TRANENT COOPERATIVE SOCIETY
- Reference:GB 1878 EL18/2
- Dates of Creation:1871-1936
Administrative / Biographical History
In the 1860s and 1870s, a number of co-operative ventures were opened in East Lothian. These included Tranent (1862), Cockenzie (1865), Haddington, Dunbar, East Linton (all 1867), Prestonpans (1869) and West Barns (1874). However, by 1939 only Prestonpans remained in its original form. The reason for this was that many of the small, localised societies amalgamated with their equally small, localised neighbours, a process that was started because of the benefits of scale that it offered. Cockenzie was the first to go, being subsumed into the Tranent society as early as 1876 and in 1912 Dunbar and West Barns united to form a single society, a logical move given their proximity.\r\n\r\nIt was the Tranent society that continued to grow at the greatest rate. By 1920, the society owned and operated stores in Ormiston, Pathhead and Cockenzie as well as Tranent itself. It united with the Haddington Co-operative Society (which also included stores at Gifford and North Berwick). Three years later it amalgamated with Dunbar and West Barns Co-operative society to form the East Lothian Co-operative Society. This was now a substantial operation, with the only nearby co-operative competition coming from Prestonpans and the Musselburgh and Fisherrow Co-operative Society.\r\n\r\nBy 1945 almost 12,000 of East Lothian's population were members of the Tranent store, including three quarters of the households in the Tranent area. Its sales in this year were £971,460. The land around the town was almost wholly owned by the society, with one farm (specialising in pig-breeding) having two boars, forty five sows and two hundred piglets at any one time.\r\n\r\nAn eclectic and numerous range of shops were owned, including twenty three grocery and provision shops, eight butchers, seven bakeries, five fruit and vegetable shops, seven draperies, two boot and shoe shops, three ironmongeries, two chemist shops and one tobacconist and hairdresser salon. Motorised and horse-drawn transport delivered milk, bread, groceries and meat throughout the county in twenty-seven bread vans, twelve meat vans and eleven milk vans. Milking machines from Sweden were used to milk the society's cows and the bottles were sealed at the pasteurising plant. An upgrade in 1961 meant that 24,000 pints were processed daily. By 1967 membership was 17,414, with a turnover of over £3m. But against a general decline in the Co-operative Movement the society's independence soon came to an end as it in turn united to form Lothian and Borders Co-operative Society Ltd in 1992. In 1998, this further amalgamated to form Lothian, Borders and Angus Co-operative Society Ltd.\r\n\r\n
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