A co-operative is a people organisation, jointly owned and democratically controlled by its members. Trade is a fundamental human activity, and co-operatives are trading enterprises, providing goods and services, and generating profits.

Those profits are not taken by outside shareholders as with investor owned businesses, but are under the control of the members, who decide democratically how they should be used.

• Co-operatives invest in education and training for their members, enabling them to contribute more effectively to sustain development of their co-operatives.
  
  
• Co-operatives are part of and work for the sustainable development of their communities.
  
  
• Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
  
  
• The thousands of co-operative enterprises throughout the UK are just part of a global movement that employs an estimated 100 million people, rather more than the number working for multinational corporations.