ABSTRACT
Founded in 1944, Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) is the largest nonfinancial consumer co-operative in Canada and among Canada’s most successful companies. FCL is also consistently listed among the top 100 co-operative organizations globally. The Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) can trace its origins back to farmers establishing co-operative purchasing associations in the early 20th century. Two waves of consumer co-operative formation occurred prior to and immediately following World War I; however, very few of these early co-operative associations survived either the post–World War I Depression or the subsequent prosperity of the 1920s. The Co-operative Retailing System had experienced almost continuous growth from the 1930s until the 1970s, and many thought the ‘good times’ would never end. During the 1960s and 1970s, many retail co-ops had overexpanded by borrowing from banks and using their equity in FCL as security.
