub in Nefyn, Wales, has been running ‘Family 

Kitchens’ providing pay-as-you-feel meals, with 

proceeds going to local food banks. 

Mainstream 

traditional 

businesses 

are more 

likely to 

shed staff 

when they’re 

reaching 

financial 

difficulty, 

social 

enterprises 

don’t” 

u 


People in 

communities 

can become 

investors in 

a community 

business by 

buying shares, 

which makes 

them coowners 

and 

gives them a 

say in how the 

business is 

run 

“Those are just three very small examples 

of community businesses that are – because 

of being rooted in their community, knowing 

their customer base, and knowing who their 

vulnerable people are in their locality – making 

sure that they are responding to this moment,” 

says Cowcher. 

Another option for raising funds is community 

shares, a form of equity that is only available to 

co-operative and community benefit societies. 

People in communities can become investors 

in a community business by buying shares, 

which makes them co-owners and gives them a 

say in how the business is run. 

Cowcher describes community shares as an 

“absolutely integral” part of the community 

ownership model that Plunkett promotes. 

“At the early stages, we use community shares 

as a way of building a mass membership, that 

kind of wide and inclusive model of bringing 

people in from across the community,” he says. 

“But also, there’s a significant and longstanding 

track record of community groups raising 

significant capital towards community projects.” 

He adds: “If you’ve got a changing 

demographic in a community – there’s a new 

housing development or new residents have 

moved in – there’s a new opportunity to bring in 

some money but also bring in new members to 

support the society’s activities. 

“So community shares still remains a very, 

very powerful resource, and over a long period 

of time has proven very successful.” 

According to a recent report from Cooperatives 

UK, to date, 130,000 people have 

invested £210m in 539 community businesses 

and organisations through 709 share offers. 

Rose Marley, CEO of Co-operatives UK, 

describes community shares as “enabling 

communities in innovative and life-changing 

ways while ensuring that ownership and control 

of these community businesses stays with the 

people they matter to the most. 

“It’s like crowdfunding but you get to become 

an owner too.” 

John Dawson, head of market development 

at Co-operatives UK, echoed this point, saying 

that with community shares, “you’re becoming 

a member of the society and you’re building in 

that user base. Whereas through crowdfunding, 

it’s a bit more of a transactional relationship that 

doesn’t necessarily continue onwards.” 

Community share offers also tend to be more 

planned out than emergency crowdfunders, 

often coming with a business plan, detailed 

projection, share offer document and set 

proposal to raise money over the long term. 

According to the Co-operatives UK report, 

92% of businesses that have run community 

share offers are still trading, a figure that has not 

changed since 2020. 

Although crowdfunding can be a good way 

to inject some cash into a co-op in the short 

term, withstanding a serious period of crisis 

may require the kinds of activities that increase 

resilience overall. 

Co-ops are still a particularly resilient model, 

and were found to be four times less likely to go 

bust during 2020. 

Coomer points to membership as one of the 

key factors here, saying that with co-ops, and 

especially community businesses, “it’s a much 

wider pool you can go out to. 

“I think it’s where co-ops have managed to 

grow their membership and keep growing their 

membership that are probably the ones that 

have been and will be most resilient.” 


Co-ops and 

Human touch 

By Alice Toomer-McAlpine 

HOW CO-OPERATIVES 

IN THE UK AND 

NORTH AMERICA ARE 

RESPONDING TO MENTAL 

HEALTH CHALLENGES 

In recent years, the third Monday in January has 

been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’. First concocted for 

a UK travel company’s marketing campaign, it 

was supposedly the most depressing day of the 

year, thanks to cold weather, shorter days and 

post-Christmas financial pressures. 

This reflects increased attention around the 

world to mental health – for instance, with the 

mention of suicide and mental health in the 

UN’s Sustainable Development Goal around 

health and wellbeing. 

The pandemic has made things tougher, with 

the World Health Organisation reporting a 25% 

increase in anxiety and depression in 2020. 

And although the idea of Blue Monday is 

pseudoscience, it does offer society the chance 

to discuss mental health. 

Suicide prevention charity Samaritans, for 

example, promotes ‘Brew Monday’, encouraging 

the public to reach out and connect with family, 

friends and colleagues over a cuppa – not only 

on this day, but regularly. 

“The whole purpose of Brew Monday was to 

try and get people together and spend some 

quality time with each other. Rather than 

isolating and being busy with their own lives, 

to share a cup of tea and a catch up with other 

people,” says Sophia of the Manchester and 

Salford Samaritans. 

The Manchester and Salford branch volunteers 

hosted a number of events for Brew Monday, 

collectively making over 250 connections across 

a range of organisations, as well as offering faceto-face 

support to people who are struggling. 

This growing awareness of mental health can 

also be seen in the co-operative world, with UK 

retail societies launching initiatives and funding 

charities such as Samaritans. 

There are also co-ops directly involved in 

UK mental health provision, such as the Good 

Mental Health Cooperative, the Lanarkshire 

Association for Mental Health and Men’s Sheds 

Cymru providing spaces that promote mental 

wellbeing through human connection. 

Further afield in Saskatchewan, Canada, 

Crocus Co-operative was established in 1982 by 

community members who were seeking peer 

support after receiving psychiatric care. Starting 

with simple meetings at home, Crocus now runs 

a space which hosts around 75 people a day. 

u 

The whole 

purpose of 

Brew Monday 

was to try and 

get people 

together and 

spend some 

quality time 

with each 

other” 

t Canada’s Healthy 

Minds Coop works 

to empower people 

with mental health 

issues (Image: Tyler 

Colburne) 


When you 

empower 

people to be 

a part of the 

solution for 

something 

that they’re 

intimately 

experiencing, 

I believe there 

are better 

outcomes” 

q Healthy Minds 

believes the co-op 

ethos brings better 

outcomes (Image: 

Tyler Colburne) 

Everyone who accesses the space becomes a 

lifetime member of the co-op and the board is 

made up of 51% co-op members. 

Executive director Taylor Baier says this level 

of involvement is often lacking in mental health 

provision. “In the mental health world, a lot of 

times people are telling you what you should 

be doing and what you need. And our model 

as a co-op suggests that the people with lived 

experience are the experts, and they’re the ones 

that should be deciding what they need and how 

they need it.” 

A similar approach is taken by Healthy Minds 

Coop in Nova Scotia. The phrase “nothing about 

us, without us” is used by founding member 

Susan Kilbride Roper. “It’s made a difference to 

us to be able to live by the co-op model…there 

was no other model that was so member-driven.” 

Roper, who at 16 began experiencing what 

would later be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, 

says a driving factor for Healthy Minds was the 

need for better representation on community 

needs for people with mental health issues. 

Tyler Colbourne, Healthy Minds’ executive 

director, agrees. “When you empower people 

to be a part of the solution for something that 

they’re intimately experiencing, I believe there 

are better outcomes.” 

Healthy Minds is undergoing a membership 

renewal process, having recently reached out 

to its more than 400 members to centre their 

experience in the running of the co-op. The coop 

is also looking at a multi-stakeholder model, 

which would help staff become more embedded 

in the co-op and gain greater agency at work. 

The need for autonomy at work, and a general 

dissatisfaction with employment options for 

mental health workers, led clinical psychologist 

Billie Somerville to set up Alliance Collective, a 

mental health worker co-op based in New York. 

At first, he set up as a solo practitioner, but 

soon realised he needed a community. 

“In the state of New York, there are so many 

laws around profession of mental health, that 

impose a lot of hierarchies and create a lot of 

obstacles to co-operation in this space. So I 

started a long research project, involving several 

different lawyers and many thousands of dollars, 

to eventually arrive with a legal structure that 

allows us to function as a co-op.” 

Among the first to sign up was social worker 

Juliet Spier, who describes her involvement in 

Alliance as “a huge blessing during one of the 

most challenging times of my life and that for 

most of our clients”. 

Alliance was able to grant Spier three months 

paid time off while she was unable to work due 

to long Covid last year. “[The experience] has 

really shown me how important it is to feel like 

I’m in a work environment where others are 

accommodating to what’s happening for me,” 

she said, “and where I matter more as a human 

being than just a worker.” 

In the wider co-op world, wellbeing 

conversations are becoming more prevalent in 

sectors where mental health is a challenge – like 

agriculture, where farmers have a higher rate of 

suicide than the general population. 

Dr Tara Haskins, total farmer health director at 

the AgriSafe Network, a non-profit that supports 

the wellbeing of agricultural communities in 

the US, says there are a multitude of factors that 

can impact on farmers’ mental health. Pressures 

include the need to maintain connections in 

a community, unexpected challenges such as 

weather events and injury, financial struggles, 

family dynamics and sleep deprivation. 

“People that work in agriculture are often self 

made, and very stoic,” says Haskins. “That is the 

mindset that allows them to be successful, but 

sometimes that same mindset can prevent them 

from seeking help or care when they need it.” 

To mitigate some of these risks, AgriSafe 

runs a number of initiatives, including the 

recent launch of a crisis line for producers, 

training for healthcare professionals and 

community members, and a Mental Health 

Innovation Exchange events programme. 

This activity is part-funded by farmerowned 

CHS, one of the US’s leading 

co-ops with over 10,000 employees worldwide. 

“Several years ago, we started hearing from 

some of our members that they were under 

an immense amount of stress,” says senior 


stewardship specialist Tera Stoddard, who adds 

that when it comes to mental health, “CHS may 

not be the expert, but we did want to provide 

some resources for our members to help them in 

their journey.” 

CHS sees its role in this area as a connector 

and “trusted partner”, says Stoddard. “Even 

though CHS is a large co-operative, we can put 

faces and names to the issue.” 

The relationship CHS has with its members, 

she adds, is vital to ensuring they have the 

support they need to take care of their wellbeing. 

A similar sentiment is shared by Richard Kaye, 

who works for Openfield, a UK grain marketing 

and arable input co-operative owned by its 

4,000 members. 

In recent years Openfield has ramped up 

communications about mental wellbeing, 

making more use of its platforms internally and 

externally. 

“By doing that, we are promoting that it’s all 

right to talk about mental health,” says Kaye. 

“Senior leadership talk about it, so when our 

reps are talking to our members and they sense 

something’s not quite right, they’ve got the 

courage to raise it.” 

Openfield regularly shares content about 

wellbeing on social media, including a tweet on 

Blue Monday promoting the Lincolnshire Rural 

Support Network and the Farming Community 

Network helplines. It dedicates at least two 

pages of its colleague publication to wellbeing 

topics every issue; December’s edition included 

a guide to managing new year anxiety. 

Both Openfield and CHS say that being coops 

gives them more incentive than a traditional 

business to consider their members’ wellbeing. 

Stoddard says that as a co-operative, CHS has 

“more skin in the game”, adding “the people 

that we are targeting these resources to are the 

people that own us. And so there’s that deeper 

personal connection and responsibility, to really 

take care of our farmer owners, maybe more so 

than if we were just a corporation.” 

The concept of connection was a recurring 

theme throughout all of these conversations, 

and a key part of the Brew Monday initiative led 

by Samaritans, says Sophia. 

“Human connection allows the opportunity 

to feel part of something, a community. Brew 

Monday was asking people to break down those 

barriers about difficult conversations. So checking 

in with people and seeing how they’re doing, 

which often we don’t do in our normal lives.” 

Social worker Claudia Maisch echoes this 

focus on connection and understanding when 

talking about her experience as a worker member 

at Alliance Collective. “We all need people, we 

need connection,” she says. “So much of our 

world tries to dismember and pathologise that 

need. I think a lot of people feel very alienated 

in our world … so the more we can return people 

to their needs of connection, I think absolutely 

helps people’s mental health. 

“And as a worker in this world, I think the cooperative 

model has really allowed me to feel 

less afraid of talking about my needs and feel 

more supported and more heard and understood 

by my colleagues.” 

Tyler Colbourne from Healthy Minds goes a 

step further: he believes co-ops are “part of the 

solution for a better world”. 

“We see crumbling systems left, right and 

centre,” he says. “People are dying in emergency 

rooms, police are having to respond to more 

mental health crises. So I think we’re at a 

convergent point where I think things are going 

to have to shift, and I hope co-operatives are part 

of the solution going forward.” 

Farmers have 

a higher rate 

of suicide than 

the general 

population in 

a number of 

countries 

p CHS Coop in the 

US is working with its 

farmer members on 

mental health 

and wellbeing 

(Image: CHS) 


Carbon 

offsetting 

co-op 

OFFERS CLIMATE ACTION TO HELP THE WORLD’S 

POOREST COMMUNITIES 


A carbon offsetting co-op has been launched 

to ensure that climate action helps the world’s 

poorest people, who are being worst affected by 

global heating. 

Co-operative Climate Action – launched 

by five volunteer co-founders from the UK, 

France and Malawi – says it offers offsets that 

“reduce carbon, sustain biodiversity, and have 

the potential to tackle poverty and support 

small community businesses, so they can be 

economically sustainable in the long term”. 

The team is led by Mark Lewis – former chair 

of Wooldale Co-operative, now part of Central, 

and founder director of the Fair Traders Cooperative 

– and has already identified a number 

of viable projects, established a resource centre 

in Malawi, and undertaken a pilot planting of 

360 giant clumping bamboo plants. 

“Co-operatives are doing a lot to move towards 

net zero,” said Lewis, “but in the meantime 

people in Malawi, one of the poorest countries 

in the world, are already suffering from flooding, 

disease, and hunger because of climate change, 

and it will only get worse over the next decade. 

“Co-operative Climate Action has been 

launched for people who want to offset their 

carbon emissions by helping those worst 

affected in a spirit of co-operation.” 

He says the bamboo plants in Malawi are 

one way to help tackle the climate crisis. “This 

non-invasive cultivar absorbs more than four 

times the amount of CO2 annually than the 

fastest growing trees and provides a sustainable 

source of fuel that removes the need to cut down 

mature trees. 

“Furthermore, it can provide goat fodder, 

nutritious food, water treatment, erosion control, 

and replace steel and timber in construction.“ 

Action on the environment is crucial in 

Malawi. Lewis points out that as only a tiny 


minority of the population has electricity, and 

gas is unaffordable, charcoal and firewood is 

used to cook and boil water, which has led to the 

devastation of the country’s mature forests. 

To remedy this, the co-op is working with 

small local groups instead of large commercial 

plantations. It has set up a collaboration with 

the Wildlife and Environmental Association 

of Malawi, which has over 3,000 volunteer 

groups around the country, to establish small 

community plots. 

“This makes planting and care easier as well 

as reducing the need for women to carry the fuel 

long distances as happens at present,” adds 

Lewis. “Smallholders contribute financially so 

they value the plants and can repay the cost after 

three years when harvesting starts. 

“They are setting up a robust measurement, 

reporting and verification process and will be 

establishing a co-operative in Malawi to manage 

the project.” 

Having started with investment from the 

founder directors, the co-op now hopes to 

expand the planting and implement other 

projects with funding from the co-operative 

movement. 

One possible area of action is replacing the 

charcoal fires used for cooking and heating. 

Potential solutions depend on the local 

conditions, says the co-op, but in this part of 

Malawi agricultural waste in the form of rice 

husks and bagasse from sugar cane is readily 

available. 

This can be converted to fuel briquettes using 

simple technology, but local businesses need 

capital and training to get started. The co-op 

says it has obtained a pilot-scale machine to 

demonstrate the technology and now needs 

funding to get the product into the market and 

scale up production. 

Another project in its early days is Sani 

Carpentry Co-operative, set up to sell products 

made from sustainable wood. Co-operative 

Climate Action has donated a building and tools 

to the start-up and found a carpenter willing 

to train local young people. Sani now needs 

funding to install solar power and cover its 

initial losses. 

Funds are also needed for the Kasangazi Hydro 

Scheme, set up by a local construction worker on 

a small hillside stream “using a 10m plastic pipe, 

an old generator, some wire and a couple of old 

pop bottles to increase the outlet water velocity; 

all for about £200”. 

It supplies over 50 households, plus the local 

primary school, and a maize mill with power 

so they can have light in the evenings, charge 

phones, and watch TV. It has secured funding to 

build a proper dam but the turbine and generator 

need replacing, and it also has plans for a small 

manufacturing unit. 

Co-operative Climate Action also wants to 

introduce solar pumps, to replace the petrol 

ones used to extract water from Lake Malawi for 

irrigation, and to dam a feeder stream for use as 

a fish pond. It has identified a possible site and is 

receiving technical assistance from the fisheries 

department. 

One of the effects of climate change on Malawi 

is disruption to the electricity supply – it has 

reduced water levels in the country’s hydro 

power system so severely there are frequent 

power cuts. To help people light their homes 

at night – allowing children to study – the coop 

is importing solar panels, LED light bulbs 

and rechargeable batteries for under £15 for 

households to buy over a six-month period. It is 

now looking for funds to increase the shipment 

and set up a business to administer the scheme. 

Individuals or corporates can become 

members and purchase offsets from the co-op’s 

website and are encouraged to assist with the 

development of the business. 

For further information contact Mark Lewis 

at: info@coopclimateaction.com 

p A sample set of fuel 

briquettes from agri 

waste 

One of the petrol 

pumps used to pump 

water from the lake 


Can the co-op model fix our 

anti-social 

media? 


Social media has long been the source of unease 

which periodically balloons into full-scale crisis 

whenever there is a fresh outpouring of hate 

speech, fake news and conspiracy theories, 

or the alleged manipulation of user data to 

undermine democratic processes. At the most 

serious end of the scale are allegations that 

Facebook algorithms shared hate speech which, 

a report by Amnesty International argues, helped 

incite the 2017 genocide against the Rohingya 

Muslim community in Myanmar; social media 

was also implicated in the racist mass shooting 

in Buffalo, USA, in 2022. 

Problems often come hand in hand with 

technological innovations, which spread and 

evolve faster than societies can anticipate and 

adapt to, and in unexpected directions. Social 

media can seem especially threatening because 

it connects itself so intimately to its users – 

and hoovers up their data in the process; and 

its explosion has left policymakers around the 

world floundering for solutions, with proposals 

ranging from trust-busting measures to the 

ongoing saga of the UK Online Safety Bill. 

It’s a sad outcome, given the optimism 

which initially surrounded the internet and its 

potential to reform human discourse and power 

structures. Social media activists have notched 

up a number of successes – notably defying a 

gagging order brought in 2009 by law firm Carter 

Ruck, acting for oil trading company Trafigura, 

accused of dumping toxic waste in Cote d’Ivoire. 

Trafigura went on to pay a £30m out of court 

settlement, in a class action suit brought by 

nearly 30,000 Ivorians. 

Co-operators – and in particular those 

involved in the platform co-op movement – have 

long been highlighting the potential of mutual 

ownership models to clean up social media. 

In 2017 they submitted a motion to Twitter’s 


shareholders to consider conversion to a cooperative 

model. It gained just 4% of the vote but 

prompted valuable debate – debate which has 

re-opened after the messy saga of Elon Musk’s 

US$44bn takeover of the tech giant. 

Another reform advocate is Timothy Devinney, 

professor of international business at the UK’s 

University of Manchester, who proposed in 

the Conversation last month “a hybrid of a cooperative 

and a public company for Twitter”. 

He suggests buying out Musk and his backers 

“via a combination of cash, loans and debt 

rollovers” and reforming Twitter under a BCorp 

model of ethical business. 

A single Twitter share would go to any 

individual or company with a Twitter account 

with minimum usage; and anyone with an 

active account could purchase up to nine more 

shares at an IPO price to be determined, with a 

maximum holding of ten. 

Anyone wishing to join Twitter in future would 

have to purchase at least one share at the market 

price, with “gratis” shares for groups such as 

charities or NGOs. 

Anyone violating Twitter’s user policy – over 

hate speech, for example – would have their 

account suspended, including any claim to 

dividends. They could, however, sell their shares 

and close their accounts. 

In his Conversation piece, Devinney argues 

this is a better method of validation than 

simply paying for a blue tick. “One cannot 

remain anonymous to the organisation as an 

individual shareholder. It removes the threat of 

fake accounts, and gives users a formal say in 

company decisions.” 

It would also bring Twitter into public 

ownership, opening up its management and 

governance to scrutiny. “Users would be able 

to benefit financially and socially from the 

platform’s success. And it gives Musk a way to 

minimise his losses and exit Twitter easily.” 

Crucially, he adds: “It could become the public 

forum we need,” giving people a tool to respond 

to political and corporate control. 

Meanwhile, the group of “users, shareholders 

and workers” behind the Buy Twitter campaign 

– including platform co-operators Danny 

Spitzberg and Nathan Schneider – have renewed 

their efforts, operating as #BetterPlatform. 

The group is canvassing the public for ideas 

“to imagine a better platform where we decide, 

The wave of dismissals 

that followed Musk’s arrival 

prompted a feeling of “chaos 

and anxiety” with “little hope 

for any real agency” 

together” how to bring “broad-based ownership 

and accountability” to Twitter. 

The wave of dismissals that followed Musk’s 

arrival prompted a feeling of “chaos and 

anxiety” with “little hope for any real agency”, 

with more than 20,000 users joining an online 

space hosted by Buzzfeed tech reporter Katie 

Notopoulos to bemoan the situation. 

Spurred into action, Better Platform recently 

polled its followers and found three key 

takeaways: that the site is seen as a “public 

utility”; those who get the most value work in 

journalism, content moderation, and influence; 

and the top wish is for a new governing body. 

And 57% of the 17,500,000 votes called for 

Musk to step down; asked how the next CEO 

should be chosen, the most popular option was 

a civic assembly on 39.8% – beating a “smokefilled 

boardroom” into second place on 36% and 

a Twitter poll to 24.2%. 

pElon Musk’s 

acquisition of Twitter 

is the latest source of 

unrest in the world of 

social media 

(Images: Getty) 


SEWA Delhi Declaration 

By Anca Voinea 

p The Declaration 

was adopted on 14 

December at SEWA’s 

national workshop in 

Delhi (Photo credit: 

SEWA) 

SETS OUT WOMEN’S 

CO-OPS’ PRIORITIES AHEAD 

OF NATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE 

POLICY 

SEWA Cooperative Federation held a national 

workshop in Delhi on 13-14 December to 

celebrate its 40th anniversary. Over 100 women 

co-operators from 18 states across India attended 

the event, which was co-organised by SEWA, the 

National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) and 

ICA Asia-Pacific (ICA-AP). 

Themed Strengthening Solidarity: Enabling 

Women’s Cooperatives and Collective Enterprises 

to Thrive, the workshop explored issues around 

access to finance, the ease of doing business, 

marketing, governance, capacity-building and 

digital inclusion. 

As it closed, the event adopted a declaration, 

making a series of recommendations to 

strengthen women’s co-ops and women’s 

leadership within the co-operative movement. 

One of SEWA’s main commitments in the 

declaration is to continue to organise women, 

particularly those in the informal economy, 

into co-operatives. The apex also promises 

to continue linking women with government 

programmes and support services to support 

their economic empowerment. 

Another pledge is to keep providing access to 

affordable financial services for women, including 

working capital and insurance. Alongside this, 

SEWA will continue to offer financial literacy and 

management training to women co-operators to 

help them grow their businesses. 

Another important area of work for SEWA 

is co-operative education and the federation 

intends to keep educating women workers on 

the co-operative values and principles while 

building social solidarity. To this end, SEWA 

will continue to provide capacity-building and 

leadership programmes for women co-operators 

while developing a network of grassroots 

trainers and providing opportunities for peer-topeer 

learning and digital literacy. 


The largest section of the declaration 

includes suggestions and commitments 

around advocating for appropriate laws, 

policies and programmes that promote 

women’s co-operatives and collective 

entrepreneurship. To this end, SEWA pledges 

to collect gender-disaggregated, state-wide 

data and co-operatives and share this with 

state and national authorities to enable cooperative-to-co-operative 

trade. 

The apex also calls for a simplification of 

the registration procedures for co-operatives 

engaged in non-traditional economic activities, 

and the development of new compliance and 

reporting systems through a consultative 

process with women co-operators. 

Across the two days, women co-operators 

highlighted the urgent need to simplify the 

registration process for women’s co-operatives. 

Renana Jhabvala, president of SEWA Bharat and 

Padma Shri Award winner, pointed out that it 

can take a year and a half to set up a women’s coop 

under the Cooperative Act, while registering 

under the Company Act takes only a month. 

“There is a need to look at the matter and 

make the process easy,” she told the meeting. 

Other measures suggested in the declaration 

include a tax exemption for women’s co-op with a 

turnover of up to Rs20 crore (£1.98m), developing 

a women’s co-operative enterprise development 

fund, ensuring that the autonomy of co-ops 

and co-op federations is recognised and 

protected, and supporting the digitisation of 

women’s co-operatives. The declaration also 

demands increased representation for women 

on co-op boards. 

The event also heard from ICA-AP president 

Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, who addressed the 

lack of female representation on some co-op 

boards, calling on women to “fight elections” 

rather than restricting themselves to competition 

for all-women reserved seats. 

With the G20 taking place in India this 

year, SEWA’s declaration highlights the 

importance of linking women’s co-operatives 

and their federations with the G20 processes, 

showcasing their contributions to the Indian 

and global economy and facilitating preferential 

procurement from cooperatives, 

including 

export orders. 

Over the course of 

the two days women’s 

co-ops attending the 

workshop were able 

to sell their products 

at a dedicated Women 

Cooperatives Bazaar 

Over 100 women 

co-operators from 

18 states across India 

attended the event 

within the NCUI 

premises, which served 

as the venue for the 

workshop. 

The declaration was presented to the national 

committee set up by the Indian government 

to develop a new national co-operative policy. 

SEWA says it hopes the committee will include 

the recommendations in the national co-operative 

policy, currently in development. 

t Over 100 women 

co-operators from 18 

states met in Delhi for 

the national workshop 

(Photo credit: SEWA) 


REVIEW 

Citizenship: Storyteller’s big fix to usher in a 

co-operative new world 

Citizens: Why the Key 

to Fixing Everything Is 

All of Us 

by Jon Alexander with 

Ariane Conrad 

Canbury Press, £20 

With pandemic, war, economic problems and 

ecological crises piling up, we find ourselves – not 

for the first time in history – with tough decisions 

to make, and here is the latest in a line of books by 

progressive thinkers, suggesting collective response. 

Inspiring such collective action is a tough call in 

an era of growing individualism, as co-author Jon 

Alexander knows too well – a former ad man until 

he lost his stomach for the industry’s excesses, 

he was a footsoldier in the consumer culture that 

helped to undermine our collective spirit. He now 

believes that we need to stop seeing ourselves as 

consumers, and start acting, on a daily basis, as 

citizens to meet the world’s challenges. 

Co-operators have long advocated the telling of 

stories to promote the movement’s strengths, and 

Alexander values narrative. Co-written with ‘book 

doula’ Ariane Conrad, this books sees the history 

of human identity as one of changing stories: for 

much of history the dominant narrative was the 

Subject Story, placing people under the authority 

of a crown; the Consumer Story offered a liberation 

from this but now “in order to survive and thrive, 

we must step into the Citizen Story”. Citizens, he 

says, are “people who actively shape the world 

around us, who cultivate meaningful connections 

to their community and institutions, who can 

imagine a different and better life, who care and 

take responsibility, and who create opportunities 

for others to do the same.” 

The path to this is not a clear one. If the pandemic 

inspired citizen efforts, it also prompted consumerbased 

government initiatives like the UK’s thenchancellor 

Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out To Help Out 

scheme. And businesses which won praise for their 

ethical stance, such as BrewDog, have often found 

themselves mired in ethical problems. 

Retail co-ops also have one foot in the citizen and 

consumer camps, and Alexander uses his notion of 

the two stories to shed fresh light on the crisis at the 

Co-op Group that led to the loss of the Co-op Bank. 

He notes that the citizen ethos was part of the Coop 

at its inception in Rochdale. But “as the Consumer 

Story took hold … and challenges to market share 

arose from the fast-growing supermarket chains, 

the model began to creak, and ultimately power 

flooded in from the local to the central.” 

The centralisation process, starting in the 1960s, 

led to “a corporation called the Co-op Group”, says 

Alexander – a “ big beast, which was far more 

distant and less relatable”. 

The Bank, he argues, “was at the epicentre of the 

problem. When power poured into what had been 

the CWS, all the various governance structures 

were simply thrown together, and resulted in a 

huge bank governed by a board arguably akin to 

the worst kind of parish council, its members more 

motivated by perceived status than meaningful 

opportunities to contribute.” 

Alexander’s response to such events was to help 

launch the New Citizenship Project (NCP), which 

has been working with the Group – as well as 

organisations such as the National Trust and the 

BBC – to encourage more participation by members 

and users. With the Group, NCP has “crowdsourced 

recipes for new food products, co-created a new 

travel insurance offering, invited widespread input 

into its new food sourcing policy, and much more”. 

A highlight, he says, is the work during the 

pandemic of the Group’s Member Participation 

team to establish a network of online, member-led 

229 ‘grief cafés,’ where members come together to 

share an online space to feel less alone. 

Alexander sees the co-op model as a useful driver 

for the citizenship ethos, and also highlights newer 

ideas like platform co-operativism and the campaign 

for citizen-controlled social media platforms. 

If co-operation is a useful mechanism for his 

Citizen Story, the Citizen Story also offers inspiration 

for co-ops. Alexander compiles moving case studies 

of individuals coming together to improve their 

communities – from a residents’ group in Grimsby 

to activists in a slum on the edge of Nairobi, Kenya, 

working to tackle sexual violence, clean streets and 

launch small businesses. He’s realistic about the 

barriers to progress, but he takes an optimistic view 

of human nature and argues that we need to roll up 

our sleeves to make change happen. 

“This work of transformation is not easy. We 

have to get beyond the usual suspects of mission 

statements, supply chains, diversity initiatives. 

We have to go beneath the surface, and rebuild 

from the inside out. We have to get into the detail. 

This is because, even having recognised the 

Citizen in ourselves and others as individuals, 

the gravitational pull of business-as-usual in 

entrenched institutions can still drag us back to the 

old ways of doing things.” 


Scotmid Co-operative is Scotland’s 

largest independent co-operative 

and has been at the heart 

of Scottish communities since 1859. 

We have an exciting opportunity 

for someone to join our business 

in the new role of Society 

Secretary, reporting directly to 

our Board of Directors. 

If you relish a challenge and the 

opportunity to influence at a 

senior level, whilst also making a 

difference to local communities, 

this is the role for you! 

We would consider applicants who 

are currently working in a Deputy 

Secretary role or similar, who are 

seeking a development opportunity. 

The role will provide full secretariat 

support to the Board. In addition, 

the Society Secretary will also 

provide support and guidance to 

the Community and Membership 

Team to ensure the effective 

implementation of the Society’s 

Membership Strategy. 

While listed as a full-time position, 

we would be happy to consider 

candidates that require part time 

or compressed hours. 

The role will be primarily based 

in our Head Office in Newbridge, 

Edinburgh, but there are 

opportunities for hybrid working. 

There is a comprehensive 

remuneration package on offer for 

this demanding role, including: 

• Indicative salary circa £70k 

(dependant 

on experience) 

• Defined Benefit Pension 

Scheme 

• Tax beneficial share saving 

scheme 

• BUPA (dental and health) for 

employee, 

reduced rates for family 

• Cycle to Work salary sacrifice 

scheme 

• Generous holiday entitlement 

How to apply 

For a full job specification, visit bit.ly/3k2Hgmb 

To apply, please submit your CV and cover letter to 

lmacgillivray@scotmid.co.uk no later than 28 February 2023. 

For further information on our business, visit www.scotmid.co.uk

DIARY 

Do you have a co-operative 

event – taking place in person, 

online, or as a hybrid – to be 

featured? 

Tell us at: events@thenews.coop 

Conversations with Gamechangers – 

Guerrilla Translation 

11 February (online, 3-5pm GMT) 

Guerrilla Translation is an activist 

commons-oriented co-operative created 

to share ideas between communities and 

spread the word about things that matter. 

To help support activist translators and 

freelancers to use their skills for causes 

they care about while also making a living, 

Guerrilla Translation has developed a 

new kind of livelihood vehicle which 

combines two functions: a voluntary 

translation/media collective working for 

activist causes, and an income-generating 

cooperative agency providing translation 

and communication services. 

bit.ly/3VjKuiM 

Fairtrade Fortnight 

27 February - 12 March 

This year’s campaign, which is backed 

by and supports co-operatives around 

the world, will highlight the message 

that whatever your budget and wherever 

you shop, when you choose Fairtrade, 

you support farmers to take care of the 

environment through Fairtrade’s Price, 

Premium and Programmes. 

bit.ly/3kIfCLG 

UK Society for Co-operative Studies 

Conference 

24-25 February (Lincoln, UK) 

This conference will take the opportunity 

to reflect on Consumer Co-operation, 

particularly in the context of the business 

and service delivery changes over the past 

three years. The programme will include 

panel discussions and academic papers, 

exploring the position of consumer 

co-operatives in the present, looking 

at member engagement, the use of 

technology to facilitate online meetings 

and how data is shaping retailers’ 

relationships with members. 

ukscs.coop 

Women’s Voices 

8 March (Staffordshire, UK) 

To celebrate international Women’s Day 

2023, Central Co-op is again hosting its 

annual Women’s Voices event, at the 

National Memorial Arboretum, with 

workshops and guest speakers including 

Dame Pauline Green and Dame Margaret 

Beckett. 

Co-op Retail Conference 

24-26 March (Cheshire, UK) 

The Co-operative Retail Conference is the 

only annual event designed specifically 

for co-op retailers. It attracts leaders, 

managers and directors of consumer 

owned retail co-ops from across the UK. 

uk.coop/crc 

Playground for the New Economy Festival 

19-20 May (Manchester, UK) 

Stir to Action’s annual festival is heading 

to Stretford Public Hall for two days of 

panels, workshops, local DJs, and food. 

stirtoaction.com/festival 

UK Co-op Congress 

June (date and location TBC) 

Co-op Congress brings together those 

working to build a fairer economy to share 

ideas, get inspiration and take action. 

Details TBC 

International Day of Cooperatives 

1 July 

ICA CCR Global and European Cooperative 

Research Conference 

10-13 July (Leuven Belgium) 

The overall theme of the 2023 conference 

is ‘Governing cooperative innovation’ and 

will bring together academia, researchers, 

and co-operative practitioners from all 

over the world, as well as policy-makers 

at the EU and international level, to 

discuss the latest research and policy 

developments in the area of co-operative 

governance. The event is hosted by 

the Centre of Expertise for Cooperative 

Entrepreneurship (KCO KU Leuven), a 

research and teaching centre. 

info@icaccr2023.com 

2023 World Credit Union Conference 

23-26 July (Vancouver, Canada) 

The global credit union education and 

networking event offered by the financial 

services industry is returning to Canada. 

Organised by the World Council of Credit 

Unions and the Canadian Credit Union 

Association (CCUA), the event will hear 

from global industry experts on a variety 

of topics. The educational programme 

includes breakout sessions, workshops, 

keynote sessions and a Solution Center 

geared towards solving today’s challenges. 

wcuc.org 

Practitioners Forum 

23 November (Manchester) 

One of the leading training and 

development events for people working 

in co-operative businesses – big and 

small – Practitioners Forum is an annual 

sell-out. It hosts around 20 covering 

membership, governance, finance, HR 

and communications. 

Details TBC 


1–13 11–13 

24–26 

March March 

March 

2022 2022 

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The • only The only dedicated dedicated retail retail conference conference for for 

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For • leaders, For leaders, managers managers and directors and directors 

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Keynote • Keynote presentations from from industry industry 

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Unrivalled • Unrivalled learning learning and networking 

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ook Book your your places places now now at at 

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Co-op News February 2023

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