BOILERPLATE

$39.6 billion combined revenues in 2010/11 from Top 40 NZ cooperatives and mutual

Up $4.4 billion compared to revenues in 2009/10

Fonterra has 10,500 farmer-members with annual revenues of $19.8 billion

Three Foodstuffs cooperatives (Auckland, Wellington and South Island) have a combined turnover of $8

billion, making them together the third largest business in the country

Foodstuffs is New Zealand second, third and fourth biggest cooperatives with 4000 jobs

Meat processing cooperative Silver Fern Farms is fifth with $1.8 billion and provides 7500 jobs

The other meat processing cooperative, Alliance Group, is sixth with revenues of $1.3 billion and provides

5600 jobs

These six New Zealand cooperatives are in the Global 300 list of the world’s largest cooperatives

Netherlands-based Rabobank is the world’s largest rural bank and a major agricultural sector lender in

New Zealand

With over NZ$1 billion in assets, Rabobank’s AA credit rating is better than both the Governments of New

Zealand and Australia

There are 32 Rabobank branches throughout New Zealand with more than 250 employees, almost half

in regional locations

Collectively NZ cooperatives and mutuals provide more than 43,000 New Zealanders with jobs

With vehicle repair shops as members, Capricorn Society has members in New Zealand, Australia and

South Africa – a tri-nations cooperative with a turnover of more than $1 billion

Started in 1928, The Co-operative Bank, with 137,000 members, has the largest number of members of

all New Zealand cooperatives

Cooperatives contribute 3 percent of New Zealand’s GDP

BOILERPLATE

Overwhelmingly New Zealanders are looking for honesty, integrity and high ethical standards from

businesses

Just over 50 percent of New Zealanders are uncomfortable or very uncomfortable investing in publicly

listed companies on the share market

Recent failures of finance companies have shattered the confidence of New Zealanders with over 70

percent now “less trusting” or “totally distrusting” as a result of the collapses

Almost 86 percent of New Zealanders are only “somewhat informed”, “not informed” or “don’t know”

about cooperative businesses

52 percent of New Zealanders prefer businesses that are owned by people who use the businesses (the

cooperative model)

This rises to 55 percent of people who most trust businesses that are owned by people who use the

business

48 percent would like to be an investor or customer of cooperatives

67 percent of the population are “much more likely” or “more likely” to do business or become a

customer of a business that involves customers in the decision-making

Only 4.3 percent of New Zealanders believed there is “sufficient awareness” of cooperatives

77 percent of people with authority to spend $50,000 to $100,000 for their organisation want to take a

course on cooperatives

There is demand for cooperative courses from 7 percent of students and 5.2 percent of business

managers/executives who would “definitely take a course”

BOILERPLATE

Cooperatives worldwide are owned by 1 billion people

They employ over 100 million people globally

The biggest 300 cooperatives have a combined turnover of $NZ1.9 trillion

Collectively the top 300 cooperatives are as large as Spain, the world’s 9th largest economy

To obtain a copy of this as a Word document, email us at nzca@nz.coop