The first documented consumer cooperative was founded in 1769, in a barely furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire, when local weavers bought a sack of oatmeal and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers’ Society.
In 1810, Rev. Henry Duncan of the Ruthwell Presbyterian Church in Dumfriesshire, Scotland founded a friendly society to create a ‘savings bank’ at which his poorest parishioners could hold savings accounts accruing interest for sickness and old-age, which was the first established savings bank that would be merged into the Trustee Savings Bank.
The Co-op Group has its origins in the co-operative consumer societies started by the Rochdale Pioneers. In 1863, independent co-op societies formed The Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). They provided Co-op products to sell in hundreds of Co-op stores.
The early logo which can still be seen on old Co-op buildings includes a beehive and a shaking hands, symbolising working together for a common good.
This ethos of sharing and working together, which take place in Aberdour, is to be added to with a new shop on the High Streeet.