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Who we are / Who we represent
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) is a co-operative umbrella organisation that serves and promotes commercial co-operative businesses and enterprise, across multiple sections of the Irish economy.
ICOS member co-operatives and their associated companies collectively have over 150,000 individual members, employ >12,000 people in Ireland (a further 24,000 abroad) and have a combined turnover of €10 billion. Starting from agriculture co-op roots, and the vision of our founding President, Sir Horace Plunkett in 1894, ICOS today has evolved to serve the co-operative sector in seven core categories, namely:
- Multipurpose dairy co-ops
- Livestock sector co-ops
- Store, trade and wholesale co-ops
- Service-related co-ops
- Community-oriented, culture and leisure co-ops
- Food, fishing and beverage co-ops
- Advisory and education-related co-ops