Southern Co-operative

The Southern Co-operative Limited

Type	Consumer Co-operative
Industry	Retail
Founded	1873
Headquarters	1000 Lakeside, North Harbour, Western Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3FE
Key people	Michael Hastilow, Chairman Mark Smith, Chief Executive
Products	Grocer, Funeral director, Independent living
Revenue	£367 million (2016)
Number of employees	4,000+ (2016)
Website	www.thesouthernco-operative.co.uk

The Southern Co-operative is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. The principal activities of the Society are food retailing and funerals. It operates 200 convenience stores and 50 funeral homes, covering the southern English counties of Berkshire, Bristol, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire. The society is owned by over 160,000 members who share in the business's profits and who democratically control its operations. It is a registered Industrial and Provident Society, a member of Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative Retail Trading Group and a corporate member of The Co-operative Group.

Head office was previously located at Fareham in Hampshire, but since July 2011, is now located at 1000 Lakeside, a business park in North Harbour, Portsmouth.

Founded in 1873, the Society was known as the Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society until 1998, when it became Southern Co-operatives. In 2009, it purchased 13 stores from Nearby Stores, that had gone into administration at the end of 2008. Membership is open to all residents of its trading area, with members receiving a share of the profits in the form of dividend.

In April 2009, plans were released to staff and members that Southern Co-operatives would adopt The Co-operative brand programme. It would re-brand within the next two years as The Southern Co-operative using the same uniforms and fascias as Co-operative Group stores, to "better reflect [their] status as a completely independent regional society owned, controlled and managed exclusively by local people in the South of England, whilst playing [a] full part in the exciting co-operative developments taking place nationally." The legal change of name was registered in 2013.