Interview with Britta Werner

This material is held atNational Co-operative Archive

Scope and Content

Interview covers 2000's-2018.

[00:00:00] Britta outlines how she first came to be involved with Unicorn Grocery, (Chorlton, Manchester), the Worker Co-ops Council, and the board of Co-operatives UK. [00:04:04] Outlines in more detail involvement in the Worker Co-ops Council and with Co-operatives UK. [00:05:11] Talks about involvement of Unicorn members in external projects including The Kindling Trust. [00:06:51] Talks about how first became aware of workers' co-operatives, and briefly mentions some differences in co-operative movement between UK and Germany. [00:08:14] Talks about the development of Unicorn over the last 10 years. [00:09:22] Discusses potential development of Unicorn in the future. [00:10:51] Talks about difficulties in setting up retail shops in present day, in particular wholefoods/organic shops. [00:12:55] Discusses the idea of sociocracy and how it could be used in Unicorn's future development. [00:16:03] Both discuss welcoming people into the way of working at Unicorn. [00:21:25] Outlines favourite thing about working at Unicorn and what she'd like to see improved in the future. [00:23:41] Briefly discusses expansion of Unicorn.

Administrative / Biographical History

Britta Werner is a member of Unicorn Grocery, Manchester.

(Interviewer) Lucy-Kay Brownson worked as a volunteer for the Working Together project (2017-2018), and was also a casual worker at Unicorn Grocery.

Access Information

Full interview and transcript available only on request at the National Co-operative Archive.

Acquisition Information

In October 2017 the National Co-operative Archive sent out a request for interview participants from the wider workers' co-operative community to take part in Working Together, a Heritage Lottery Funded project seeking to record and preserve the heritage of the workers' co-operative movement. This interview was recorded in response to this request. The interview was conducted at Unicorn Grocery, Chorlton, Manchester.

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

Length of interview: 00:25:02

Recording equipment: iPhone 6S iOS 10.3.3

Recording note: Original audio file m4a.

Conditions Governing Use

This interview is licensed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives)

Related Material

Transcript and summary of interview.

Material related to Unicorn available for consultation at the National Co-operative Archive. Reference GB 1499 UNI.

Location of Originals

Original recording and transcript held at the National Co-operative Archive.

Geographical Names