Case studies
Image
Serving up help, hope and hearty meals: Warehouse Café
Content by Business support for co-ops
Creating delicious vegan dishes, the Warehouse Café is a worker co-op situated in the Friends of the Earth Building in Birmingham. The café has been in existence for 35 years. And in early 2019, the…
3 years 4 months
Image
Rehabilitation the co‑operative way: New Leaf Co‑op
Content by Business support for co-ops
The New Leaf Initiative is a Birmingham-based mentoring organisation that supports people with criminal convictions to find work.
3 years 5 months
Image
Flat pay and an equal say: Greencity Wholefoods
It’s 1978 and Glasgow’s Greencity Wholefoods co-operative is formed – born from the local activist movement with moral, ethical and environmental values at its heart.
3 years 6 months
Image
Case study: Carbon Co‑op’s online AGM
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many co-ops have had to adapt so much of their member engagement, including moving AGMs online.
3 years 6 months
Image
InFact Digital Co-op: “Co‑op working is the future”
Content by Business support for co-ops
They met through a digital boot camp. Loved working together. And discovered a shared belief in the power of technology as a force for good.
4 years 4 months
Image
Signalise Co-op: “We bring deaf people and interpreters together”
Content by Business support for co-ops
"We know of a deaf man who was in hospital for 21 days without any interpreting support. Global agencies often provide poor sign language services in favour of profit," explains Jen Smith on why…
4 years 4 months
Image
Forty years and counting... the story of Suma
The UK’s flagship worker co-op, Suma was founded 40 years ago when seven people formed a wholefood wholesaler in West Yorkshire.
4 years 6 months
Image
Farmers stand united through co‑operation: Aspatria Farmers
The UK’s farmers must stand united to combat the threat of multi-national corporations in the food supply chain, says Tim Wilson, CEO of Aspatria Farmers.
4 years 7 months
Image
Helping Blake House Cooperative plan for a sustainable future
Content by Business support for co-ops
As a new start‑up business, filmmakers Blake House Cooperative applied to The Hive to access an experienced peer mentor to help them with a range of areas, from business development to client…
4 years 12 months
Image
Openfield, the UK’s only national farming grain co‑operative
For 400 years the Casswell family has farmed land in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. But without farmer-owned co-operatives the prospect of future generations continuing those farming traditions would be…
5 years 7 months
Image
Using technology to make a difference for good: Outlandish
Content by Co-op Fortnight
Working for Outlandish – a thriving digital agency and worker co-op – and then becoming a member, has made a massive difference to Amil Vasishtha.
5 years 9 months
Image
“Social and environmental aims are fundamental to our work” – OrganicLea
Content by Business support for co-ops
OrganicLea is a small workers’ co-operative growing food on London’s edge in the Lea Valley.
5 years 9 months
Image
Doing good with wood: Bristol Wood Recycling Project
Content by Business support for co-ops
Bristol Wood Recycling Project collects tonnes of good quality timber from construction yards and other businesses around the city that would otherwise be wasted.
6 years 4 months
Image
A co-op gym that does things differently: Bristol Co‑operative Gym
Content by Business support for co-ops
Offering an alternative to traditional gym culture, Bristol Co-operative Gym was set up as an inclusive, non-judgemental space free from assumptions about identity and appearance. It received support…
6 years 7 months
Image
Why worker ownership works: Leeds Bread Co‑op
Content by Business support for co-ops
Using organic, locally sourced ingredients, Leeds Bread Co-op supplies local restaurants and other businesses – as well as delivering to a growing number of individual subscribers. An artisan bakery…
7 years