Thanks so much for the comment. You are absolutely right there are more types of co-ops and they are obviously not as simple as I have portrayed. This article was written to stimulate the conversation that co-ops have potential advantages over traditional businesses and that may lead to a co-operative succession.

With your point about profits, there is a difference between profits and revenue and yes your are correct that in some co-ops they are in the business to make a profit. Others also make profits but they are returned to members or invested back into the business, that is why I used the general term essentially not-for-profit.

I would like to kindly mention, that to say I have a narrow understanding of co-ops does not include my situation in writing this article and my considerations, i.e. length limitations, depth of details, and breadth of reach to others that may need an introduction to co-ops, but that may not be ready for all the details. I hope you can understand

I am extremely happy that you are also helping to progress co-operative business and that you have a great understanding of the intricacies. I will look up the co-ops you mentioned because I am always interested in what others are doing and which successful businesses are out there! Best of luck with your ventures.

Kind Regards,
Geoff

Except of course those that are owned by the workers. They have every reason to profit maximise like any investor-owned capitalist firm, and that is to share the profits among the shareholders, in this case the co-op members.

Looking at ownership and governance, while some co-ops are one member one share and one vote, other co-ops, such as those owned by dairy farmers, generally ask their members to buy shares in proportion to the business they put through the cooperative. In this case, there’s generally a cap on voting rights so that the larger members aren’t able to outvote the smaller ones. To see the relationship as an equitable one than an equal one makes more sense.

Your three kinds of co-ops leaves out the fourth kind: purchasing and shared services co-ops, which is a better description of co-ops such as Ace Hardware.

To state that co-ops are not as “capitalistic” (whatever that means) as private or public companies (surely a cooperative is a privately owned company, isn’t it?) is not borne out by the facts. Look at the largest 100 co-ops in the USA (www.coop100..coop) and you’ll see few that offer significant benefit to those outside their immediate membership.

Now, in my view, if you want to look for inspiration among co-ops you should examine first the small but growing number of multistakeholder co-ops (such as Oklahoma Food Co-op) in which different groups with (often) opposing interests are members, and second CROPP Cooperative, which is known to the public as Organic Valley. CROPP rewards not just its farmer members but allots a proportion of profits to staff and gives a proportion to causes nominated by people who buy its products.