It came into its current structure in 2015, though its predecessor was established in 1993, and it supplies almost all food bought for sale by the over 4,000 co-operative foodstores in the UK.

By 2002 it had become the central buying group for all of the major food retailing co-operatives, after being joined by the last two independent societies.

Several of the larger regional co-operatives of the time were members of CIC: Portsea, Scotmid, United, and Yorkshire.

Although each member now has an equal voice, FRTS continues to be managed by The Co-operative Group.

[citation needed] In 2016, FRTS commenced a project to explore potential co-operation with other European co-operative buying groups, including Coop Trading in Scandinavia.