The 2024 edition of the top 100 co-operative enterprises in France confirms the sector plays a key role in the country’s economy.
With a joint turnover of €286bn, 30.8m members and 914,747 employees, French co-ops are leaders in many sectors as well as major employers in their territories.
Produced by national apex Coop Fr, the report shows a significant increase in the turnover of co-operatives and their subsidiaries, which it attributes to the resumption of activities after the economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic as to the exceptional inflation that followed which impacted sales prices.
In 2022 turnover was up by 2% compared to 2020 while the number of employees increased by 0.3% from 2020 figures.
Food retail, distribution and finance are among the biggest sectors. In the top 100, there are 66 agricultural co-operatives, 25 retail/distribution co-ops, two consumer co-ops, three worker/industrial co-ops and three banking co-ops and one artisan co-op.
The top ten are ACDLEC Leclerc (retail, €55.7bn), Groupe Crédit Agricole (banking, €38.2bn), U Enseigne (retail, €30.9bn), Groupe BPCE (baking, €38.2bn), Groupe Crédit Mutuel (banking, 20.5bn), Astera (retail, 9bn), Invivo (agriculture, €7.5bn), Agrial (agriculture, €7.2bn), Sodiaal (agriculture, €5.5bn), and Terrena (agriculture, €5.4bn).
