Organic consumer buying groups
- an alternative model of trading and retail
Irish Organic Conference
16 June 2011
Traci Lewis
Soil Association
Who are we and what do we do?
Soil Association – membership and campaigning charity for
sustainable and organic food and farming
Soil Association Certification Ltd – leading UK organic
certification body
Making Local Food Work (MLFW) partnership, Big lottery
funded to support Community Food Enterprises in England
Making Local Food Work (MLFW)
• Big Lottery Funded programme - £10 million delivery
across England to 2012 (650 enterprises, 1 mill. people)
• Social enterprise – community food enterprise as a
solution to local food needs
• Partnership - CooperativesUK, CPRE, Country Markets
Ltd, FARMA, Plunkett Foundation, Soil Association, and
Sustain
Organic Buying Groups
• A group of people who
regularly bulk buy organic
and/or local food together
• Range of produce and
‘common interest groups’ eg.
wholefood, veg & meat;
neighbourhood, workplace,
school,
• ‘Scaling up’ – an objective
of project to research large
scale buying groups from
around world
The Buying Group Model
Producer
Suppliers
Consumer
Dropoff
point
infrastructure
Groups of
Consumers
Food coops or buying groups
• Are run by the community for the community
• Aim to supply produce at more affordable prices than
other outlets
• Are run on a not-for-profit basis
• Generally rely on the support of volunteers, either in the
day-to day running or on the committee
However they all differ in what they sell, when they sell it,
how they sell it and where they sell it.
Key Ingredients for success
Good location
Partnership
working
High quality,
good value produce
Sufficient time
and resources
Committed
volunteers and staff
Finding out what
people want and need
Marketing and publicity
Community
involvement
Buying group overview –
small scale
• Small scale 1-6
households; ‘common
interest’ groups (10 – 50)
• Wholefood wholesaler
buying groups eg Suma
• Over 200 trading buying
groups (MLFW) – range of
scale and models
STROUDCO, Stroud,
England
• Owned by producer and
consumer members (CIC)
• Producers charged 8% of
sales
• Consumers pay £2/month + 2
hours work/ yr
• Main cost is part time worker
• Overheads are low
• 200 people spending
£24/month = break even
• Web based – online ordering
• Operates from a school
True Food Coop, Reading,
England
• Medium scale – over 300
members;1200
households
• 3 community markets and
a large shop
• Four members of staff
supported by teams of
volunteers
• 1300 product lines;
annual turnover £350,000
Gruppo de Aquista Solidale, Italy
GAS a national buying
group network
700 groups registered (up
to 2000), supplying
10,000 members
La Tiera – pasta coop of
100 members, small scale
farms, E 5-10 million
turnover (5-8% to GAS
buying groups)
Biocoop, France
• Network of co-operating
French organic shops - aim to
promote fairness, solidarity,
co-operation, organic farming
and transparency
• More than 300 independent
shops, 3000 employees
• Turnover 450 million Euros13% of French organic market
• The ‘co-operative multi’ has 4
groups: distributors, producers,
300,000 consumers; 3000 staff
Conclusions
• Exciting new direct
producer-consumer
trading model
• But how to engage new
customers? (not existing!)
• Need suitable
infrastructure,distribution
and ordering systems
Future development
• ‘Scaling’ or ‘connecting’
up
• ‘Sustainable Food
Communities’ in towns
and cities eg. Plymouth,
Bristol
• Key learnings –
partnership; cooperation;
social enterprise;
community building and
engagement
Find out more
Soil Association website www.soilassociation.org/obg.aspx
Sustain food co-ops website www.foodcoops.org – tool kit,
case studies, Food coop finder
Making Local Food Work www.makinglocalfoodwork.org
Traci Lewis tlewis@soilassociation.org
Thank you!