ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the reasons why Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) emerged as a global player so quickly after its establishment, how it constructed the basic framework of its international network in the period to 1890 and the early strategies it developed for managing it in this early, and often experimental, period of development. The strong demand among co-operators for butter and cheese resulted in CWS going directly to the Irish butter market to procure supplies. CWS employees and directors traversed Europe and the USA, purchasing vegetables, grain, dried fruit and other produce directly from manufacturers, farmers and merchants. Dissatisfaction with brokers—from whom the CWS procured most dried fruit up to the mid-1880s—proved to be the basis of a major CWS initiative to secure dried fruit overseas, especially from Greece. The CWS Board met weekly, and very quickly, as its operations expanded, the Board meeting itself became inadequate for handling the growing volume of business.
