Dead loss
The Co-op’s stated aims To be a commercially successful business To meet the needs of our customers and the communities we serve* To respond to our members and share our profits To be an ethical leader To be an exemplary employer To inspire others through co-operation Co-operative Group results 2013 Overall loss: £2.3 billion Funeralcare sales […]
Is the Co-op arranging its own funeral?
Co-op woes have filled the business pages of all our newspapers in recent weeks. The accelerating degenerative disorder afflicting this once-great business has caught them all on the hop, running to catch up. For years its sacred-cow status seems to have protected it from rigorous scrutiny. In the minds of pretty much everybody the Co-op was […]
The Co-op is dying, long live the co-op
“Every private equity company in the country has been in touch to try and buy its funerals operation.” Lord Myners In recent times the Co-op’s reputation has been kept afloat by sentiment fostered by its of-the-people-for-the-people origins, fortified by ‘ethical values’ and holier-than-thou policies on fair trade. Fondness has blinded people who should know […]
We screwed up, confesses the Co-op
To Nick Goodway in the London Evening Standard it looks more like a ‘massive public relations exercise than a genuine “want to know what you think”.’ He’s talking about the Co-op’s Have Your Say survey, now under way, which gives you the chance to tell ‘the Group’ what you think of it. Yes, the top […]
The only way is Ethics?
The Co-operative — What Makes Us Different “I sometimes wonder if the greatest institutional problem of our time is not plain, unvarnished evil, but this obsession with Ethics as an outward form, with compliance rather than conscience. The whole idea of an Ethical business, as distinct from a normal one which behaves ethically, is […]
Why the shambles at the Co-op is so serious
“One version of the “better” that mutuals have to be is that they have to be seen by customers to be more “decent” than other businesses – because that provides a motive for some consumers to spend their money with them. And the second version of the better is that they have to be conspicuously […]
Will The Co-operative Group throw Funeralcare to the wolves?
On 2 July this year the Co-operative Group’s executive team visited Rochdale. The chief exec, Euan Sutherland, tweeted: “Spent the day at Rochdale Pioneers Museum with the Exec immersing ourselves in Co-operative heritage. Fantastic, inspirational, relevant”. All very heartening if you’re one of those who inclines to the view that capitalism is essentially sociopathic, and that […]
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Vultures circle over Funeralcare
From Sky News: The Co-operative Group has rebuffed a string of takeover approaches for its funerals arm amid a controversial restructuring of its troubled banking division. Sky News has learnt that buyout firms including CVC Capital Partners, the controlling shareholder of Formula One motor racing, and Montagu Private Equity, a former owner of the Dignity […]
A Co-op good news story
You may remember the case of Lisa Mullan, whose father chose to be buried at Crossways woodland burial site but, because of an administrative muddle, ended up being buried somewhere else. We’ve just heard some good news from Lisa. Co-operative Funeralcare sector manager Jack Walsh subsequently invited Lisa’s mother to a meeting. There, he gave her […]
