What is a co-operative?

A co-operative is a people-centred organisation, jointly owned and democratically controlled by its members. Trade is a fundamental human activity, and co-operatives are trading enterprises, providing goods and services, and generating profits. Those profits are not taken by outside shareholders as with investor-owned businesses, but are under the control of the members, who decide democratically how they should be used.

• Co-operatives invest in education and training for their members, enabling them to contribute more effectively to the sustainable development of their co-operatives.
• Co-operatives are rooted in and work for the sustainable development of their communities.
• Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality and solidarity. Co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
• The thousands of co-operative enterprises throughout the UK are just part of a global movement that employs an estimated 100 million people, rather more than the number working for multinational corporations. Here in Scotland, co-operatives employ 15,000 people and have a combined turnover of over £3 billion.

(Thanks to Co-operatives UK for the above text.)

Workers' co-operatives

There are different sorts of co-operatives - we are a workers' co-operative. This means that everyone working in the business can have an equal say in how it's run. We're all paid equally, although this isn't mandatory for worker co-ops.

To get an idea of what makes a workers' co-op different from other types of business, have a look at the Worker Co‑operative Code of Governance [760kB PDF].