Discussion: Cooperatives

Equity Ownership Structures Part I

We discuss Co-ops (short for Cooperatives). What are they and how are they significantly different from publicly traded companies, non-profit corporations, and privately held for profit companies? We discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We look at biblical models such as Acts 2 and 4 and compare and contrast them.

Some History of Co-ops in USA:

Founded 1752 in Philadelphia, PA

Earliest known US co-op in the form of a mutual insurance company – owned by policyholders

https://1752.com/blog/about-us/history/

Founded 1930 in Hanson, Massachusetts among 3 cranberry farming families

Example of a vertically integrated farming co-op whereby the farmers own the company.

https://www.oceanspray.com/en/Our-Story/Ownership

Founded in 1938, Seattle, WA

Formed as a consumer co-op where by the customers own the company

https://www.rei.com/about-rei

Founded 1908, Manchester, New Hampshire

First credit union in the US, as a cooperative bank owned by depositors and loan holders

https://www.stmarysbank.com/nav/about-us/history

Key Attributes of a “Co-op”

  • Alignment of interest around an affinity group
  • Pool resources together to better achieve business objective / common goal
  • Mutual and broad ownership with “one man, one vote” governance structure
  • “Profits” are distributed back to owners based on various fairness metrics, such as policy value, agricultural output, deposit/loan amount, or sales volume
  • they are “Non-profit” in the sense that the income statement balances to zero after dividends and/or member benefits are paid out
  • Opt-in and opt-out provisions for agricultural / supplier co-ops
  • Lifetime membership for some consumer co-ops including credit unions and insurance cos
  • Avoids hostile takeovers, capital stripping, over use of leverage, etc. found in publicly traded cos.

Other types of “Co-ops”

  • Housing / Coop Apartment buildings / Condos
  • Student unions
  • Preschools / Child care
  • Utilities
  • Workers
  • Food / Farmers Market
  • Retail / Buyers Clubs
  • Business
  • Arts / Crafts / Performance / Theater

We compare the strengths and weaknesses of the cooperative structure to other equity ownership structures.