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Private company

Daily Bread Co-operative

Logo: dailybread.co.uk3

Worker co-operative wholefoods wholesaler in Northampton, England, founded in 19801

Daily Bread Co-operative is an English Christian workers' co-operative specialising in packing and selling wholefoods. It was the first workers' co-operative to register under what is now known as the "white rules", and is listed as Co-op number 1 under the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), which now forms part of Co-operatives UK. One of the founding members, Roger Sawtell, was the first chair of ICOM.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Oct 1980Founded1

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The Old Laundry, Bedford Road, Northampton - geograph.org.uk - 771505
Photo: sian harrison, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Daily Bread Co-operative is an English Christian workers' co-operative specialising in packing and selling wholefoods. It was the first workers' co-operative to register under what is now known as the "white rules", and is listed as Co-op number 1 under the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), which now forms part of Co-operatives UK. One of the founding members, Roger Sawtell, was the first chair of ICOM.2

The story

Daily Bread began in the Northampton parish of St. Peter's, Weston Favell when a group of nine friends formed the idea of taking their Christian beliefs and values into the business environment. The name chosen comes from a line in the Lord's Prayer.

Daily Bread Co-operative (DBC) was registered as a limited company in March 1976, the first business of its kind to adopt a new set of Model Rules for Common Ownership. It was a further four years before trading started, on 1 October 1980, in what was once the laundry of St. Andrew's Hospital, reputedly the largest privately owned psychiatric hospital in the country.

From Wikipedia’s article on Daily Bread Co-operative, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. Oct 1980Founded Founded1

Sources

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