The King's Awards for Enterprise

We’d like to share some very special news with you.

OurCoop has been confirmed as a winner in this year's King’s Awards for Enterprise in recognition for its ground-breaking work to promote social mobility which it delivers through a number of initiatives and partnerships including Bright Future and Fairer Futures initiatives.

The King’s Awards for Enterprise are highly prestigious with just 185 businesses across the UK ever having received this accolade. Our ground-breaking initiatives focus on opportunities for social mobility through fairer access to work.

Bright Future Co-op supports survivors of modern slavery into employment through a network of 35 partner organisations. Since launching in 2017, with our Society as a founding partner, over 107 people have been supported, and 72 are now in permanent roles.

Inspired by the positive impact of Bright Future, our Society created Fairer Futures, which launched at our Walsall food store in 2023 in partnership with social enterprise Miss Macaroon. This initiative creates meaningful employment opportunities for young people aged 19–29 facing significant barriers to work such as disability and social anxiety and aims to break the generational cycle of unemployment and deprivation.

So far Fairer Futures has provided a 12-week programme of tailored mentoring, counselling, work experience, leadership skills, access to further education and six months of follow-up support to 60 participants, 39 of whom are now in sustained employment,

In 2024 the Society also launched Fairer Access to Work in Oxfordshire in partnership with Aspire, offering work experience and mentoring for adults who have experienced homelessness or displacement.

The Fairer Access to Work programme includes work experience placements within our food stores, providing participants with retail experience and on-the-job training, alongside one-to-one mentor support from colleagues, helping to boost their resilience and confidence within the workplace.

Debbie Robinson, Chief Executive of OurCoop said: “Receiving the Kings Award for our work to promote opportunity is an incredible honour. These initiatives are rooted in our values as a cooperative and demonstrate our commitment to supporting our communities and creating a more sustainable future for all.

“A huge number of our colleagues, partners and members have been involved in shaping and delivering these initiatives and this award is a testament the incredible impact they continue to have. I want to thank every single person who has a played a part in this and know that, together, we will be inspired by this recognition to go even further in the future.”

Now in its 60th year, the King’s Awards for Enterprise, formerly The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, remain amongst the UK’s most prestigious business accolades.

As you can imagine, we’re delighted by the recognition this award brings to OurCoop and we’ll make sure we celebrate and share the joy with our colleagues, members, and partners!  This includes using the esteemed King’s Awards Emblem for the next five years, signalling excellence to customers, partners, and global markets.

We’d like to thank everyone involved in helping to bring us this exciting news and we will continue to work towards making a positive difference to our communities for the future.