Cooperative Wholesale Society
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| Consumer Co-operative | |
| Industry | Wholesale and retail |
| Founded | 13 December 1844 |
| Headquarters |
One Angel Square, Manchester, United Kingdom |
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Number of locations
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4,500+ |
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Key people
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Allan Leighton (Group Chair) Richard Pennycook (Chief Executive) |
| Services |
Food Electrical Funeralcare Insurance Legal Services Banking (20% stake) Travel (30% stake) |
| Revenue |
 £9.36 billion (2015) |
 £81 million (2015) |
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| Members | 4.5 million (active members, 2016) |
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Number of employees
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Over 70,000 (2015) |
| Subsidiaries | The Manx Co-operative Society Limited |
| Website | coop |
The Co-operative Group, commonly known as the Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail; electrical retail; financial services; insurance services; legal services and funeralcare, with in excess of 4,500 locations. It is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and owned by more than 4 million active members. Membership is open to everyone aged 16 and over, provided they share the values and principles upon which the group was founded. Members are democratically involved in setting business strategy, decide how social goals are achieved, and share in its profits - in the last quarter of 2016 over £15m was returned to members and their chosen local community causes.
The Co-operative Group has over 70,000 employees across the UK. The group has headquarters in Manchester on a listed eight-building estate which includes its head office One Angel Square, the CIS Tower, Hanover Building, New Century House and Redfern Building. The Group also manages The Co-operative Federal Trading Services, formerly the Co-operative Retail Trading Group (CRTG), which sources and promotes goods for food stores of the co-operative movements of the UK. It introduced The Co-operative brand in 2007, which is used by many consumers' co-operatives in the UK and managed by the group. It replaced this for its own businesses with a revitalised version of its late 1960s "Co-op" logo in 2016.
The business has long established itself as an ethical retailer, and was the first major UK retailer to champion Fairtrade. The Co-operative Group has also pioneered a number of other initiatives, including providing nutritional information on its own brand food, producing environmentally friendly household products and has won awards for raising animal welfare standards. It has invested significantly in community projects and renewable energy generation. It has held the Fair Tax Mark since 2015.
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Wikipedia