Membership information

Cooperative Business has 55 full member businesses, with around half of them operating in rural New Zealand

Starting off by bringing together agricultural cooperatives, membership was extended in 1996 to include a wide variety of cooperative businesses. The largest member is in the dairy sector while the smallest are community cooperatives.

During the 1990s, there were many mergers of agricultural cooperatives, so while there may be fewer cooperatives than previously they tend to be larger. Non-agricultural members include:

Cooperative and mutual businesses join to:

Cooperative Business represents member businesses on a wide range of issues, particularly when engaging with government, ministries and agencies, and bodies such as the International Accounting Standards Board.

How Cooperative Business supports member businesses

The slideshow below was offered to attendees at the 2011 cooperative education seminar, and has been updated since then. Read it here, or you can download the PDF here.

Levels of membership

To discuss the benefits of membership, phone the Cooperative Business office on 04 472 4595 or send an email.

Starting off

If you are in New Zealand and want to start a cooperative business, you are encouraged to become a provisional member so that you can receive information and management guidance. See also Starting a co-op.

As an organisation financed almost entirely by membership subscriptions and which receives neither consultancy fees nor financial support from the government, we believe it’s important to involve those looking to form a cooperative business in Cooperative Business as early on in the process as possible.

In our experience, it is vital for new cooperatives to involve people who know the ownership architecture of cooperative business well, so that the new co-op is fit for purpose, and that the business plan and the cooperative structure fit together well.

There is an expectation that provisional members will become full members once the new business is up and running or the company has converted to a cooperative.

See who’s involved

Download the complete list of current full, associate and provisional members and councillors here and the organisation's rules here.