Midcounties Co-operative

The Midcounties Co-operative Limited

Type	Consumer Co-operative
Industry	Retail (Wholesale)
Founded	2005 (1853)
Headquarters	Warwick Technology Park
Products	Food, Pharmacy, Funeralcare, Travel, Childcare, Post Office Flexible Benefits and Energy
Revenue	£1.167 billion
Number of employees	9,487
Website	www.midcounties.coop

The Midcounties Co-operative is the largest independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom.^[1] Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-operatives UK and the Co-operative Retail Trading Group.

The Society's principal activity is retailing in the English Midlands. Its trading groups are Food, Funeralcare, Travel, Pharmacy, Post Office, Childcare, Flexible Benefits and Energy. The Midcounties Co-operative has its headquarters in Warwickshire, with trading outlets in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and the surrounding counties, but also has a national trading presence through its Travel, Childcare, Energy and Flexible Benefits businesses.

In 2015 Co-operative Energy initially became the fourth most complained about utility company, with thousands of customers left without bills for six months, before then becoming the second most complained about company and later, in the third quarter of the year, the most complained about.^[2][3][4]

As of mid 2013, Midcounties became a £1bn business with more than 500 sites and 439,000 members. In 2014 trade with members as a proportion of total sales increased to over 45%.

The Midcounties Co-operative has a strong commitment to investing in the communities in which it trades through responsible trading, local sourcing, community projects and charitable work. To this end the co-op invested 17.6% of its 2013-2014 pre-tax profits (£1.8m) into the communities in which it trades. This figure is significantly higher than the average value for large UK co-ops (6.9%) or other rival supermarkets (2.4%).^[5] The Society was a pioneer of the 'Fair Tax Mark' and has been ranked in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies To Work For list in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Its mission statement is 'To be a successful consumer co-operative working towards creating a better, fairer world, and to enhance the lives of our colleagues, members, customers, and the communities we serve'.

It has also invested in Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative in Watchfield, Oxfordshire, identified by its promoters as the UK's largest community-owned wind farm at its opening in 2008.^[6]

The founding (non-executive) president is Patrick Gray.

History

The Midcounties Co-operative was formed in 2005, by the merger of the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-operative Society and the West Midlands Co-operative Society. As a result, the Society's geographical trading area spans seven counties, including Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Following the inception and growth of the Travel, Childcare, Flexible Benefits and Energy businesses, it is now a nationally trading Society.

Some of the earliest predecessor societies that combined with others to eventually form The Midcounties Co-operative are:

The Society is governed by general meetings of its members.

Businesses

The Co-operative food store in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

The Midcounties Co-operative is one of several independent co-operatives that uses The Co-operative brand across its businesses. These are:

Food

The Midcounties Co-operative is one of the largest independent food retailers in the country with 238 stores, operating as The Co-operative Food.

Pharmacy

The Midcounties Co-operative owns 46 pharmacies, operating as The Co-operative Pharmacy. The group offers a wide range of extended services to customers, such as support to quit smoking, medicine use reviews, a weight management service and asthma reviews.The Pharmacy group controls the co-operativehealthcare.co.uk website and in 2013 launched a new Online Doctor service providing online medical care and prescriptions direct to customers' homes.

Funeralcare

The Midcounties Co-operative, operating as The Co-operative Funeralcare, owns 80 funeral homes and three masonry sites. The group has over 150 years' experience in providing Funeralcare to its local communities.

Travel

The Midcounties Co-operative operates 57 travel branches across Midcounties' trading area and controls the Cooptravel.co.uk & Co-operativeski.co.uk websites. The Travel business is branded as Co-operative Travel (Part of the Midcounties Co-operative) and is not to be confused with the other Co-operative Travel, which is owned & operated by Thomas Cook. It can be difficult to differentiate between the brands, but look out for the dark blue signage & online presence (as well as the Midcounties reference) for Cooptravel.co.uk, compared to the bright orange signage of the other Co-operative Travel.

Childcare

In 2002, the Society became the first UK co-operative to open a children's day care facility. Co-operative Childcare now operates 50 nurseries across the UK. The acquisition of the Buffer Bear nursery chain in 2010 saw its Childcare business begin to trade nationally, with nurseries spanning from Newcastle to Southampton.

Energy

The Midcounties Co-operative's energy business supplies gas and electricity to UK homes, Co-operative Energy. The Co-operative Energy had a historic reputation for sourcing a significant percentage of its electricity supply from renewable sources (68% in 2014), but more recent data from 2015 indicates that this has been cut substantially, and in 2015 just over 4% of their electricity was supplied by renewable sources, over three times less than the national average. In addition, the company's use of coal in its electricity supply significantly increased - now being over a third of its total supply. In addition, the business ran into criticism from customers in 2015 after a failed IT upgrade to its online customer service and billing system caused numerous problems and a large backlog in dealing with issues.^[7] In the first quarter of 2015 it was the fourth most complained about utility company, measured in complaints per thousand customers.^[2] In subsequent quarters it became the second worst and then the worst company.^[4]

Co-operative Flexible Benefits

Co-operative Flexible Benefits turned over £28m in 2013/14, providing Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work schemes. They currently service over 970 employers.

Post Office

The Midcounties Co-operative operates 74 Post Offices employing 293 colleagues, remaining the fourth largest multiple operator of Post Offices in the UK.

Former businesses

Motorworld (also known as The Co-operative Motors) was a co-operative car dealership. Its franchises included Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Hyundai. The Midcounties Co-operative intended it to be the most socially responsible car dealership in the UK, but sold it off in January 2010 at a loss of £2.4 million.^[8][9]

Membership

Membership is open to all, with members receiving a share of the profits in the form of dividend. When members join they are required to invest a minimum of £1 which entitles them to a share in the business. The scheme is run in conjunction with The Co-operative Group membership, allowing a Midcounties card to be used at businesses operated by other participating societies.

The membership card allows members to collect points either by spending in stores or attending events. Points are converted to vouchers twice yearly, usually in May and November. The vouchers can be spent in any of The Midcounties Co-operative's trading outlets, paid into the member's share account or donated to charity.

Values and responsible trading

The Midcounties Co-operative has four values on which the business is run, consisting of Democracy, Openness, Equality and Social Responsibility. These values are dervied from the Co-operative Movement's founding values. The Society is run in a democratic way, with its Board of Directors voted for by its members, it aims to be open and honest with its colleagues and members, strives to promote and embrace equality and is committed to helping its local communities through grant giving and volunteer work, and it also aims to be more environmentally friendly.

Community work

The Midcounties Co-operative has a strong commitment to investing in the communities in which it trades through responsible trading, local sourcing, community projects and charitable work. To this end the co-op invested 17.6% of its 2013-2014 pre-tax profits (£1.8m) into the communities in which it trades. This figure is significantly higher than the average value for large UK co-ops (6.9%) or other rival supermarkets (2.4%).^[5] In 2014 the society provided support for over 10,000 community groups and encouraged colleagues to volunteer over 23,500 hours to support local communities.^[10]

The co-op supports 40 local foodbanks and in 2014 enabled 10,000 products to be donated from its food stores.

Fair Tax

The society firmly believes that community retailers should pay all taxes which are due and should not engage in aggressive artificial tax avoidance. In 2013 the society set out its tax charter and in 2014 the co-op became one of the first businesses in the UK to be awarded the 'Fair Tax Mark'. This certification shows that the business is transparent about its tax affairs and does not engage in tax avoidance.

Environment

Energy consumption across the business is down by 10% since 2009 and own brand packaging is down by 39% since 2006. The society recycles over 80% of all waste (2014) with food waste being converted into renewable energy. All electricity used by the business comes from renewable sources.

In contrast to this, and the group's stated environmental values, the Co-operative Energy business, run by The Midcounties Co-operative, purchases only 4% of its electricity from renewable sources - one of the lowest figures in the whole UK Energy Market. It also has a relatively large portion of coal within its main fuel mix.

Co-operative Development

The co-op provided £100,000 of support for co-operative development though its 'Co-operative Futures' project. In 2014, 83 co-operatives were advised or supported by Co-operative Futures and 17 new registrations of co-operatives were completed. Its total commitment to supporting the growth of co-operatives in 2014 was £280,000.^[10]

Key achievements

The Society was ranked in The Sunday Times Best Big Companies To Work For in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Co-operative Energy received an award from independent consumer body, Which?, for Consumer Action. However, in 2015 it was the most complained-about energy firm in the UK for the period Jul-Sep 2015 according to the official Energy Ombudsman.^[4][11] This was related to problems with the company's billing system.

The Society was awarded Platinum in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2012 and 2013. In 2014 the society was awarded 4.5 stars in the index, reflecting a score of 98% and in 2015 was one of just 4 companies to achieve the highest available 5 star rating.^[12]

Co-operative Energy won Best Corporate Venture at the UK Corporate Entrepreneur Awards 2011.

Co-operative Employee Benefits achieved the ISO9001 standard, which acknowledges the quality of the management system they have in place.

The Society was one of the first businesses to be awarded the Fair Tax Mark.

See also

• British co-operative movement
• Credit unions in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• The Midcounties Co-operative
• Midcounties Co-operative Domains
• Co-operative Flexible Benefits
• The Co-operative Energy
• Midcounties Co-op Travel
• Midcounties Co-operative Ski Holidays
• Midcounties Co-operative Memorials