Suma is the trading name of the Triangle Wholefoods Collective Limited, a
worker co-operative wholefoods wholesaler. It was founded in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
in 1977 and is now based in
Elland
Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It h ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
. It is the largest independent wholefood
wholesale
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. I ...
r in the United Kingdom
[Museum Links with Food Firm by Henryk Zientek, Mar 13 2008, Huddersfield Daily Examiner](_blank)
/ref> as well as the country's largest common ownership
Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property.
Forms of common ownership exist in every econom ...
co-operative. The co-operative specializes in vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetariani ...
, fairly traded, organic
Organic may refer to:
* Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity
* Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ
Chemistry
* Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
, ethical, ecological and natural products.
Its turnover for the year ending 2019 was reported as £54 million, ranking it 49th among British co-operatives.
History
Suma was started in 1975 by Reg Tayler, who had worked with wholefoods in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. In Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
, he opened a retail shop. In August 1975, at a meeting all the wholefood shops in the north of England, he proposed they set up a wholefoods wholesaling co-operative in order to supply each other.
See also
* Greencity Wholefoods
Greencity Wholefoods is a worker co-operative wholefoods wholesaler in Glasgow, Scotland. The co-operative was founded in 1978 in Hillington, in the outskirts of Glasgow before moving in 1983 to its current location in Dennistoun in the city's ...
References
External links
{{Portal, Organized labour
Official websiteSuma's Current Home (Google Maps)
Co-operatives in the United Kingdom
Companies based in Elland
Wholesalers of the United Kingdom
Worker co-operatives of the United Kingdom