Federal Retail Trading Services

Federal Retail Trading Services Limited
Company typeCo-operative Federation
IndustryWholesale
Founded2015 (1993 as CRTG)
Headquarters
ProductsGroceries
ParentManaged by
The Co-operative Group
Websitewww.frts.coop

Federal Retail and Trading Services (FRTS) is the central buying group for co-operative retail societies in the United Kingdom. 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.[1] The buying group is owned and controlled by each of its member societies but is managed by The Co-operative Group on their behalf.[2] It operates by pooling the collective £8.5bn buying power for 18 co-operative societies in the UK, allowing them to negotiate better prices from suppliers, so as to compete effectively with other UK supermarket chains.[3]

Federal Retail and Trading Services is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).[4]

The current FRTS Managing Director is David McKnight [5]

  1. ^ Voinea, Anca (11 March 2015). "Group moves from CRTG to Federal Trading Services". Co-operative News. Retrieved 1 July 2015. Consumer co-operatives are forming a successor to the Co-operative Retail Trading Group. The new buying group, Federal Trading Services, will be collectively owned by independent retail societies and the Co-operative Group, which are currently part of CRTG.
  2. ^ Glossary, archived from the original on 6 April 2008, retrieved 28 November 2009
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Heart of England Co-operative Society (February 2007), annual report & financial statements for the period ended 20th January 2007 (PDF), Heart of England Co-operative Society, p. 13, archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2011, retrieved 19 November 2007
  5. ^ Devlin, Edward (14 November 2019). "David McKnight made MD at Co-op's Federal Retail and Trading Services group". The Grocer. Retrieved 14 November 2019.