Co-operative Federal Trading Services

The Co-operative Federal Trading Services is the central buying group for co-operative retail societies in the United Kingdom. It came into its current structure in 2015, though its predecessor was established in 1993, and it supplies almost all food bought for sale by the over 4,000 co-operative foodstores in the UK. The group is owned and controlled by each of its member societies but is managed by the Co-operative Group on their behalf, The buying group operates by pooling the collective buying power for 18 co-operative societies in the UK, allowing them to negotiate better prices from suppliers so as to compete effectively with other UK supermarket chains.

The Co-operative is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).

Co-operative Retail Trading Group

The Co-operative Retail Trading Group (CRTG) was established in 1993 by the Co-operative Wholesale Society to centralise buying power for retail co-operatives in the UK. By 2002 it had become the central buying group for the all of the major food retailing co-operatives, after being joined by the last two independent societies. The CRTG lost its complete control over the food co-op sector in 2014 however after the Clydebank Co-operative Society left the buying group. After the financial crisis in The Co-operative Group it was decided that The Group should no longer be responsible for the central buying group (the CRTG) as, if it had have collapsed, it could have led to the collapse of the independent co-operative societies as they would have had major difficulties in sourcing produce. The new buying group, Co-operative Federal Trading Services, was established in 2015 and differs from its predecessor most notably in that each member co-operative has equal control over the business, whereas before control was proportional to total amount purchased through the buying group (giving The Co-operative Group dominant control).