The Co-operative Retail Trading Group (or CRTG) is the central buying group for co-operative retail societies in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1993, and says that it supplies 100% of food bought for sale by co-operatives in the UK, after being joined by the last two independent societies in 2002. The group is organised by the Co-operative Group on behalf of the other member societies, and is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).
Until 1998, it faced competition within the retail co-operative movement from another grocery buying group, the Consortium of Independent Co-operatives (CIC) which was led by Co-operative Retail Services. Several of the larger regional co-operatives of the time were members of CIC: Portsea, Scotmid, United, and Yorkshire. In 1998, the CIC supplied £1 billion of goods annually, and the CRTG £2.5 billion.
Famous quotes containing the words retail, trading and/or group:
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