LONDON: John Lewis has overtaken the Co-operative Group as the UK’s biggest worker-owned business, a report has said.
Full-year sales at the department store retailer, which has 93,800 members, hit £10.9bn in March, according to trade body Co-operatives UK.
This topped the Co-op, which has 8.4 million members and turned in annual revenues of £10.8bn for this year.
The Co-op was hit by the reduction in its stake in the Co-op Bank to just 20% following its emergency recapitalisation by hedge funds after it almost collapsed two years ago.
The bank nearly failed in 2013 and dragged the wider Co-operative group to a £2.5bn annual loss that year, after a £1.5bn hole was discovered in the lender’s balance sheet.
Wednesday’s report revealed that the whole of the worker-owned business sector saw its sales fall 2.8% this year to £37bn, largely as a result of the crisis at the Co-op.
However, it said the co-operative sector remained resilient despite the bad publicity, with the number of members in the movement rising by 1.3% to 14.9 million this year.
The survey added that the number of independent co-operatives also edged up 0.5% to 6,796 businesses.
The largest area in the sector is retailing, which this year accounted for annual sales of £14.9bn – or 40% of all employee-owned businesses. The next biggest area for worker-run businesses is farming.
Energy and health and social care are also areas witnessing growth.
Secretary-general of Co-operatives UK, Ed Mayo, said: “The Co-operative Group is coming out of a challenging period into one of renewal, and this of course has had an impact on the sector.
“Yet innovation and growth amongst co-operatives large and small, in everything from solar power to social care, have meant that the co-operative sector is growing and in good health.”
