ABSTRACT
In 1948 the British Co-operative movement, excluding the Agricultural Co-operative Societies, recorded a productive output valued at £175 millions. The Federal Societies, mostly local or regional federations of Consumers’ Societies, come third; and the Producers’ Societies bring up the rear, with only a tiny fraction of the total output. Generally speaking, the Co-operative Societies produce only goods for which there is a regular and assured sale in the retail consumers’ market, and concentrate largely on the later stages of manufacture: so that there is in many cases a considerable non-Co-operative element in the value of Co-operative products. The Co-operative share in the cotton and woollen industries is very small and highly specialised; there is no Co-operative production of rayon or of other textile substitutes. Measured in terms of the numbers employed, the average Co-operative factory is fairly small, as one would expect from the character of the trades carried on.
