It’s the Northern business model that’s taken the world by storm - employing 10% of the planet’s working population.
Originally established in Greater Manchester, the Co-operative movement is the basis of one of the city’s biggest firms - and is expected to grow exponentially here post-pandemic.
But, as Rose Marley, the new Manchester-born CEO of Co-operatives UK told BusinessLive, both the movement and its history are relatively unknown in this country - despite being at the heart of two of our biggest retailers - Co-op and John Lewis.
Now Ms Marley, who was appointed to her role at the end of last year, is on a mission to shout about this resilient, inclusive business model, which proved to be four times less likely than its traditional counterparts to collapse due to the Covid pandemic.
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With the movement’s roots dating all the way back to the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844, Ms Marley, who co-founded city-based social enterprise SharpFutures, said she is “bringing it home” - back to the city where it all began.
Member-owned organisations that are 30% more likely to still be trading five years after launch and keep the wealth they create in their local areas. Ms Marley believes the Co-operatives model will now grow “hugely” in the coming months and years.
That's not to say it doesn’t already count for a significant chunk of our economy - with the UK boasting 7,000 co-operatives across the country - but overall revenue figures are dominated by the two major high street names.
Post-pandemic, Ms Marley thinks the model will now take on even more prominence.
She said the movement is expecting “major growth”, explaining: “I came out of the music industry, and I learned very quickly to know when there's a buzz on something, and how to identify when something's rumbling away.
“And I can feel it, not only we see it in our figures, in terms of the amount of new co-ops starting up, but also that I'm pushing on an open door with the general public, not just with the actual movement itself, but with politicians. I work very closely with [Greater Manchester mayor] Andy Burnham and Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis.”
Ms Marley, who is Mr Burnham’s adviser for social business and enterprise, said: “When furlough ending hits, we're expecting to see lots of cafes or small businesses potentially going under.
“But we’re telling them the workers can take them over. And that's what we’re piloting in Sheffield, working with Mr Jarvis to ask ‘how do we help people do that?’
“Because right now, when there's a problem with a business, it is normally a very binary conversation - is there going to be a public buyout? Is there going to be a private buyout?
“But there's a bit in the middle, where actually, the employees themselves, if they know what they're doing, could find a way to take over the business and carry on running it.
“So we're absolutely expecting major growth and we can feel it all already.”
Ms Marley said it won’t just be the resilience of the business model that will see the movement thrive over the coming months and years.
She said: “I think for co-ops, the pandemic has shone a light on the inequality in the UK, and people are looking to make a difference in the way that they live, work and consume. They want business to trade fairly and all of these things are becoming more and more important.
“The second thing is young people - the co-op values already resonate with them. They tend to see it as something brand new and exciting. It really fits with Generation Z values. So there's quite a lot of young people who are saying they want to get involved.
“If you look at the Co-op group, it’s a £11bn turnover business. This isn't a marginal business model, it can be big business, and it can still make a difference.”
The Co-op Economy report, released in June, revealed that these businesses are more resilient to the economic devastation caused by Covid - and were four times less likely to go bust in 2020 than businesses generally.
The report revealed how in 2020, the number of independent co-op businesses operating in the UK grew by 1.2%, with almost twice as many new co-ops created as dissolved - 193 versus 107.
In contrast, the number of UK businesses overall fell, with company closures outstripping new starts - 389,965 versus 382,560.
Just 1.5% of co-ops were dissolved over the 12 months compared to 6.5% of businesses generally.
One of Ms Marley’s immediate priorities will be to overhaul the strategy of the organisation to ensure the co-operative business movement is “modern and relevant” - and able to withstand Industry 4.0 - the new phase of the industrial revolution.
That will mean keeping pace with innovations such as the Internet of Things, nanotechnology, robotics, remote working and artificial intelligence (AI).
She said: “We need to make sure that the co-operative business model and movement is actually modern and relevant, and can be here in another 150 years, making sure that trade is fair and equitable, and actually that we build a society through trade that makes a difference to its local community.”
With so much going for them - but with less than 1% of all UK businesses being co-ops - why haven’t more companies embraced the model?
This, as far as Co-operatives UK is concerned, could be down to a lack of awareness and understanding from the business community.
Co-ops often go against established ways of doing things, and because there’s no official legal structure, they can be more complex than launching a more traditional model of business.
For Ms Marley, that ambiguity is a positive.
She explained: “The beauty of it means that whatever you want to do with your business, and however you want to achieve it, there'll be a model there for you.
"But it's not as easy as going 'oh, I want to start a limited company, I go into Companies House, and it's all done really quickly'.
“So I think that can become one of the hurdles.
“I'm certainly on a mission to change [the lack of awareness], and I'm not pretending there aren’t barriers and challenges to running a co-op.”
Ms Marley and her team are working hard to attract more businesses into the movement - with schemes including the Co-operative Bank-funded Hive scheme, providing support for firms embracing the model; and the UnFound Accelerator scheme, helping people turn their ideas into successful co-ops.
A key part of Ms Marley's mission will focus on celebrating and raising awareness of the history of the movement in and around its Manchester birthplace.
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She said: “There are so many buildings that have been created by the movement and there's this incredible history here.
"My predecessor was based in London, and to be really clear, we do loads nationally, but there is that part of me that is super proud that it is something that started in Greater Manchester. I do want to bring that home in that when you come to the city centre right now, the movement is really not so visible.
“That's something that's going to change, subject to lockdown. I absolutely want to tell those stories, put on those exhibitions and bring all that to the fore to remind us what happened here all those years ago.”
