Scotmid

Scottish Midland Co-operative Society Limited
Consumer co-operative
Industry Retail, Property, Funeral Services
Founded 1859 (1859)
Headquarters Edinburgh, Scotland
Area served
 Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England
Key people

  • John Brodie, Chief Executive
  • Harry Cairney, President[1]
Revenue £436.8 million GBP (2013)
+ £5.1 million (2008)[1]
+ £3.5 million before distributions (2008)[1]
Members 237,000 (2008)[2]
Number of employees
 5,200
Website www.scotmid.com

The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, trading as Scotmid Co-operative, is an independent retail consumers' co-operative which originated in the Scottish Midlands, particularly Edinburgh and the Lothians. It was formed in 1981 by a merger of the Dalziel Society of Motherwell with the St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society which had been established in 1859. With over 5,000 staff, the chain now has nearly 200 supermarkets and five perfume shops in Scotland, 9 Lakes & Dales food stores, and over 140 Semichem health and beauty shops throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland, and parts of England[3]

Like most retail consumers' co-operatives in the UK, Scotmid is incorporated as an industrial and provident society, regulated by the Financial Services Authority.[4]

History

According to Edinburgh City Council, the former co-operative building at the west end of Great Junction Street has a distinctive domed octagonal clock tower, forming a major landmark.[5]

In 1968, Leith Provident's[6] 1911 department store on Great Junction Street was still operating a then unusual overhead wire system that transported a customer's payment and dividend number from the sales assistant to the cashier, returning change and receipt.[7][8]

Relief sculpture at premises once owned by Leith Provident Co-operative Society Limited in Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh, from 1890

In 1995, Scotmid acquired the Scottish health and beauty retail chain Semi-Chem (since rebranded Semichem), followed in 1999 by the similar Northern Ireland business, Options.[9] Also in 1999, Scotmid merged with Prestonpans Co-operative Society.[10]

In 2000, Scotmid closed all 20 of its non-food department stores, which had made losses for five successive years.[11]

In 2003, Scotmid acquired Wakefield-based national distribution business, M & S Toiletries, which it sold in 2008 to Sert UK.[12][13]

In the early 21st century, Scotmid acquired several competing convenience stores in Scotland: Alldays, 64 SPAR stores and Morning, Noon & Night.

Scotmid added Dundas Fyfe funeral directors to its funeral operation in a reported £1 million buy-out deal. The head office moved from Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, where it had been since 1859, to a new purpose-built office near Newbridge.

The Fragrance House was founded by Scotmid in 2009. It specializes in perfume and by 2011 had five stores in Scotland with plans to expand to England and Northern Ireland.[14]

The Leith co-operative merged with St Cuthbert's in the 20th century

Morning, Noon & Night

Morning Noon & Night was a Scottish convenience store chain set up in Dundee in 1991, by retailing executive Eddie Thompson (who became chairman of Dundee United F.C. in 2002.)

In 2004, Thompson sold the company to Scotmid for £30 million.[15]

This allowed Scotmid to add the 50 Morning, Noon & Night stores to its portfolio letting it expand into areas of Scotland, such as the Highlands, where it didn't previously have any stores.[16]

Botterills Convenience Stores

Botterills Convenience Stores was a Scottish convenience store founded in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire in the 1950s by the Botterill family. Trading under the name of "Botterills of Blantyre" and latterly under the SPAR banner, it ranked 19th in The Grocers Top 50 independent grocery retailers.[17] Owner Jim Botterill sold his 51 stores to Scotmid in November 2010 for an undisclosed sum, enabling Scotmid to extend its territory south and west.[18]

Lakes & Dales Co-operative

In 2013 Scotmid merged with the Penrith Co-operative Society which had at the time of merger operated a department store and attached supermarket in Penrith, Cumbria and 7 small foodstores in Cumbria and County Durham the Penrith stores are to be rebranded as the Lakes & Dales Co-operative. The first store to be rebranded was the Lazonby branch. In early 2015 the non food departments of the Penrith store were closed and in February 2016 the rest of the store closed.

In 2015 Scotmid merged with the Northumbrian Seaton Valley Co-operative Society adding its stores to the Lakes & Dales chain.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "2008 Summary Report (for year ended 26 January 2008)" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "2008 Annual Report (for year ended 26 January 2008)" (PDF).
  3. ↑ "About Us". Scotmid. Retrieved 5 Oct 2010.
  4. ↑ Companies House Webcheck, Company No. SP2059RS, retrieved on 10 May 2008
  5. ↑ "LEITH CONSERVATION AREA CHARACTER APPRAISAL" (PDF). Edinburgh City Council. 2002-04-18. pp. 46–47 (with photograph). Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  6. ↑ Leith Provident Co-operative Society was founded in 1878 and merged with St Cuthbert's in 1975 http://www2.co-operative.com:8080/Ext_1/ShHistory.ns4/$WebSharebook/Leith?OpenDocument
  7. ↑ "Timeline". Leith Local History Society. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  8. ↑ "Sold on sales for bagging best bargains". Edinburgh Evening News via scotsman.com. 2007-12-29. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  9. ↑ "History". Scotmid. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
  10. ↑ "Prestonpans Co-operative Society Limited, number 97RS". Mutuals Public Register. FSA.
  11. ↑ Bevens, Nick (21 June 2000). "Jobs go as Scotmid axes non-food shops". Edinburgh Evening News. pp. B.1.
  12. ↑ "M&S Toiletries History". Scotmid.
  13. ↑ "M & S Toiletries Sold to Sert UK". Scotmid.
  14. ↑ "The Fragrance House". Scotmid. Retrieved 28 April 2011. We currently have five stores - in Dundee, Livingston, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Greenock ... plans are underway to open more stores in the right locations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England.
  15. ↑ "Dundee firm sold for £30 million". Evening Telegraph. 3 August 2004.
  16. ↑ "Rival bags convenience store deal". BBC News. 3 August 2004.
  17. ↑ "Loss of Botterills business forces CJ Lang to hit recruitment trail". The Grocer. 13 November 2010.
  18. ↑ "Scotmid acquire the Botterills family chain". The Grocer. 12 November 2010.

External links

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