Sponsors

Banco Credicoop

Banco Credicoop was established in 1979. Today, it is the Argentina's eleventh-largest bank by total assets and ninth largest by deposits (US$2.8 billion); nearly all of this is accounted for by its over 670,000 members, and Credicoop maintains 244 branches. It is also a lender in a country where domestic credit is difficult to access, holding a net loan portfolio of US$1.7 billion (3.5% of the domestic total).

Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Society

Buldana Urban was founded on 15 August 1986. It has a size of 1.1-billion-dollar business with more than half a million (700,000) membership. The area of operation is mainly in central and western India in four states of India. The society has 451 branches and 7000 employee and 300 warehouses. Business activities are mainly in warehouse loan business, gold loan business, industrial finance, infrastructure finance business, housing loan and vehicle loans, individual loans and educational loans.

CCA Global Partners

Founded in 1984, CCA Global is an international purchasing cooperative supporting over 500,000 family businesses and over 20,000 childcare centers in four countries and another 1 million independent businesses in North America benefit from CCA Global’s business leadership through its 14 different affiliate companies. These businesses represent five distinct categories: flooring and home furnishings; business services; sporting goods; nonprofit and childcare; and management and contracting. Today, CCA is one of the largest privately held cooperatives in the United States. The superior benefits that CCA Global delivers include: Lower buying & operating costs; Powerful & fully supported tech solutions; Expert marketing programs; National advertising & PR support; Exclusive profitability tools; and Award-winning training programs.

Cooperativa de Portuarios del Puerto de San Martin

Cooperativa de Portuarios del Puerto de San Martin was founded in 1961. Located along the Paraná River, the Cooperative offers services of stowage, cleaning, cargo packaging, bulk loading and unloading, barge discharge, berthing, bulk movement in horizontal silos and loading and unloading in underground grain silos using extraction machinery. The Cooperative supports the development of local and multinational companies by setting up cutting-edge factories and loading terminals to improve foreign trade services.

Cooperative Obrera

Cooperativa Obrera was founded in Bahía Blanca in the year 1920 when a group of 173 residents of Bahía Blanca decided to join to form a cooperative bakery that would ensure the right price, the exact weight and quality of bread, such a vital food. In 1932 its first cooperative store was opened. Today it has 1.6 million associates and 5,000 workers. It is the second large consumer cooperative in Latin America. It has its own quality control laboratory. It also has own credit cards which facilitates access to credit to its members.

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO)

In 1967, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Limited (IFFCO) was established by an initiative of NCBA/CLUSA in collaboration with ACDI/VOCA for the welfare of India’s farmers. Today, IFFCO is the world’s Largest Fertiliser Cooperative, growing from an association of just 57 cooperatives in 1967, to 35,300 cooperatives at present. IFFCO is an autonomous cooperative i.e. wholly owned by Cooperative Members. All its initiatives are aimed to benefit its member’s i.e. farmers.

The Kibbutz Movement

The Kibbutz (Hebrew word for “gathering”) Movement is the largest settlement movement in Israel. It was re-organized in 1999 as a merger between two Kibbutz organizations and includes 257 members (kibbutzim). The kibbutz is a multi-purpose cooperative, binding together community, housing, and production means. The majority of kibbutzim are rural communities, based on principles of joint ownership, equality and cooperation in production, consumption and education, providing mutual aid to their members.

Midcounties Coop

The Midcounties Co-operative is the largest independent consumer cooperative in the UK, with over 700,000 members. It operates a range of businesses in Food, Travel, Healthcare, Funeral, Childcare, Energy, Post Offices, Flexible Benefits and Telecoms. It was formed in 2005, by the merger of the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-operative Society and the West Midlands Co-operative Society. The Midcounties Co-operative generates annual gross sales of over £1bn, has over 400 Trading Sites, 8,000 colleagues and over 700,000 members.  It focuses on enabling their members to influence, connect and co-operate in joint activities that benefit their Society, their members and their communities. 

Mondragon Corporation

Mondragon groups 98 cooperatives located mainly in the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain, and in their majority SMEs. It is the largest business group in the Basque Autonomous Region and the tenth in Spain. Its origins go back to 1956, when the first industrial worker cooperative was established in Mondragon, then a very small Basque town. It is a cross-sectoral group organized into four major areas: industry, distribution, finance and knowledge. Its mission combines the basic objectives of a business organization competing in international markets with the use of democratic and participatory governance, job creation, human and professional promotion of its workers and commitment to social and economic development of its territory.

National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF)

NACF was born out of the integration of the former agricultural cooperatives and the Agricultural Bank in 1961. Since then, NACF has played a crucial role not only in improving the conditions of farmers economically, socially and culturally, but also in contributing to the balanced development of the Korean economy. NACF and its member cooperatives are engaged in diversified business activities and support services to meet the need of member farmers and other clients. They can be grouped into three broad categories: banking sector, non-banking sector (commercial business), and support service sector. They also handle the farm credit guarantee service for the government.

National Co+op Grocers (NCG)

NCG is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 147 food co-ops operating over 200 stores in 39 states with combined annual sales over $2.1 billion and over 1.3 million consumer-owners. NCG helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere.

Rabobank

Rabobank Group is a Dutch cooperative banking group born from small agricultural cooperative banks in 1895. Nowadays, Rabobank Group consists of 89 local Rabobanks, Rabobank Nederland (APEX) and domestic and foreign subsidiaries. Rabobank has 1.9 million members who are customers of local Rabobanks. The common thread since Rabobank’s inception is to offer financial solutions for economic needs and social issues. In practice, Rabobank has frequently reoriented its strategy, business model and governance structure in anticipation of or in response to shifting trends in society, technology, competition, banking regulation and supervision, etcetera. Being a cooperative, profit maximalisation has never been our overriding purpose, but profits are necessary for meeting capital requirements, continuity and the pursuit of our social goals.

S-Group

S Group is a Finnish network of consumer cooperatives operating in the retail and service sectors, mainly in Finland but also in Estonia and in Russia. S Group comprises 19 regional cooperatives and SOK Corporation along with its subsidiaries. SOK Corporation was founded in 1904 and it`s owned by the regional cooperatives. Regional cooperatives are owned by their cooperative members and they operate according to the cooperative principles. Today by turnover, S Group is the biggest cooperative group in Finland. S Group's key business areas are the supermarket trade, department stores, specialty stores, the hardware trade, service station store and fuel sales, and the travel industry and hospitality business. In addition, S-Bank offers banking services to cooperative members. Individual cooperatives conduct also automotive trade and services.

Sancor Seguros

The Sancor Seguros Group is a financial cooperative institution based in Sunchales, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It was founded in 1945. The cooperative manages different specialized organizations, including: Sancor Seguros (insurer) Prevención ART Prevención Salud, Prevención Retiro, Alianza Inversora, CITES, Fundación Grupo Sancor Seguros and Banco del Sol. As of March 2020, it has a capital of 363 million dollars. It has more than 7 million capita insurance and 170 thousand health affiliates. It has about 8,300 associated producers and 3,330 employees. It opened subsidiaries in Uruguay in 2006, Paraguay in 2009 and Brazil in 2013.

Smart

Established in 1998 as non-profit association specialised in offering economic activity and contract management services, insurance services, legal and consulting services, information and training, co-workspaces, and mutual financial tools mainly to artists, Smart Belgium was converted into a cooperative in 2016 and has a French and Belgian management. More recently it has opened itself to freelancers of all sectors of activities. Smart Belgium has organised a process for converting itself into a multi- stakeholder cooperative (workers, clients, partners, service providers etc.). Smart has disseminated to another 8 European countries through similar cooperatives, with a total of 85,000 members.

UP Group

Founded in 1964 as a consumer cooperative, Up Group became a worker cooperative in 1972. It designs and markets products and services that facilitate access to food, culture, recreation, education, home help, social assistance but also accompanies companies in the management of their professional expenses or in the animation of stimulation and fidelity devices. It offers a wide range of titles and services for companies, works councils, communities and individuals. The group is also present in the software solutions market for personal services structures. Present in 19 countries on all continents, the Up group works for more than 24.5 million customers and is the world number three in lunch vouchers.

Vancity

Founded in 1946, Vancity is a values-based financial cooperative serving the needs of its more than 543,000 member-owners and their communities in the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw territories, with 55 branches in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish, and Alert Bay. With $23.2 billion in assets plus assets under administration ($28.2 billion total) and 2,675 employees, Vancity is Canada's largest community credit union. Vancity uses its assets to help improve the financial well-being of its members while at the same time helping to develop healthy communities that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable. Vancity shared 30% of its net profits with members and communities, sharing over $375 million through Shared Success since 1994.