Ben Reid is a member of the board of directors of International Cooperative Alliance and former CEO of Midcounties Co-operative.
He began his career as an employee in a small co-operative in Ilkeston. [1] He moved to Walsall in 1988, when he was appointed deputy chief executive of West Midlands Co-op. He became chief executive in 1992. In 2005 West Midlands merged with the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Society to become Midcounties Cooperative.
Under his leadership Midcounties Co-operative grew into the UK’s largest independent co-operative and moved also to childcare, travel, health and energy. [2] Under his leadership Midcounties Co-operative became an early champion of the Fair Tax Mark [3] and also served as the chair of Cooperatives UK. [4]
In 2018, Reid was appointed Chair of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, [5] and in 2019 Chair of the University of Wolverhampton. [5]
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston was a British Labour Co-operative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East from 1987 to 2005.
A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are dividends paid on a member's investment in the cooperative.
Dame Pauline Green, is a former Labour and Co-operative Member of the European Parliament and former Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists (PES). As leader of the PES, she had a central role in the controversy surrounding the failure to discharge the European Commission (EC)'s 1996 budget, bringing the first motion of censure against the Commission but voting against it. She then changed her position following corruption allegations raised by EC official Paul van Buitenen to call for Jacques Santer to react promptly or be sacked. Green lost the leadership of the PES in 1999, which was attributed in part to her handling of the incident.
The Co-operative Group, trading as the Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail and wholesale; e-pharmacy; insurance services; legal services and funeralcare, with in excess of 3,700 locations. It is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and Isle of Man and is owned by more than 4.6 million active members. Membership is open to everyone, provided they agree to subscribe £1 sterling in the capital of the society and share the values and principles upon which the group was founded. Members are democratically involved in setting business strategy, decide how social goals are achieved, and share in its profits – in 2018, £79M was returned to members and their chosen local community causes via the 5+1 scheme. The Group also owed £792M to its lenders.
The Phone Co-op is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, which provides landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. Now part of the Midcounties Co-operative, the largest independent co-operative in the UK, it is owned by its customer-members who democratically control the business and who share in its profits. This makes The Phone Co-op the only telephone co-operative in the UK.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically which aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of their members. They operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers, such as food co-ops. However, there are many types of consumers' cooperatives, operating in areas such as health care, insurance, housing, utilities and personal finance.
The Midcounties Co-operative is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom with over 700,000 members. Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-operatives UK and the Co-operative Retail Trading Group.
Co-operatives UK is "the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK". The co-operative federation was founded in 1870 as the Co-operative Central Board, changing its name to the Co-operative Union before finally becoming Co-operatives UK following its merger with the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 2001. Historically associated with the consumer co-operatives, the merger broadened its scope to include worker co-operatives and it now exists to support and promote the values of the entire co-operative movement throughout the UK.
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
Co-operative Banking Group Limited was a UK-based banking and insurance company and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group. Established in 2002, its head office was located at the CIS Tower, Miller Street, Manchester.
The Moulton Co-operative Society Limited, or simply Moulton Co-op, was a small regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. The society was formed in 1861 and operated a single supermarket in Moulton, Northamptonshire. In January 2009, members voted overwhelmingly to transfer arrangements to Midlands Co-operative Society, which took effect on 8 February 2009.
DotCooperation LLC is the Registry of the internet namespace .coop.
The Co-operative Travel is a travel agency brand used by some independent retail co-operatives in the United Kingdom, such as Midcounties Co-operative, through their access to The Co-operative brand. Between 2011 and 2016 the brand was also used by TCCT Retail Limited, a travel agency run as a joint venture between the Thomas Cook Group, The Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative.
International Co-operative Day is an annual celebration of the co-operative movement observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923 by the International Co-operative Alliance.
Co-op Energy is a British energy supply company based in Warwick that began trading in 2010. It is an alternative to the Big Six energy suppliers and, given that its parent is Midcounties Co-operative, it is the only co-operative supplier in the market. Since August 2019, energy supply, billing and customer service have been operated by Octopus Energy.
Paul John Flowers is an English local politician and former Methodist minister. He is a former Labour councillor in Rochdale and Bradford, and was non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank.
The Fair Tax Mark is an independent accreditation awarded after an assessment based on "Transparency [and] tax rate, disclosure and avoidance"... As of January 2016, it is applicable to UK businesses. The process of assessing a company for the mark is intended to be initiated by the company that wants the mark.
Steven Geoffrey Murrells is a British businessman, the chief executive of The Co-operative Group, and the former chief executive of Co-op Food. Co-op Food has over 2,800 stores in the UK – at least one in every postal area. It is the sixth largest food retailer in the UK. Co-op Food turns over around £9.5bn, with around 6% of the grocery market.
Nick Crofts is a British local politician. He is president of the Co-op Group National Members' Council, a Liverpool City Councillor and former Co-op Party National Executive Committee member. In April 2017, Crofts was named as one of the UK's 'Top-Ten Inspirational Leaders' in the NatWest LGBT Awards. In July 2019 he was re-elected for a third term as the Society's president.
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