United Co-operatives
 | It has been suggested that Normid and Talk:United Co-operatives#Merge with Normid be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2008. |
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| Company type | Consumer Co-operative |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) Travel agency Retail (Vehicles) Services Group Pharmacies Funeral directors |
| Founded | 1844 |
| Headquarters | Rochdale, UK |
Key people | Peter Marks, CEO |
| Revenue | £1.8 billion |
Number of employees | 15,000 |
| Website | Error in Webarchive template: Empty url. |
United Co-operatives, or simply United Co-op, was the largest regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom until its merger with The Co-operative Group in 2007. The Society operated across Yorkshire, the north west and north Midlands of England. It came about from the merger of United Co-op (formerly United NorWest) and Yorkshire Co-operatives in September 2002.
United Norwest, in turn, arose from the Norwest Pioneers, which had the Rochdale Pioneers as a direct predecessor. Rochdale Pioneers was the prototypical consumer co-operative, formed in 1844.[1][2]
The key businesses of the Society were food retailing, travel retail, car dealerships (Sunwin Motor Group), pharmacies and funerals. The under-performing non-food department stores, most of which were inherited via Yorkshire Co-operatives, were closed or sold-off. The former Normid chain of superstores was owned by the society.
United's pharmacies and food stores had a distinct logo that was not to be confused with The Co-operative Group's own chain of pharmacies and food stores which adopt a slightly different logo and fascia. However, post-merger former United sites will adopt the new branding.
In late 2006, members voted for a merger with the smaller Sheffield Co-operative Society, giving United a greater presence in South Yorkshire. On December 11 2006, members voted for a merger with Leeds Co-operative, which has similar statistics to Sheffield Co-op, this was confirmed with a second vote in January 2007. [3]
At the end of 2006, the boards of United and the larger Co-operative Group announced that they were having initial talks regarding a merger between them, the UK's two largest co-operative societies. This merger was agreed in early 2007 and the two completed the merger on the 29 July 2007, at which point United Co-operatives ceased to exist as an independent Society.
References
- ^ "Records of the Manchester and Salford Equitable Co-operative Society: Administrative history". The National Archives. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
In 1970 the Manchester and Salford Society merged with the Stockport and Pennine Societies to form the Norwest Regional Society. In 1982 the Norwest merged with the Pioneers Society to form the Norwest Pioneers Co-operative Society.
- ^ "Share Book Search: Rochdale Pioneers". Co-operatives UK. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ^ http://www.united.coop/NewsLeeds.asp
External links
- Error in Webarchive template: Empty url.
- Sunwin Motor Group
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| Co-operative societies | |
