Kevin McGrother

Occupation: Cheesemaker

Co-operative Businesses traded with in last 12 months Food, Funeralcare, Insurance, Bank and Electrical

Skills and experience

Passionate about all things Co-op, I founded Young Co-operatives to inspire young people, helping 1,500 pupils set up 300 co-operative businesses. I’ve written for the Co-op News, worked in the Co-op’s membership departments, at a Durham workers’ co-op and a co-operative development agency. Outside of work I’ve chaired a school governing body and served as a Director of the Mobile Advice Co-operative. The Co-op was always meant to be different, let’s keep it that way.

Additonal information

We have so much to be proud of. Our staff are exceptional and their commitment to local communities, good causes, membership and customer wellbeing often goes unnoticed. Offering free child funerals, pioneering Fairtrade, supporting victims of modern slavery and developing biodegradable teabags are inspirational Co-op initiatives. New food ranges are high quality and both Funeralcare and Legal Services have transformed their online offerings, making them much more user-friendly.

Our new Food stores (eg Wylam, Bowburn, Ingleby Barwick, South Shields and Sunderland Broadway) are superb, as are the many refurbishments, and such investment is fitting for a region that helped build the Co-op and which fought hardest against the removal of member control. It must never be sacrificed to fund expansion in other more profitable, ‘fashionable’ parts of the country.

There is always more that can be done. I live in Hartlepool, a town which lost its three remaining Co-op stores last year. I have put forward new site suggestions and hope these will be taken forward. There are many other towns and villages that also need their Co-op back.

While the product placement deal with Coronation Street appears forward-thinking and innovative, I believe advertising in The Sun, Mail and Express is wrong and should be stopped. I consider the Council’s position a cop out and it beggars belief that an exclusive preview of last year’s Christmas TV ad was given to users of the Daily Mail website. Mentioning Christmas, do we really need chocolate Santas in early September and Easter Eggs before New Year’s Day? Where is the Co-op’s commitment to seasonal produce? Yes, it supports British farming, sourcing 100% British meat, but with for example, only one in three apples eaten in the UK grown here, there is still much more that could be done. And in this era of austerity, trading uncertainties and changing diets, issues of animal welfare and food standards really matter.

Not so long ago we had our own farms business, sold to an organisation that has now decided to “cease operational farming before September 2018.” Our Council must ensure such short sighted management decisions are not repeated.

In shaping our future there is much we can learn from our past. The Co-operative Women’s Guild campaigned for women’s suffrage and for peace. 100 years on from both the ending of “the war to end all wars” and a significant milestone towards universal suffrage, I would like the Co-op to extend its inspirational and respectful promotion of the red poppy to also include the white, first produced by the Guild, remembering all victims of war: child, adult, civilian and military.

While most of my working life has been in the Co-op Movement, I am now a cheesemaker in a small, organic dairy, supporting adults with mental health issues. I am also helping the slaughter-free dairy pioneers Ahimsa Milk to establish a cheesemaking business on their Rutland farm.

I would be honoured to represent fellow members and humbly request your vote. Thank you. Twitter @kevinmcgrother