Planning and implementing a successful expansion or relocation for your natural foods cooperative is a major undertaking that always involves risk. As the natural foods marketplace is experiencing rapid change and growth, retail natural food co-ops are being challenged to serve their members and their communities better than ever before. Long-term survival, maintaining and building market share and cooperative growth are critical issues for over three hundred natural food co-ops in the United States and Canada.

While many natural food cooperatives have become financially successful at their current site, they are often in overcrowded, rundown facilities with worn-out equipment. Management and directors have developed the skills to operate and lead their current store, but they may lack the experience, skills, and systems to move into and manage a larger store (and adding a second store is even more challenging).

With these facts in mind, Northcountry Cooperative Foundation, with a grant from the National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation, has created this Expansion Toolbox as an aid for co-op managers, project managers and boards of directors as they begin to plan for the expansion or relocation of their businesses. This toolbox will help you to assess the feasibility of your plans and project. We offer a “road map” to guide you through unfamiliar terrain, and we’ve gathered advice from professional consultants and veteran managers to help you begin operations in a new or expanded store through at least the first year following expansion. Information and recommendations are also included on seeking outside financing for your project from lenders such as Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund, National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation, and your local bank(s).

Although we expect that information throughout this manual will be used by most of the key players in an expansion project, we have chosen to “write it to” the General Manager. All decisions, actions and responsibilities of a major project must be funneled through a “point person” and that is typically and appropriately the General Manager of the cooperative.

Two tools in the Expansion Toolbox that have been placed towards the end of the manual are vital for a successful trip into the unknown: Section X: “Roles & Responsibilities in Expansion/Relocation Projects” and Section XI: “Working Effectively with Consultants.” Both of these sections could justifiably be placed at the beginning of this Toolbox following the introduction, however, we feel that they may be understood and utilized best after reading the preceding information. You might want to review these sections at the beginning and then again at the end.

Finally, The Expansion Toolbox emphasizes the need for various types of professional assistance throughout your project and suggests appropriate times and ways to seek it. This toolbox is not intended to act as a substitute for outside professional assistance, but rather to help readers make the best use of outside expertise.