Coops to put up gas stations chain

TO make the cooperative industry grow in the country and further become a model of strong cooperative movement in Asia, Philippine cooperatives are considering putting up a chain of gasoline stations and a shopping mall.

National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC) chairman Arthur Aller made this recent announcement, saying that these projects will be part of a cooperative “blueprint” that will showcase the industry’s best practices.

This blueprint will be drafted within the next two years in time for the next Asian Cooperative Teamshop.

Aller explained that putting up a chain of gasoline stations will help cooperatives cope with the unstable fuel prices that have affected their businesses.

Cooperatives will be convening transport groups and pooling out resources to put up this project, he said.

These stations are initially planned to be located in places where local cooperative councils exist, like the Provincial Cooperative Development Council in Oriental Negros.

Blueprint

“Once the blueprint is done, we will replicate the (gasoline station) in other areas,” said Aller.

Cooperatives are also looking into the establishment of a federated ownership and management of a shopping mall that would eventually compete with big shopping malls in the country like SM.

Aller said this planned mall is designed to establish a pool of consumer groups that will patronize and support cooperative-owned businesses.

“This is an ambitious plan, but if we will start small with a group of people who, despite their limited funds, will pool resources to make this plan possible, we could grow big enough to compete with other malls. We just have to start with a small model,” he said.

The plan for a shopping mall was spurred by the cooperatives’ same objective, which is to provide business opportunities to their members.

NCDC serves as a consultative body for cooperatives that continue to grow in number and in membership.

The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) estimated 7,000 cooperatives nationwide now applying for the new registration mandated under the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008.

These cooperatives collectively register close to P200 billion in assets and close to seven million members.

The CDA reported that the standards and best practices of cooperatives in the Philippines are way ahead of those of other Asian counties and are being used as benchmarks by neighboring nations like Thailand and Indonesia.