Re-vitalize the Swedish cooperative sector Gordon HAHN, chairman, Coompanion & director of SERUS

Reykjavik 20140321

Mission of Coompanion

Coompanion support co-operatives•to increase in numbers by start-up activities•to be widely known and recognized•to grow and to act as a role model in every industry and sector•to operate on equal conditions with other forms of enterprising

Our task is to …

• inform, provide counselling, coach, train and run projects that promote cooperative start-ups and cooperative development in Sweden.

• create favorable circumstances and conditions for cooperatives and for entrepreneurship in the social economy and local development spheres.

• During the past 5 years started enterprises with help from Coompanion have increased by 68 %

• In 2013 was 64 % of the companies founded as cooperatives • This has given some 5 000 new entrepreneurs in Sweden

Who we are

• 25 regional Coompanions (officies) in each county

• Approximately 120 employees

• owned and controlled locally by over 900 members.

The law on economic societies

• enhances democracy in cooperatives enterprising

• legitimizes tailor-made business counselling

• makes cooperatives visible

The Swedish Co-operative model

• Agricultural (production) co-ops - 1850• Consumer co-ops – 5/9 1899 – 3M members• Housing co-ops – HSB 1924 – 550t members• Petrol co-ops – 1945 – 1,6M members• Funeral co-ops - 1945

• Glory betwen1900 – 1955 • Between 1960 – 1980 centralised business

structure and de-democrized business structure = Coompanion

The revitalize co-op movement• Work integrated social cooperatives (Working

coops)• Broadband cooperatives for rural establishment

(consumer coops)• Energy cooperatives (production coops)• SME Co-ops • Health, education and welfare cooperatives

(Mondragon)• Attitude changement amongst youngsters to start

cooperatives• Cooperative juridical form (economic societies) is

the only growing form of start-up 2012 and 2013.

Work integration social cooperatives• has increased in Sweden since 2008

- in the Stockholm area with 47 per cent - in Malmö with surroundings with 70 per cent - in Gothenburg with surroundings with 53 per cent

• 2013 had the three metropolitan regions (Stockholm, Västra Götaland, Skåne,) together around 1 500 employees in work integration social cooperatives

• East Sweden Region -> Kooptjänst & Happy Huddik model• Today totally approximately 350 work integrated social

cooperatives employing approximately 10 000 people

Broadband co-ops

• In order to secure full-speed broadband to all areas of Sweden, Co-op solutions has been the driving force.

• Today, co-ops cover approximately 20 % of the infrastructure of broadband in Sweden

• But more important; it has been the solution for thousands of households and individuals to access to Internet with full-speed.

Energy co-ops

• Increased number of Cooperatives in energy production, especially within wind-, solar and biogas energy.

Egen Kraft i Sverige

Karrydvind Solel i Sala och Heby

Biogas Dalsland

Qvinnovindar

SME co-ops• In cultural and creative sector, we see an increase of co-ops for

cooperation between SME. The same trend is for tourism and educational sector.

• New cooperatives exist primarily in the information and communication sector as well as in arts, entertainment and recreation. Many of the new co-operative enterprises are engaged in health care, school or day care.

GeekTown Guide2Give Fröja Språkskolan Skäggiga damen

Right now we see a strong trend within the young generation in Sweden; they want to start businesses together. But unfortunately – they don’t know that it is the co-operative business form that matches their values. Many in the new generation wants to change the world and has already thought about sustainable development, solidarity and equal value.

We call them …

Our new campaign Generation Cooperation becomes a statement, strongly linked to the co-operative principles.

AttitudesIn a survey made 2013 to respondents age 20-35 the question was: What words do you associate strongly with cooperative entrepreneurship? -> "cooperation" and "community“. Would like to see more cooperatives in health and social care.

Enterprise barometer 2012: •Half of the population in Sweden would like to start business•62 % of them would like to start together with others•70 % of youngsters (18-30) would like to start together with others•Only 35 % of existing enterprises is conducted by 2 or more people in Sweden

Co-operatives in 289 branches… • Business and management consultancy

• Pre-school, child care• Art and performance• Renting and operating of premises• Advertising• Wired telecommunications• Computing services• Sound recording and music publishing• Restaurants• Collection, treatment and supply of

groundwater• Comprehensive school and pre-school • Social work activities for disabled persons• Retail food stores• Wind power stations• And so on……….

The Swedish Co-operative development

1900 – 1960Housing co-ops, Consumer co-ops, Agricultural co-ops, Petrol co-ops, Funeral co-ops e.g. (Established cooperative movement)

2000 – 2013Worker co-ops, insertion co-ops, rural co-ops,

2014+health and welfare co-ops, School co-ops, cultural co-ops, SME co-ops

Gordon HahnChairman Coompanion Sweden

gordon@serus.se