In the French region of Centre-Val de Loire, the URSCOP association supports Cooperative and Participative Companies (SCOPs) in their creation and development, strengthening the competitiveness of businesses through better consideration of their human dimension.
Sustaining business by creating cooperative companies in Centre-Val de Loire
- 16 January 2020
To guarantee business stability and continuation, it is important to make humans the centre of the entrepreneurial project. This is the objective pursued by the URSCOP, which offers comprehensive support to assist the development of new cooperatives, whether they are created from scratch, by a takeover, or by handover and transformation.
Launched in 2009, the Regional Union of Cooperative and Participative Companies (URSCOP) is an association that aims to develop cooperative projects that offer employees co-entrepreneur status if they want it. It facilitates a development model based primarily on cooperation and fair reward for everyone’s efforts.
Support and follow-up after creating a SCOP
For this project, which is financially supported by the European Union, the URSCOP has pursued its mission to develop new cooperatives. With a strong focus on handing over the company to the employees, it has strengthened support and follow-up after creation for its member companies, providing training and facilitation. The majority of the 75 SCOPs in the Centre-Val de Loire region have been created from scratch.
Cooperative projects are particularly important for the URSCOP, because they contribute to the permanence of companies, by creating indivisible reserves that facilitate intergenerational transmission. Through the development of cooperative projects, this initiative aims to encourage the emergence of a different understanding of business, which puts people back at its centre. To support the creation or handover of SCOPs and transformation into SCOPs, the Regional Union assists with business plans and validates market studies by project initiators.
Collective dimension
The union also focuses on the collective dimension of the project, to evaluate its future as a cooperative in the light of economic and fiscal criteria and the project’s characteristics. Finally, a consultant guides the future SCOP in its procedures.
For example, TPC Scop, a former packaging association for the cosmetics industry, which became a SCOP in 2008, was able (with its employees) to buy the company Sefard, thanks to support and investment from the URSCOP. The Regional Union has provided legal expertise to facilitate the understanding of legal texts, and during financial meetings to explain the new legislative provisions to banks. The objectives now are to bring Sefard Scop to life, while encouraging its employees to become independent and supporting them in this new stage by training new associates.
Total investment and European funding
Total investment for the project ‘Supporting the development of new cooperatives’ is EUR 408 757; the European Regional Development Fund contribution is EUR 81 751 through the ‘Operational Programme for the Centre-Val de Loire region’ cooperation programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority of ‘Jobs, growth and investment’.