The Rise of the Co-Operative

Co-operative businesses are owned and run by and for their members, whether they are customers, employees or residents. Whereas normal businesses work towards giving a return on investment to shareholders, necessitating taking a slice of value from their own customers and employees, a co-operative business works in a more equitable way.

In a world where corporations are increasingly seen as money-grabbing, cost-cutting and even downright dishonest, an organisation built for mutual benefit seems like an attractive proposition. Some famous examples include John Lewis, the Co-Operative Bank and The New Internationalist, but there are co-ops in every sector of the UK economy.

The co-op trade association Co-Operatives UK shows that the co-op sector has continued to grow throughout the recent economic woes:

Source www.uk.coop

And the number of co-operatives registered continued to grow during the downturn:

Source www.uk.coop

Whether or not the rise of co-ops and the democratisation brought by the Internet really brings about the death of the traditional capitalist corporation, as was postulated in the Guardian by political and economic advisor to the EU Jeremy Rifkin remains to be seen, but it's interesting times for equitably organised co-operative model business.