Associated Co-operative Creameries (ACC), formerly CWS Milk Group, was a subsidiary and operating division of

the Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

. Associated Co-operative Creameries Limited is an

industrial and provident society An industrial and provident society (IPS) is a body corporate registered for carrying on any industries, businesses, or trades specified in or authorised by its rules. The members of a society benefit from the protection of limited liability ...

that was first registered in 1961, and became a subsidiary of the North Eastern Co-operative Society (NECS), a large regional

consumer co-operative A consumer cooperative is an business, enterprise owned by consumers and managed democracy, democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such cooperatives operate within the market economy independently of t ...

based in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

. It became one of the largest milk processors and distributors in north-east England. After NECS merged with the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS, now

) in 1992, Associated Co-operative Creameries absorbed CWS Milk Group, a milk processor and distributor based in Wales and north west England. The abbreviated trading name ACC was adopted in 2001 when the milk and distribution operations were split. By 2004, Associated Co-operative Creameries Limited, trading as ACC Milk, was the UK's fourth largest dairy business, when it was sold to yet another co-operative, Dairy Farmers of Britain of

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

, Cheshire, forming Britain's largest milk co-operative, and the UK's third largest milk processor. ACC moved its registered address to Nantwich at that time. ACC Distribution was the logistics division of The Co-operative Group and supplied not only stores belonging to The Co-operative Group itself but other co-operative societies. ACC Distribution is still owned by the Co-operative Group and is today known as

Co-operative Retail Logistics Co-op is a UK supermarket chain and the brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group, one of the world's largest consumer co-operatives. As the UK's fifth largest food retailer, Co-op operates nearly 2,400 food stores. It ...

References

{{reflist Former co-operatives of the United Kingdom Agricultural marketing cooperatives Dairy products companies of the United Kingdom The Co-operative Group