In 1844, a group of 28 working-class men in Rochdale set out a bold idea: a business owned by its members for mutual benefit. Fed up with expensive, poor-quality goods, they raised funds to open a shop built on quality, fairness and democratic control. It would become the blueprint for today’s co-operative movement.

The ‘Rochdale Pioneers’ venture inspired a global movement. There are now an estimated three million co-ops, with the top 300 alone contributing $2.8 trillion in sales. And in the UK, co-ops are worth £179.2bn, spanning more than 10,000 enterprises, 65.7 million memberships and 1.5 million jobs.

But success hasn’t shielded the co-op movement from criticism, according to Co-operatives UK CEO Rose Marley. “When a plc fails, the story is usually bad management or a tough sector,” she said at the Co-op Retail Conference 2026 in Glasgow last month. “When a co-operative faces trouble, too often it’s the business model that gets blamed.”