History
In 1933, CWS formed a retail division tasked with taking over failing retail consumer co-operatives, and setting up shop in new areas. This division was demerged to form Co-operative Retail Services during 1957. The demerger was prompted by complications with CWS's democratic governance: it was becoming a larger retailer in its own right but it was a secondary co-operative, owned by other co-operatives, meaning the retail division's customers had little representation on the board.
However elections were still held with rival political groups standing, such as the 1960 Committee which attempted to give a more left-wing leadership to the London Region of CRS.
During the mid 1990s, CRS began an ambitious investment programme. The society saw the CWS-led Co-op brand as old and out-dated and began a huge refurbishment programme of its ageing and neglected stores under a new 'Co-operative' identity. Slow to adopt the commonplace EPoS systems for its tills, and still pricing products individually rather than using barcode scanners, it also invested in information technology.
In 2000, these changes and improvements were overtaken by events, as CRS was merged back into CWS to form The Co-operative Group. Over the following few years, the re-branding efforts were temporarily reversed as stores and own brand goods were converted into CWS-designed formats – which included the 1993 version of the 1967 CWS four leaf clover "Co-op" logo. However, in 2007, the movement's re-branding programme reintroduced the name Co-operative to these stores.
Read more about this topic: Co-operative Retail Services
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