The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, trading asScotmid Co-operative, is an independent retail consumers' co-operative that originated in the Central Belt, particularly Edinburgh and the Lothians. It was formed in 1981 by a merger of the Dalziell Society of Motherwell with the St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1859. With over 5,000 staff, the chain now has nearly 200 supermarkets and five perfume shops in Scotland, nine Lakes & Dales food shops and over 140 Semichem health and beauty shops throughout Scotland, Northern Ireland and England Like most other retail consumers' co-operatives in the UK, Scotmid is incorporated as an industrial and provident society, regulated by the Financial Services Authority. In the year to 26 January 2019, Scotmid Co-op recorded turnover of £377.9m and a surplus or profit after tax of £4.5m. The Society also had net debt of £29.4m including a £37m bank loan. Scotmid also reported a £19.2m pension deficit. The Society's membership was 155,343 down from 268,125 in 2017/18. No share of the profits bonus was declared for members by the Board during the year. The Society operates a share option plan for all employees. Scotmid has a committee style governance structure, similar to The Co-operative Group prior to its own major governance reforms. Scotmid Board Directors are nominated by Regional Committee members and elected by members from the Regions they represent. Total director fees, bonuses and delegations were £142,000 in 2018/19. Two directors received loyalty bonuses totalling £43,000 on leaving the Society's service during the year. The highest paid Scotmid executive received between £480,000 and £490,000, excluding pension and other benefits in 2018/19.
History
In 1968, Leith Provident's 1911 department store on Great Junction Street was still operating a then unusual overhead wire system that transported a customer's payment and dividend number from the sales assistant to the cashier, returning change and receipt. In 1995, Scotmid acquired the Scottish health and beauty retail chain Semi-Chem, followed in 1999 by the similar Northern Ireland business, Options. Also in 1999, Scotmid merged with Prestonpans Co-operative Society. In 2000, Scotmid closed all 20 of its non-food department stores, which had made losses for five successive years. In 2003, Scotmid acquired Wakefield-based national distribution business, M & S Toiletries, which it sold in 2008 to Sert UK. In the early 21st century, Scotmid acquired several competing convenience shops in Scotland: Alldays, 64 SPAR shops and Morning, Noon & Night. Scotmid added Dundas Fyfe funeral directors to its funeral operation in a reported £1 million buy-out deal. The head office moved from Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, where it had been since 1859, to a new purpose-built office near Newbridge. The Fragrance House was founded by Scotmid in 2009. It specializes in perfume and by 2011 had five shops in Scotland with plans to expand to England and Northern Ireland.
Morning, Noon & Night
Morning Noon & Night was a Scottish convenience shop chain set up in Dundee in 1991, by retailing executive Eddie Thompson In 2004, Thompson sold the company to Scotmid for £30 million. This allowed Scotmid to add the 50 Morning, Noon & Night shops to its portfolio letting it expand into areas of Scotland, such as the Highlands, where it didn't previously have any shops. , South Ayrshire in 2019
Botterills Convenience Stores was a Scottish convenience shop founded in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire in the 1950s by the Botterill family. Trading under the name of "Botterills of Blantyre" and latterly under the SPAR banner, it ranked 19th in The GrocersTop 50 independent grocery retailers. Owner Jim Botterill sold his 51 shops to Scotmid in November 2010 for an undisclosed sum, enabling Scotmid to extend its territory south and west.
Lakes & Dales Co-operative
In 2013 Scotmid merged with the Penrith Co-operative Society which had at the time of merger operated a department store and attached supermarket in Penrith, Cumbria and 7 small food shops in Cumbria and County Durham the Penrith shops are to be rebranded as the Lakes & Dales Co-operative. The first shop to be rebranded was the Lazonby branch. In early 2015 the non food departments of the Penrith shop were closed and in February 2016 the rest of the shop closed. In 2015 Scotmid merged with the NorthumbrianSeaton Valley Co-operative Society adding its shops to the Lakes & Dales chain.
