The move brings a new identity - The co-operative - to its entire group with the same fascia differentiated only by colour for its retail food, travel, funeral, insurance and banking operations. Members join up for £1 and receive a card that can be used in all outlets to give them a share of the profits paid out as a dividend twice yearly.
“But this is not just about re-branding and profit sharing,” explained a spokesman. “We are also a democratic organisation and this will give our members more opportunity to have a say on issues of importance to them. Fairtrade is one of those issues and the way forward for us may well involve more Fairtrade produce and similar initiatives.”
The new brand identity will be extended eventually across all own-label products, including produce, said the spokesman. “Adoption of the single brand will run in conjunction with a clear commitment to maintain high product and service standards across all business areas,” said ceo Martin Beaumont. “This, combined with much greater consumer awareness of The co-operative’s approach to ethical trading across the board, will create a compelling proposition which we believe will significantly grow membership from 600,000 people last year, to 4 million by 2010.”
Beaumont believes “millions of consumers” share the group’s ideal of self-help, social responsibility and democracy and it is these he is hoping to attract. The co-operative holds roughly a six per cent share of the food retail market down from 25 per cent in its hey day decades ago.
In an apparent dig at Tesco and Asda, Beaumont said: “At a time when communities are becoming increasingly dominated by a handful of large and impersonal business, we want to show UK consumers that there is a better alternative, one which is ultimately owned and controlled by them.”
The developments come in the same week the group announced a buying alliance with Spar.
The convenience store rivals will join forces to drive down costs by buying own-label products in bulk. The link will involve more than 3,000 of The co-operative’s stores with annual food sales of £5 billion and 2,742 Spar stores with retail food sales of £2.5bn each year.
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