Co-operative Retail Services
 |
|
| Consumer co-operative | |
| Industry | Retail and wholesale |
| Predecessor | Co-operative Wholesale Society |
| Successor | The Co-operative Group |
| Founded | 1957 (1933 as CWS Retail) |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Manchester, United Kingdom |
Co-operative Retail Services (CRS, originally CWS Retail) was the second-largest consumer co-operative society in the United Kingdom. In 2000, it was dissolved by its members, merging with the larger Co-operative Wholesale Society, to form the Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd.
In 1933, CWS formed a retail division tasked with taking over failing retail consumer co-operatives, and setting up shop in new areas. This division was demerged to form Co-operative Retail Services during 1957. The demerger was prompted by complications with CWS's democratic governance: it was becoming a larger retailer in its own right but it was a secondary co-operative, owned by other co-operatives, meaning the retail division's customers had little representation on the board. However elections were still held with rival political groups standing, such as the 1960 Committee which attempted to give a more left-wing leadership to the London Region of CRS.
CRS expanded and opened up new co-op shops in the "co-op deserts" of the south-east and south-west of England where co-operative activity had historically been low. The CRS was also charged with rescuing failing societies and from the 1950s it began to an increasing number of loss-making co-ops, to the point where the CRS itself began to become loss-making. At which point the Co-operative Wholesale Society began to become the default rescuer of failing co-ops after it had itself absorbed the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, which brought the CWS back to operating its own retail division, in 1973.
During the mid-1990s, CRS began an ambitious investment programme. The society saw the CWS-led Co-op brand as old and out-dated and began a huge refurbishment programme of its ageing and neglected stores under a new 'Co-operative' identity. Slow to adopt the commonplace EPoS systems for its tills, and still pricing products individually rather than using barcode scanners, it also invested in information technology.
In 2000, these changes and improvements were overtaken by events, as CRS was merged back into CWS to form The Co-operative Group. Over the following few years, the re-branding efforts were temporarily reversed as stores and own brand goods were converted into CWS-designed formats – which included the 1992 version of the 1967 CWS four leaf clover "Co-op" logo. However, in 2007, the movement's re-branding programme reintroduced the name Co-operative to these stores.
...
Wikipedia