I spent an uplifting weekend with consumer co-operative members and chief executives at our national retail conference in Swindon. I have been given such a warm welcome from across the sector since starting and when you see cooperative entrepreneurs and activists together, you realise that is simply one part of a special culture.
Aldo Soldi, economics professor and President of my counterpart in Italy, demonstrated how coop stores are number 1 and 2 in the Italian retail market. Back home, Dorothy, who helps start new cooperatives in Leicester said to me that her work feels like “turning straw into gold.”
