By 1890 the CWS had established significant branches in Leeds, Blackburn, Bristol, Nottingham and Huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits (Manchester), boots (Leicester), soap (Durham) and textiles (Batley).

In an attempt to drive down the significant cost of transportation for produce the CWS even began its own shipping line which initially sailed from Goole docks to parts of continental Europe.

The end of war allowed some attempt to modernise the co-operative stores around this time, while the slow demobilisation of the wartime boost of full employment and high wages partly waned consumer spending power.

A corollary of falling market share was continued ownership of freehold land, property and infrastructure, such as warehouses, dairies and farmland (the Co-operative Farms) built up by societies with accumulated surpluses from the 50 years of growth before the war.

Though Operation Facelift led to some improvements, the movement (including the CWS) remained largely unreformed with its grocery market share continuing a downward trend.

Thirdly, the time was a period of notable inflation and a strong pound, which had led to a wave of cheap imported goods – this devastated much of the UK's manufacturing industries (including the CWS).

This was at a time when many building societies were demutualising as many of the public preferred the short-term financial gain of the windfall payment over the perceived lack of benefits from the mutual model.

During 2007 the then chief executive Martin Beaumont was critical of the lack of commercial expertise on the board, foreshadowing the conclusions drawn from later Myners review into the near failure of the business during 2013 which was (in part) due to an unfit governance arrangement.

Since 1993 the CRTG had been working to switch the role of the CWS from "selling to" to "buying for" co-operative societies as a way of maximising the economies of scale to become more competitive to the major supermarkets.

Many leaders within the movement began to appreciate that this 'me too' approach to retailing was not working, for example, expanding into hypermarkets after Tesco and Sainsbury's had already developed a dominant position, but without the resources to compete on price.

At the same time, the group transferred the engagements of the Scottish Nith Valley Co-operative Society which, while trading profitably, was suffering a burden with its pension fund commitments.

The centrepiece of the initial development is One Angel Square, one of the largest buildings in Europe to have a BREEAM Outstanding Distinction as a result of its high sustainable energy credentials.

[40][41] When The Co-operative Group released its annual report in 2016, it showed that its food business was growing faster than the overall grocery market (by 3.2 percentage points) and that like-for-like sales were up 3.8% in its core convenience estate.

[47] As their ethical image had largely recovered after their financial crisis, they focused attention on differentiating the food business through measures such as by driving a significant increase in sales of Fairtrade goods (sales of Fairtrade products rose 18% during 2016),[48] through being the first major UK supermarket to switch all of its own brand meat (excluding continental meats like chorizo) to being British sourced[46] and through reinventing the Society's membership scheme to include a reward of 5% of spend on own brand items being credited to the member and a further 1% being donated to a local cause of their choosing.

Following years of under-investment, the Co-op brought in Mike Bracken, in order to completely re-invent the Society's digital operations and to drive back office efficiencies in the food, funeral and insurance businesses.

[58] In addition to core aims of furthering co-operative values and mutualism in parliaments across the UK and Isle of Man, activists and representatives (MPs & Peers, MSPs, MSs, MLAs and councillors) campaign on wider social issues.

[74] The Co-op has an exclusive partnership agreement with the National Union of Students and works with third party delivery partners, including Amazon, Deliveroo and Starship Technologies.

[90] The business also provides Scottish and Northern Irish legal services through partnerships with Brodies LLP and Wilson Nesbitt and does not operate outside the UK, including the Isle of Man.

[98] Co-op Membership has 5 million active members in the UK and Isle of Man and provides a range of marketing, customer engagement and data science services to clients.

[134] Following the mergers of the 1990s and 2000s, the modern Co-operative Group was formed of a large range of different independent societies with separate brand identities which led to a lack of consistency and gave an incoherent message to consumers.

The advertisement, created by McCann Erickson, features the Bob Dylan track "Blowin' in the Wind", a rare occasion that he has allowed his music to be used for commercial purposes.

[141] The Observer also reported that Rebecca Skitt, the Co-op's chief human resources officer, who joined in February 2013, left 12 months later "with a proposed pay-off totalling more than £2M".

One of the justifications for this complex governance arrangement was that it took a number of years to reach regional board level, which helped to minimise the influence of single-issue campaigners and carpet-baggers.

[143] Group membership increased sharply in the first year after the relaunch, to 2.5 million with many more young people who have an affinity with the co-operative values and principles attracted to join.

[148] The co-op is particularly known for its work in championing the introduction of Fairtrade in the UK, investing in renewable energy and in reducing its carbon emissions, in maintaining high standards of animal welfare, in being a leading retailer of responsible fish, for reinvesting its profits in local communities and for campaigning on a range of social issues.

[171] In 2015 the Co-op became one of the first retailers to join the "Ocean Disclosure Project" which requires the business to report transparently on the geographic locations, fishing methods and sustainability characteristics of all of the fisheries from which they source.

To this end, The Co-operative Group part-funded the UK release of films including Chasing Ice, Gasland and H2Oil[176] to raise awareness of the cause and, as a part of this, local members organised screenings in various communities.

In 2008 they joined with the WWF-UK to publish a report which concluded that exploiting the Canadian tar sands to their full potential would be sufficient to bring about what they described as "runaway climate change".

[181][182][183][184] Colin Baines, Campaigns Manager at The Co-operative Group described the Beaver Lake Cree Nation legal action as "perhaps the best chance we have to stop tar sands expansion".

The policy aims to minimise the use of chemicals, and the residues which remain on crops, whilst providing safe food but without notably increasing the cost of products,[199] a move which was endorsed by consumer and environmental groups.