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The Co-operative Group is a British consumer cooperative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food, insurance, funeral care, legal services and electricals. It is owned by its members who are democratically involved in setting the strategy of the business, deciding how its social goals are achieved and who share in its profits. With approximately 8 million 〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=The Co-operative Group )〕 members, it is the largest organisation of this type in the UK and membership is open to everyone aged 16 and over, provided they share the values and principles upon which the group was founded. The Co-operative Group has adopted The Co-operative brand which is used by many consumers' co-operatives in the UK to provide a consistent experience for customers using the majority of co-operative stores in the UK. The Co-operative Group is by far the largest of the consumers' co-operatives which collectively are often referred to in the UK as The Co-op. The business operates over 3,500 outlets and its slogan is "Here for you for life". 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 the CIS Tower, Hanover Building, New Century House and Redfern Building. The group's head office is One Angel Square which opened in 2013. The Group manages the Co-operative brand and 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 movement. The Co-operative Group can be traced back to the original Rochdale Pioneers Society which was formed in Rochdale in 1844 and whose success proved a catalyst for co-operative development in the UK over the following years. Owing to the rapid growth of co-operatives during the 1840s and 1850s, many co-ops grouped together and established a wholesaling operation to assist in sourcing quality unadulterated produce in 1863, with this new business eventually becoming known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). Over the following 100 years the CWS developed into a highly successful and innovative business, expanding significantly into manufacturing and in sourcing produce from right across the world. The CWS is also credited with developing the first national grocery distribution network and some of the first own brand products (which both later became standard features of supermarket businesses). Later the CWS expanded into banking and insurance by first providing these services for co-operative societies and later to the general public, paving the way for its current insurance business and The Co-operative Bank. Following the Second World War the CWS, along with the entire UK co-op movement, entered a period of long decline and lost much of its business to the emerging supermarket chains. By the 1990s it looked as if the business's future was in doubt. Following a botched hostile takeover attempt in 1997 the CWS led a series of significant mergers with other co-operative societies (notably the CRS) in order to drive business efficiency and following these mergers the business was renamed to 'The Co-operative Group'. During this period the co-op attempted to modernise itself by selling many of its older and less profitable businesses and expanding heavily into its core convenience store operation. It was hoped that by expanding, and gaining the economies of scale associated with this, then the business's future could be assured. It was under this climate that the then chief executive, Peter Marks, established a bold attempt to rapidly expand the business further by acquiring the Somerfield supermarket chain, by merging its bank with the Britannia Building Society and by attempting to buy a further 600 bank branches from the Lloyds Bank. Ultimately the latter of these failed and the business suffered from the huge debt gained by the Somerfield acquisition which was completed just as the 2008 Financial Crisis was impacting on consumer spending. This debt, coupled with a £1.5bn 'black hole' in the accounts of The Co-operative Bank (resulting from bad loans gained through the Britannia merger) and an unfit governance arrangement led to the near collapse of the Group in 2013. Following the sale of its Farmcare and pharmacy businesses and through an ambitious plan to recapitalise its bank the co-op was able to secure its future. In 2014 the Group outlined plans to rebuild the business through once again focussing on its core chain of convenience stores, redefining its membership scheme to encourage member engagement and in relaunching its once significant campaigning activity (by joining forces with the British Red Cross to tackle social isolation). The business has long established itself as an ethical retailer. Alongside being the only national retailer to share its profits with its staff and customers it was the first major UK retailer to champion Fairtrade, it invests significant funds in community projects, it pioneered providing useful nutritional information on its own brand food, it was the first to launch a range of environmentally friendly household products, it invested millions of pounds in renewable energy generation and it won awards for driving up animal welfare standards. For more information on this work, see The Co-operative Group#Ethical trading and campaigning ==History== The Co-operative Group developed over 165 years from the merger of co-operative wholesale societies and many independent retail societies, changing from purely a wholesale operation to a major retailer. The group's roots are traced to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers which was established in 1844 〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.co-operative.coop/corporate/aboutus/ourhistory/ )〕 and to the eight Rochdale Principles which they founded - which notably introduced the idea of distributing a share of profits according to purchases through a scheme which became to be known as 'the divi'. Though The Co-operative Group incorporates the original Rochdale Pioneers' society, the business's core operation for much of its history was its wholesaling operation. This began in 1863 when the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial and Provident Society Limited was launched in Manchester by 300 individual co-operatives in Yorkshire and Lancashire. By 1872, it was known as the 'Co-operative Wholesale Society' (CWS) and it was wholly owned by the co-operatives which traded with it.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1862 )〕〔Wilson, J. F., Webster, A. and Vorberg-Rugh, R. (2013) "Building Co-operation: A business history of The Co-operative Group", Oxford University Press, Oxford〕 The CWS grew rapidly and supplied produce to co-operative stores across England, though many co-ops only sourced around a third of their produce through the CWS. It was this continued and fierce competition with other non-co-operative wholesalers which led to the CWS becoming highly innovative. By 1890 the CWS had established significant branches in Leeds, Blackburn, Bristol, Nottingham and Huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits (Manchester), Boots (Leicester), Soap (Durham) and textiles (Batley). In an attempt to drive down the significant cost of transportation for produce the CWS even began its own shipping line which initially sailed from Goole docks to parts of continental Europe. One of the CWS's steamships, the Pioneer, was the first commercial vessel to use the Manchester Ship Canal. This rapid expansion continued so that by the outbreak of World War One the CWS had major offices in the USA, Denmark, Australia and a tea plantation in India.〔 There was a great deal of consideration on the role of the CWS in the British co-operative movement around the turn of the nineteenth century. Many, fiercely local, societies saw the CWS as a valuable supplier but did not want to exclusively purchase produce from them owing to perceptions of high cost (mostly transport costs) and unreliable quality - some things the CWS were at pains to resolve. In contrast to this, the CWS had its aim to be the centrepoint for the whole co-operative movement in the UK and lobbied hard for loyalty from co-ops. To this end, they started to assist the local retail societies in more ways than simply as a wholesaler. The CWS Bank, the precursor to The Co-operative Bank, financed loans for societies to use for expansion through purchasing new buildings, land or new equipment. After the acquisition of the Co-operative Insurance Society in 1913, the CWS also provided insurance services to members and the CWS also began providing legal services - all business which remain today. It was hoped that these financial tie, as well as the CWS corporate dividend, would increase loyalty to the CWS.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Co-operative Group」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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