Anglia Regional Co-operative Society

The consumer co-operative movement has its roots in the early part of the nineteenth century and the principles of self-help and social equity that developed during the Victorian era. One of the first successful retail co-operatives was established in 1844 by the Rochdale Pioneers.

The society was founded as Peterborough Equitable Industrial Co-operative Society in 1876 and incorporated in 1887. It later absorbed the following societies, becoming Peterborough and District Co-operative Society and finally Greater Peterborough Regional Co-operative Society in 1982:

Stanley Tiffany, a director of the Society, was elected Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for the Peterborough division of Northamptonshire at the 1945 general election.

Waveney Co-operative Society was formed in 1982 by the merger of Lowestoft Co-operative Society, founded in 1890 and Beccles Working Men's Co-operative Association, founded in 1879. In 1983, the Waveney Society absorbed Diss Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1898; it became Anglia Co-operative Society in 1986, shortly before transferring engagements to the Peterborough Society the following year.

In 2008, Rainbow supermarkets and Co-op Local stores began the process of re-branding as The Co-operative Food whilst remaining part of the Anglia Co-operative Society. In 2011, adjacent petrol filling stations, previously supplied by Shell, moved across to Total, aligning buying with the Co-operative Retail Trading Group. The Co-operative Travel at Anglia Co-operative Society was a trading name of the Freedom Travel Group which, in 2012, became part of the Thomas Cook Group.

The Anglia Co-operative Funeral group incorporates R J Scholes (Bourne, Deeping St. James and Stamford), Harvey Brothers (Bungay), J H Landin & Son (Chatteris), A Coley & Son (Crowland), George James & Son (March), Watkins & Stafford (Peterborough), Dennis Easton (St. Ives), Fishers (Southwald), H E Bull & Son (Whittlesey) and M J Claypole (Yaxley) funeral directors. At the time of merger, the way the Society marketed its funeral business and the prominence of the Anglia Co-operative brand on private name funeral homes was being reviewed.

Anglia Motor Group previously sold Audi, Vauxhall, Honda and Fiat in King's Lynn, Vauxhall in Wisbech and Hunstanton and Proton in Beccles. It also operated a King's Lynn bodyshop trading as Bodyline.

Since 1999, co-operative chemists in the Society's trading area have been operated by National Co-operative Chemists, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group trading as The Co-operative Pharmacy. The business and assets of the former Anglia Dairies were transferred to Dairy Crest Group in 1997 for an aggregate consideration of £4.5m.