5.3 Choosing your type of co-op

Suitable if you are a group of people belonging to a particular community and wish to start a business that you will own and control. Your community can be geographical (for example, a village shop) or a community of interest (for example, a renewable energy co-op). A community co-operative will normally carry out activities that are of benefit to the whole community, or a large part of it.

Suitable if you are an independent businesses, organisation or individual and wish to collaborate to enhance trade or reduce costs. Members of a co-operative consortium work together on key activities such as leasing premises, buying equipment, marketing the members’ products and services and by forming agencies (for example, actors and doctors).

Suitable where members – individuals or organisations – may have a different relationship with the co-operative, employee, user, consumer but share a common interest in supporting a particular geographical community or community of interest.

Suitable where you want to create a business which is owned and run by its employees. At a minimum, employees who become members are involved in the co-operative by working for it, but they can also be involved in guiding how the co-operative is run. Some worker co-operatives are managed on a collective basis, where all employees will be members and will also be committee members or directors. Other worker co-operatives are managed through a smaller committee or board of directors that is democratically elected by and from the employee members.