Year in review 2025/2026 and a look ahead

It’s Cooperative Business NZ’s financial year end which is a great opportunity to provide a round-up of our past year’s activity! Here’s a wrap-up from CEO Saya Wahrlich.

Year in Review Introduction

As we approach the end of the 2025/2026 membership year, I wanted to personally thank our members and the wider co-op and mutual community for your support of Cooperative Business NZ and share some of what your membership has helped make possible over the past 12 months.

This year has been particularly significant for cooperatives and mutuals globally, with the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2025 creating an opportunity to raise awareness of the contribution member-owned businesses make to New Zealand communities and our economy.

Everything we do at Cooperative Business NZ to support the sector is made possible through the support of members like you. As a small organisation, we work hard to ensure membership funding is recycled back into practical initiatives, advocacy, connection, capability building, and awareness raising for the wider cooperative and mutual community.

Together this year, we have:

• Delivered the New Zealand Cooperative Economy Report 2025, one of the most significant research and awareness projects our sector has undertaken in recent years. The report was launched at Parliament with Hon Chris Penk and has helped strengthen understanding of the scale and contribution of cooperatives and mutuals in New Zealand.

• Continued advocating for cooperative and mutual interests through submissions and engagement on issues including the proposed Modern Slavery Bill, Inland Revenue’s consultation on improving taxation of loans made by companies to shareholders and the Financial Markets Conduct (Small Co-operatives) Exemption Notice.

• Brought members together through events focused on practical challenges and future opportunities, including:

  • our AI and emerging technology event in Auckland

  • sustainability reporting sessions in Auckland and Christchurch with KPMG

  • the Parliamentary launch of the Cooperative Economy Report

  • the Cooperative Business NZ Awards hosted by Foodstuffs

  • the 2026 Leaders’ Summits in Christchurch, supported by Anderson Lloyd and Auckland, hosted by Deloitte

  • Cooperative Voices at Fonterra, focused on strengthening how we tell the cooperative story

• Continued building sector capability and connection through our Co-op Leader Conversations podcast series, sharing practical local and international insights and leadership experiences from across the cooperative and mutual economy.

• Redeveloped our website and Knowledge Hub to make cooperative knowledge, tools, reports, templates, podcasts and advocacy resources easier to access and use.

• Developed new practical tools for members, including the Co-op Constitution Delver, bringing together knowledge from every cooperative constitution and selected product disclosure statements across New Zealand into one searchable place to support governance and constitutional development.

• Continued investing back into future cooperative leadership. This includes our Emerging Leader of the Year Board Observer programme, which provides the recipient with 12 months of board exposure and governance experience through Cooperative Business NZ.

• Worked with Brannigans to grow the Cooperative Scholarship Development Fund, where recruitment activity within the membership helps fund future leadership and development opportunities for people within the cooperative and mutual sector. The first scholarship recipients will be announced in August 2026.

• Prepared for the launch of the Co-op Academy, a new online learning platform designed to build understanding of cooperatives and mutuals in New Zealand and support both emerging and established leaders across the sector.

Alongside this work, we have continued expanding and refining the range of benefits available across our membership categories, including learning opportunities, events, discounts, tools, connections, advocacy support and sector visibility. 

Your partnership directly supports the work we do to strengthen awareness, capability, advocacy, and connection across New Zealand’s cooperative and mutual sector. From events and research to leadership development and practical member tools, your investment helps make this work possible.

Thank you again for being part of this community and for helping demonstrate what cooperative and mutual ownership can achieve in New Zealand.

On behalf of the Cooperative Business NZ team and board, thank you for a fantastic year.

Nga mihi / In cooperation,

Saya Wahrlich

CEO, Cooperative Business NZ

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