Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS)
C.W.S of Balloon Street, Manchester. Branches at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, London, Bristol and Cardiff. (1947)
The Co-operative Group, the trading name of Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd, is a United Kingdom consumers' co-operative, the world's largest consumer-owned business. Co-operative Group (CWS) Limited was formerly called the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited.
1844 The Co-operative movement started with the Rochdale Pioneers. The original shop is preserved as the Rochdale Pioneers Museum.
1862 the New Providential Securities Act was passed, which made such national cooperative organizations legal.
1863 Twenty years after the Rochdale Pioneers opened their co-operative, the North of England Co-operative Society was launched by 300 individual co-ops across Yorkshire and Lancashire.
1864 The North of England Co-operative Wholesale Society was created to buy and manufacture goods for all the co-operatives.
The Co-operative Group formed gradually over 140 years, from the merger of many independent retail societies, and their wholesale societies and federations.
1868 Formation of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS).
1871 Rules changed to permit manufacturing
By 1872, after the North of England was dropped from the title, the society became known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), based in Manchester.
Retail societies had trouble transferring funds to Wholesale to pay for goods received. A "deposit and loan department" was set up in late 1872 to provide account services to its members.
1874 John Thomas Whitehead Mitchell became chairman.
After 1875, the CWS and SCWS cooperated in the purchase and shipment of foodstuffs from overseas.
1876 The law was changed about transfer of funds and the CWS Banking Department came into existence.
Late 1880s: the annual turnover of the CWS exceeded £6 million, its warehouse at Manchester was a small town, and it was administering nearly £1 million of funds in shares, loan capital, and reserve.
By the late 1890s the CWS employed 8,407 people, working in the distributive departments and in the bank as well as in the productive works and services.
1910 New offices opened in Corporation Street, Manchester. 'In vast quantities, or exhibited in sample, all kinds of produce from every quarter of the globe - tea from the society’s own estates in Ceylon, fruit grown on its farms at Roden, near Shrewsbury, and Marden, near Hereford; bacon and cheese and dairy produce from its factories and creameries in Ireland and Denmark. Five great flour mills in England owned by the C.W.S. are laid under tribute to satisfy the needs of co-operators in the Manchester area ; biscults, cakes, and sweets come from Crumpsall works; jams, pickles, and vinegar from the factory at Middleton Junction ; cocoa and chocolate from Luton, while a staff of six hundred persons are employed at the tobacco factory in Balloon-street manipulating the fragrant weed into forms designed by the devotees of “My Lady Nicotine." Clothing factories at Broughton and Leeds, cotton, woollen, and flannel mills at Bury, Littleborough, and Batley; boot and shoe factories at Leicester, Rushden, Enderby, and Heckmondwike ; hosiery and corset factories at Desborough and Hucknall Huthwaite; crockery works at Longton, and soap, candle, and glycerine works at Irlam, London, and Dunston-on-Tyne, and an oil and tallow factory at Sydney, New South Wales, all owned by the Society, pour in specimens of their products to the warehouses at Corporation street, from whence the order goes forth for their distributions to the Society’s customers.'[1]
1910 "... one of the features of the C.W.S, was that in every one of their 343 productive works, the Union rates of wages were paid, and Union conditions of labour observed. Their Crumpsall Biscuit Works were the only works in the country with...[2] an 8 hour working day[3]
1926 Has three cotton weaving sheds - Bury, Radcliffe and Hebden Bridge (for fustian cloth). Seven woollen weaving factories - Batley, Littleborough, Diggle, Delph, Dobcross, Bradford and Buckfastleigh. Hosiery mill at Huthwaite. Corsets at Desborough. Fourteen establishments for making the finished clothing - Manchester (four), Birmingham (Crepe-de-Chine), Leeds, Newcastle, London, Sheffield, Crewe, Bristol, Cardiff and Kettering. Nine boot and shoe factories.[4]
By the end of the 1930s, co-op factories were making wagons, barrels, furniture, bottles and jars, shoes, leather goods, caps, hats, shirts hosiery, ties and other garments, cattle feed for co-op cows, seeds for co-op farms, radios, rope and twine, cigarettes, candies, drugs, beef and poultry from co-op slaughterhouses, cutlery, biscuits and bread, jams and jellies, margarine and butter, and tea. The CWS milled the wool and cotton fabric that went into the clothing it manufactured. The CWS also ran a steamship line, and a print shop that produced a daily newspaper and labels for CWS merchandise. It operated a coal mine as well as an engineering department that designed and built the CWS’s facilities. Life insurance and banking services were provided to members as well.
1939 The society controls 182 factories for the manufacture of its products.[5]
WWII The CWS played its part: workers for the CWS sewed uniforms and made boots for soldiers. Co-op farms produced food that was canned in co-op canneries. Cooperative furniture factories turned to building gliders for the invasion of France. The factories manufactured parts for the De Havilland Mosquito [6]
1947 British Industries Fair Advert for: Domestic Textiles; Ladies', Maids' and Children's Wear; Men's Wear. Manufacturers of Ladies' Coats, Costumes, Gowns, Furs, Corsetry, Lingerie, Umbrellas, Handbags, Hosiery, Underwear, Men's, Youths', Boys' Ready to Wear Clothing, Shirts, Pyjamas, Hats, Raincoats, Dressing Gowns, Woollen Cotton Piece Goods, Handkerchiefs, Spinners. (Textiles Section - Earls Court, Ground Floor, Stands No. 284 and 285) and Manufacturers of Leather; All classes of Footwear and Slippers; Ladies' Handbags, Dressing Cases and Fancy Leather Goods; Travelling Requisites; also Brooms, Household, Paint, Toilet, and Tooth Brushes. Cutlery and Garden Tools. (Olympia, Ground Floor, Stands No. A.1299 and D.1660 and Earls Court, 1st Floor, Stands No. 149 and 466a) [7]
1969 Pulled out of the paint market and ran down its Derby factory; International Paint was contracted to supply paint for CWS[8]
1970 CWS bought into J. W. French and Co (owned by J. Lyons and Co), merging the milling and baking activities of the 2 companies[9]
Through the 20th century, smaller societies merged with CWS, such as the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS) (1973), and the South Suburban Co-operative Society (1984).
An excellent account of the business history of the Co-operative Group was published in 2013[10]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Manchester City News - Saturday 06 August 1910
- ↑ Portsmouth Evening News 23 November 1910
- ↑ Yorkshire Factory Times 04 July 1912
- ↑ Daily Herald - Saturday 20 February 1926
- ↑ East End News and London Shipping Chronicle - Friday 12 May 1939
- ↑ Mosquito by C. Martin Sharp and Michael J. F. Bowyer. Published by Crecy Books in 1995. ISBN 0-947554-41-6
- ↑ 1947 British Industries Fair Advert 244; and p69
- ↑ The Times, Nov 17, 1969
- ↑ The Times, Oct 15, 1971
- ↑ 'Building Co-operation: A Business History of The Co-operative Group, 1863-2013' by John F. Wilson, Anthony Webster, Rachael Vorberg-Rugh, Oxford University Press, 2013
- The Story of the CWS - 1863-1913 by Percy Redfern
- Wikipedia
- Trademarked. A History of Well-Known Brands - from Aertex to Wright's Coal Tar by David Newton. Pub: Sutton Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-0-7509-4590-5
- Biography of John Thomas Whitehead Mitchell, ODNB
- [1] A short history