A national apex federation has been created for Sweden’s co-ops to “modernise” the image of the business model there.
Co-operatives Sweden was launched on 11 May by Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF), the Swedish Co-operative Union (KF), the HSB co-operative housing association and the KFO Employers’ Association. It brings together for the first time consumer, producer, worker and housing co-ops.
Sweden’s top 100 co-operatives employ 100,000 people and have an annual turnover of SEK 400bn. The new organisation’s chair, Anders Källström, wants to see this increase.
“Co-operative businesses are remarkably common at global level. Sweden is actually something of an exception, as the country is home to a comparatively small number of co-operative businesses,” he said.
“We believe that this is due to a worrying gap in knowledge about this way of doing business in Sweden – which is a situation we are keen to change.”
Jan Edén, business executive of the new federation, said the co-operative enterprise model was not well-known in Sweden and the organisation will work to improve its profile.
“We are myth busters,” he added. “There is, for example, a very common misconception that co-ops do not need to be profitable. We want to provide members, employees and the general public with a more relevant view of the co-operative form of enterprise.”
