Co-op brings back 60s logo – and the divi
THE CO-OP is changing its logo in a rebrand – and it’s one that will already be familiar to many.
The group’s clover leaf design from the 1960s is making a return in the latest effort to win back consumers.
It has also unveiled plans to restore the annual dividend – or ‘divi’ – for its eight million members, promising to hand out more than £100million a year to customers and good causes.
This week the group, which runs businesses from funeral homes to supermarkets, will start tearing down the lime green banners on its 2,800 food shops and replacing them with the blue logo – which will be similar to one it launched back in 1968.
The logo was phased out in the 1980s as bosses pushed for a more corporate image. But it will now be gradually restored across the Co-op empire over the next few years. The revamp will be launched with the slogan: ‘Back to being Co-op’.
From this Autumn, members will be credited with 5 per cent of the value of purchases of Co-op’s ownbrand goods and services. It also confirmed the revival of the dividend – scrapped in 2013 – in which members receive a share of profits.
The group’s reputation never fully recovered from a scandal in 2013 involving the former chairman of the Co-op Bank, Reverend Paul Flowers. The former methodist minister was charged with possessing class A drugs including crystal meth, ketamine and cocaine. Flowers, branded the ‘Crystal Methodist’, boasted of drug-fuelled gay orgies in text messages leaked to the Press.
The bank – in which the Co- op group now only has a minority stake – was rescued by uS hedge funds in 2013 after a £1.5billion black hole was discovered in its finances.