The Co-operative brand

The Co-operative brand

Branding of a Co-op Food store
Product type	Retail Branding
Owner	The Co-operative Group
Introduced	1968, refreshed periodically
Markets	United Kingdom
Website	Archived 29 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine.

Original 1968 "cloverleaf"

Refreshed 1993 version

2008 rebrand

2016 refreshed design

The Co-operative is a common branding used by a variety of co-operatives based in the United Kingdom.

Many in the UK consider 'the Co-op' to be a single national business, whereas the brand actually represents a number of different consumers' co-operatives spanning various sectors. The Co-operative Group is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and the biggest user of the Co-operative brand in its 4,500 trading outlets. Many independent retail societies in the UK trade as "the Co-op", and many, such as the Midcounties Co-operative and the Central England Co-operative, use the latest incarnation of the common brand. Most co-operative societies have businesses in many different areas; however, the largest areas of the businesses are in food stores, particularly convenience stores, thus the largest and most visible use of the branding is as The Co-operative Food.

The Co-operative brand as it is widely used today came about as a result of the Co-operative Commission's report into the British co-operative movement which recommended that all UK consumers' co-operative societies switch to a universal recognisable co-operative brand. This single brand would be in contrast to the previous array of brands which had existed up to this point including the '1992 Cloverleaf', the 'Co-op Welcome' and 'Co-op Late Shop' brands which was understood by the commission to be holding back the public's perception of the co-op sector's modernising approach. Not all of the UK's consumers' co-operative adopted the resultant 2008 version of The Co-operative brand with the Lincolnshire Co-operative and Scotmid being notable examples.

At The Co-operative Group's 2016 AGM, it was announced that the Group would go back to a revitalised version of the 1968 Co-op 'cloverleaf' design, utilising a uniform blue through all business areas.

Following the success of the Rochdale Pioneers, co-operative shops were established across the UK and took customers away from private traders who responded by making it difficult for co-operatives to source quality goods to sell to their members. The solution was for co-operative retailers to come together in 1863 and form the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) (now the Co-operative Group) responsible for sourcing and producing goods for sale in its members' shops, and for unified marketing and branding for the societies. The CWS carried out this role for members for nearly 100 years, and in 1968 launched "Operation Facelift", which resulted in the first national Co-op logo.