History
The Network was formally established in 2004 but it all began many years before.
The development of community co-operatives began in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland in the 1970's when a scheme to encourage the formation and development of multi-functional community co-operatives was introduced by the Highlands & Islands Development Board (HIDB).
Communities were encouraged to take responsibility for owning and managing essential services such as the local shop, petrol station, community transport etc. The first of these to develop were in the Western Isles followed by others in Orkney, Highland, Shetland and other parts of Scotland.
By creating jobs and providing services, the overall objective was to address depopulation and the need for regeneration in these remote rural areas. The community co-ops that survived still play a key role in ensuring the continued viability of their local communities.
For those enterprises that took over their local shop a key part in their success was the link that was formed between them and the Co-operative Group (then known as CWS). Faced with real difficulty in accessing fresh food and other goods, HIDB approached the Co-operative Group with a request to supply products to the newly established community co-operatives.
The Co-operative Group continued to support community retailing and facilitated a series of informal meetings followed by the establishment of a Development Group to improve the support package. Out of this grew a more formal Best Practice Group which still meets regularly, bringing together representatives of community and food co-ops with key staff in the Co-operative Group.
This group achieved considerable progress in improving links and relationships between the parties involved, leading to a conference in 2002, 'Opportunities for the Future of Community Retailing'. At the conference the need for a supportive network for community retailers was identified and in 2004 the Community Retailing Network was established.
The Network's Board was set up and offered support to existing and new community retailers while trying to identify resources to run and develop the network.
In January 2008, thanks to funding from the Esmé Fairbairn Foundation and the Co-operative Fund, a Co-ordinator was employed to take forward the Network's aims and objectives.