News
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Retrofitworks
In 2017, we were delighted to work with Retrofitworks, a multi-stakeholder co‑operative based in London, to support their cashflow as they grew and developed The Retrofitworks team are on a mission to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock in order to meet the UK’s net zero carbon emission target by 2050. By […]
Introducing Paul Mather, one of our new Trustees!
“I’ve been on the board at Midcounties for three years, since soon after they bought the convenience store and post office I’d owned and run in partnership with my wife, Gail. It was through that shop that I first came in contact with Tim Coomer way back in 2005. Previously, I used to work for […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Dave Thornett
As the end of our fiftieth year comes into sight, we’re speaking to our current partners and those we work closely with. Today we meet Dave Thornett, Business Development Manager at Key Fund investments, the social investor in the North of England. “My personal connection with ICOF really began in the mid 1990s. I was […]
Friends gather to celebrate our fiftieth birthday at Gala Dinner
Regular readers of our blog and newsletter will know that we’ve been celebrating our fiftieth year, this year, with interviews with friends and a look back through our archive. But what is a birthday without a party? On a sunny day in October, (almost) fifty people whose connections with us span fifty years, travelled from […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Hinton St George Shop
Village shops have been a big part of our work in the last fifteen or twenty years. As with so many, OurSHOP in Hinton St George , Somerset, is a community hub as well as a place to stock up on essentials and treats. The only shop in the village – with supermarkets a six […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Stewart Macgregor
Today in our series of interviews with friends from our first fit years we speak to Stewart Macgregor, Specialist Adviser at Co-operative Development Scotland “Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the organisation in Scotland which supports companies and community groups to adopt employee ownership or a co-operative business model. I am one of the specialists with […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Glenn Bowen
As we look towards the end of our fiftieth year celebrations, we’re talking to people from partner organisations across the four nations of the UK. Here we say ‘’schwmae’ (how’re you doing?) to Glenn Bowen, Director for enterprise at Cwmpas, previously The Wales Co-operative Centre. “We have a long and historic connection with ICOF. Even though […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Slaley Community Shop
Many villages have a community shop, many have a community pub. Slaley, a few miles outside Hexham, in rural Northumberland, has one of each, with many shared members, and we’re proud to have been involved in both business. We supported Slaley Community Shop as it was saved by and for the community twice We also spoke […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Anne Wilks
Today in our series of interviews we’re talking to a member of our current team. Anne Wilks joined ICOF in October 2012 and is our Transactional Services Manager. “Until 2012, I’d always worked in private businesses. I knew finance but I didn’t know anything about co-ops at the time. The ‘desirable’ skills on the advert […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Pink Lane Jazz
In 2014, we helped a group of jazz lovers to buy a pub and make history as they set up the UK’s first co-operatively owned music venue. In April 2014 Pink Lane Jazz Co-op bought The Globe following a successful community share issue. For our part, we put together a finance package that included a […]
Introducing Ruth Buchanan, one of our new Trustees!
Meet our new Trustees! We are profiling two brilliant new Trustees, elected to our Board at our June 2023 AGM. Today we introduce Ruth Buchanan, who has been Head of Finance at Co-operatives UK since January 2023 “I trained as an auditor and I’ve been practicing as an accountant for about 15 years or so, in a […]
Fifty years of friendhsip and finance – meet Seb Elsworth
As we enter the last month of what has been a joyful fiftieth year, we will be sharing interviews with our partners and peers in the responsible finance sector. Today we speak to Seb Elsworth, CEO of Access, the Foundation for Social Investment “I joined Access in May 2015 and before that, I’d worked at Social […]