About Us

Archive - April 2008

What is the Co-operative Group?

The Co-operative Group is a consumer-owned organisation with clear trading and social goals.  Underpinned by our values and principles we work with our members to make changes for the better.  Always forward thinking and aiming to be ahead of the game, we encourage new ideas to tackle issues that are important to our members – from helping the community to changing the world.

The Co-operative Group has a responsibility to manage and develop its family of businesses in a sustainable way, and we have been offering good quality products and services at reasonable prices for well over 100 years. The Group’s businesses include food retail, financial services, farms, pharmacies, funeral directors and travel.  Ethical trading is what we are about.

The Co-operative Group is one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives with over four million members.  We employ over 87,500 people and an estimated 10 million customers every week contribute to a combined turnover of £9.4 billion.

The Group has a clear vision to be ‘the best co-operative business in the world’.  Underlying this vision, the Group operates on the basis of a clear set of values and principles that are harmonious with our proposed role in the development of the eco-Town

 

Our vision

To be the best co-operative business in the world.

Our aims

• To strive for world-class levels of business performance.
• To be open, responsible and rewarding, putting co-operative values and principles into everyday practice.
• To enhance the lives of our people, members, customers and the communities in which we trade.
• To work for the long-term success of the co-operative sector.

 

Our objective

The core objective of the Co-operative Group is to optimise profits from businesses where our co-operative values give us a positive marketing advantage, allowing us to serve our members and to deliver our social goals as a successful co-operative, while making a reasonable financial return to our member-owners, both corporate and individual.

What is a co-operative?

A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise. (The International Co-operative Alliance Statement on the Co-operative Identity, Manchester 1995.)

Values

Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.  In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

Principles

The co-operative principles are guidelines by which co-opertaives put their values into practice. They are:

• Voluntary and open membership
• Democratic member control
• Autonomy and independence
• Education, training and information
• Co-operation among co-operatives
• Concern for community

 

 

Recognition

In May 2007, Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) was placed in the Platinum (leading) Group of the 110 companies that publicly particpated in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index 2006. The Index is a voluntary self-assessment survey that benchmarks corporate responsibility strategy (and its integration), management, reporting and performance in a range of social and environmental ares. CFS attained a score of 98% and emerged as sector leader amongst the six participating insurers against whom its was benchmarked.

Furthermore, in early 2007, the Group received a Queen's Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development Category, in acknowledgment of the comprehensive approach taken to its management of sustainability - in particular, its approach to ethical investment.

Why we’re different

We are not a Plc and do not have shareholders where financial return is the sole motivating factor. A co-operative is a group of people acting together to meet the common needs and aspirations of its members, sharing ownership and making decisions democratically. 

The Co-operative Group is a collection of businesses that share the same values and principles.  Whether it is the environment, animal rights, Fairtrade or genetically modified food, we want to make sure people are able to do business with us assured about where their money is going. 

This ethos and approach is at the heart of the Co-operative Group’s proposal for an eco-town in Leicestershire.

To find out more about the Co-operative Group, click on the link to be directed to the Co-operative Group Homepage.

What is English Partnerships?

English Partnerships is the national regeneration agency helping the Government to support high quality sustainable growth in England by creating well-served mixed communities where people enjoy living and working. 

This is achieved by unlocking and increasing the supply of land - particularly surplus public sector sites - to meet housing and other growth needs.  Through innovation and raising standards, English Partnerships helps improve quality of life and enhance the environment.

In collaboration with the Housing Corporation, the Academy for Sustainable Communities, and CLG, English Partnerships are establishing the new Homes and Communities Agency that will begin operating in 2009.