France is witnessing a growth in worker co-operatives

As France celebrates its 14 July independence day (Bastille Day), the country is witnessing an increasing number of co-ops, with over 263 co-operatives set up in 2013. By...

As France celebrates its 14 July independence day (Bastille Day), the country is witnessing an increasing number of co-ops, with over 263 co-operatives set up in 2013. By contrast in 2012, 248 worker co-operatives were created in France.

These results are the best in six years, according to the annual report published by the Confederation of Worker Co-operatives (La Confédération générale des Scop). The number of worker co-operatives in France has now reached 2,252 an increase of 17% from 2009.

Patrick Lenancker, president of the Confederation, explained how the financial crisis had determined an increase in the number of worker co-operative.

He said: “Of these 263 new societies created, 65% were created from scratch, which shows that entrepreneurs are really adhering to this enterprise model. The crisis determined a double amount of takeovers of companies in difficulty, in comparison to 2012, amounting to 27 companies being taken over in 2013.”

Setting up co-operatives has also helped create or preserve over 10,500 jobs, with 1,859 created or saved in 2013.

French worker co-operatives and participative societies, which employ 45,700 people, have had a turnover of €3.9bn. Over 45% of these co-operatives operate in the services sector, with 1,000 societies and 16,500 employees. Another 42% of co-operatives are active in the industry sector, employing 19,300 people. The remaining 16% of worker co-operatives can be found in sectors such as education, trade, health and social service and account for 12% of the movement’s employees.

Mr Lenancker also highlighted that around 18,000 people have embarked on the creation of worker co-operatives in 2013, whether managers (29%), employees (30%) or workers (27). “All active societies are affected by the creation of co-operative and participative societies,” he said.

Figures published also confirm that co-operatives are more resilient than other type of enterprises. The survival rate after three years was 77%, as opposed to the 65% rate in the case of other companies. In terms of profit, worker co-operatives had a profit rate of 6.5%, which is higher than the one of other French enterprises (6.3%).

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