The Co-operative Group is a family of businesses owned and controlled by its members. Its businesses include food, funerals, pharmacy, travel as well as banking and insurance services.
As a co-operative business its focus is on providing services to and creating value for its members. The Group employs over 65,000 people, has more than 3,400 high street outlets across the UK.
In 1995, the Group’s ‘Dividend’ loyalty scheme was introduced in to the Group’s food retail businesses, and over 20 million cards were issued. The first key fob loyalty cards in the UK were introduced in to the scheme as well.
In 2006 the Co-operative Group started to adopt a new brand – at the heart of that brand was the revitalisation of its membership. The Group developed a new membership scheme to replace the old Dividend loyalty programme, and opened up the benefits of earning a share of the profits to the Group’s other businesses, not just food retail.
Andrew Kemp, from the Co-operative Group, said "The launch of the new membership scheme has been a huge step forward for us. It offers our members more than simple loyalty programme - it gives them the opportunity to share in the profits of the Co-operative Group – profits they help create through their trade with us. The more they trade with us the bigger their share profits. They can also contribute back to their community.
As a business this has helped us to build and identify cross-trading opportunities. By offering the scheme across our trading businesses there are now more opportunities for our members to benefit."
PCC was selected as the principle card partner to support this major strategic project.
"Having worked with PCC for many years, knowing their capabilities and that fact they can be relied on to complete projects with the required quality and time-scales gave us confidence that this project would be a success from an operational point of view," added Andrew. "In addition, PCC’s commitment to supporting the fundamental principles of the Co-operative’s ethical proposition - especially environment and sustainability - made them the natural choice for a significant card project like this."
PCC has manufactured, personalised and distributed over 2 million Membership packs. Each pack comprises;
- A personalised membership card, made from the more environmentally friendly PETG material, to reflect the Group’s environmental policies
- Printed card carriers, booklets and promotional inserts - all on recycled, chlorine free paper printed with vegetable based inks
Nick Cahn, managing director of PCC, commented "The Co-operative Group is a highly valued client and PCC is immensely proud to have worked with them on this prestigious project".