INTRODUCTION

For decades the development of consumer co-operatives in many countries has tended towards further structural changes leading to greater integration in the consumer co-operative movement. Consumer co-operatives which have to cope with tougher competitive conditions are steadily turning into large size enterprises to secure their continued existence in the retail market.  

For example, in the UK, the overall amount of mergers involving consumer co-operative societies has been continually increasing over the past 50 years. It is the result of a strategic rationale implemented by the UK consumer co-operative movement to strengthen its position in the marketplace.  

Looking for new opportunities to grow and better cope with commercial pressure, consumer co-operatives have recently been experimenting with acquisition strategies. In 2010 The Co-operative Group acquired the UK’s sixth largest retailer Somerfield. Coop Netherlands acquired 21 stores from the Dutch private retailer Jumbo.   

When looking at the different consumer co-operative consolidation strategies, the question is, do the merger and acquisition processes constitute valuable business opportunities for consumer co-operatives? The second question is, to what extent can consumer co-operatives enlarge their business activities, turning into bigger and more powerful enterprises, while preserving the specific characteristics of the co-operative model such as the link with local communities and the territory? 

There is already a lot of literature on mergers and acquisitions. The aim of this report is thus to focus exclusively on co-operative issues, by identifying which strategies are best suited to achieve either successful mergers or acquisitions while respecting co-operatives’ particular values and principles.  

In other words, the overall purpose of this report is to provide co-operative actors with guidelines when dealing with mergers and acquisitions, a set of practical recommendations, using the latest experiences of The Co-operative Group (UK) and Coop Netherlands (Netherlands) as a basis. 

In order to better understand co-operative merger and acquisition strategies the report is being divided into two main parts. The first part of the report focuses on the merger process and the second on the acquisition process while identifying which tasks are best suited for which co-operative to make such a transformation process successful.

The report is available exclusively to Euro Coop members (Login member), but other co-operatives may contact Euro Coop for more details.