Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative Limited

Type	Consumer Co-operative
Industry	Grocer, Travel Agent, Funeral Director, Ophthalmic Optician
Predecessor	Anglia Regional Co-operative Midlands Co-operative
Founded	2013 (Derby 1854)
Headquarters	Central House, Hermes Road, Lichfield, Staffordshire WS13 6RH, United Kingdom
Area served	English Midlands, East Anglia
Key people	Maria Lee, President Martyn Cheatle, Chief Executive
Revenue	£844.7m (2016) £870.6m (2014)
Operating income	£19.8m (2016) £18.9m (2015)
Members	329,000 (regular trading)
Number of employees	8,700
Website	centralengland.coop

Central England Co-operative is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. It was formed in 2014, following the 2013 merger of the Anglia Regional and Midlands Co-operative societies.

Registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, Central England Co-operative is the second largest independent retail co-operative in the UK; a member of Co-operatives UK, it is a corporate member of The Co-operative Group, the largest consumer co-operative in the world, and is a member of the national buying group for retail co-operatives, Co-operative Federal Trading Services.

The Society's key businesses are its 235 foodstores and 120 funeral directors which all trade using the 2008 version of The Co-operative brand. The co-operative also has a wide ranging and extensive portfolio, including five stonemasonry outlets, a coffin factory and crematorium; it has 1,731,005 members (including over 329,000 regular trading members) and 8,800 employees (figures as January 2016).

On 19 September 2013, it was announced that the boards of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society and Midlands Co-operative Society had agreed merger terms. Approved by members on 4 and 18 November, legal completion of the merger took place on 1 December, with the Anglia Society transferring engagements to Midlands Co-operative. On 15 January 2014, members of the merged society approved a change of name to Central England Co-operative effective from 25 January 2014.

Tracing its origins to 1876, Anglia Regional Co-operative was formed by the merger of the Greater Peterborough Regional and Anglia (formerly Waveney) co-operative societies in 1987. Headquartered in Peterborough, the Society principally traded in the eastern counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, although it had gained wider outreach through the acquisition of co-operative department stores in Yorkshire and the South East of England.