2015 The Co-op Year in Review

After a traumatic 2014 many of us in the Co-operative Movement where looking for the quiet life in 2015. Despite a year of steady progress we are still suffering the effects of the forced asset sales and the reputational damage the collapse of the Co-operative Bank precipitated.

Despite that set back, and whilst the Co-op Group is still of significant importance to the movement, there is new life and growth across the co-operative sector generating some considerable success.

There is a new confidence amongst the worker co-op’s who have established a solidarity fund to help support and develop new worker co-ops. Growth in individual co-op stores has been encouraging and it was great to see Beanies the Wholefoods the worker co-op from Sheffield receive the Observer award for independent retailer of the year.

In the agriculture sector it has been especially tough for milk producers and yet OMSCo (the Organic Milk Suppliers Co-op) won the prestigious Food Chain Marketing Award at the food and farming awards. OMSCo is a terrific co-op it manages over 250 million litres of organic milk, which accounts for 65% of the total organic milk

supply in the UK.

In consumer co-ops the incomparable Wine Society won the Decanter Retailer of the year award for the fifth year running. Meanwhile in the autumn the Co-operative Group was able to celebrate a return to profit and its first real increase in market share with a glass of its own prize winning champagne. Les Pioneers named after the Men of Rochdale and it is pretty good. I know call me a champagne socialist!

The Co-op Group was named ethical drinks retailer of the year whilst having only having ten per cent for the nation’s drinks market it sells over half of all the fair-trade wine consumed in the UK.

One of the Groups most successful partnerships is with the Argentinean Riojana Wine Co-operative. They had a special celebration because thanks Co-op customers and the fairtrade premium a village that before 2008 didn’t have clean drinking water now has a secondary school. Their wine is pretty good too. If you like a robust red their award winning Malbec is just the thing.

Talking of ethical products the phone co-op has been selling one you can talk on. They became the UK's only mobile provider to stock Fairphone the ethical smartphones, challenging the mobile industry over supply chain transparency. There is some nasty stuff in your mobile phone and at last here is a way to do the right thing.
This helped them to win an award at the social enterprise awards along side two other co-ops. Leading Lives, a worker co-op providing high quality social care support for adults with complex needs, who picked up the Health and Social Care Social Enterprise award and Zaytoun which supports Palestinian olive farming families by helping them to grow sales of their produce work that was recognised with the International Impact award.
Credit Unions have been having a good year too with adult membership reaching 1.1million in November and assets growing to £1.32billion with almost 400 people joining a credit union every working day it seems the message about loan sharks is finally getting through.
In Manchester just ten years after their formation fan owned FC United where being cheered on at their very own ground against of all teams Benfica it may sound like a fairy tale but it has been achieved with a great deal of passion and a lot of hard work.
For the first time this year we opened up the Co-op of the Year to a public vote. The winners where Midcounties Co-op they have had a roller coaster year. They had some real problems with their Co-op Energy business caused by a challenge all co-ops would love – it has been growing too fast!
Of course it would be foolish to pretend everything in the garden was rosy. It is not despite the Co-op bank putting £1 million into co-op development they have managed to alienate many long standing and supportive customers by closing their accounts over the heavy handed imposition of money laundering regulations.  
In recent times one of the fastest growing sectors has been community energy co-ops now that is threatened by the Governments lack of commitment to renewable energy and damage done has been done to the sector by tax changes.
There is a similar picture amongst housing co-ops the Government attacks on social housing and restrictions on housing benefit are causing considerable concern across the country.
It also took a real struggle at the Co-op Group AGM to secure the future of the Co-operative Party. Although we have faced some serious issues even the Peoples Press Printing Society is finishing the year in a better place than it started with real optimism for progress in the New Year.
Looking forward the 2016 Co-op Congress will be in Yorkshire at the magnificent Unity Works in Wakefield, formerly the home of Wakefield Co-op now in community co-operative ownership and leading the cultural renaissance of Wakefield
This last year has been tough commercially for all co-ops with very poor margins across all sectors. Despite talk of recovery and growth most co-op businesses focussed on the domestic market are just not seeing it. This has not stopped them making a real difference for their members, customers and the communities they serve in 2015. Let’s hope for another year of steady progress in the New Year.