Machinery Co-operative

A machinery cooperative is a business where the workers own shares of the capital equipment used for manufacturing, processing, or marketing goods, and receive benefits in proportion to their usage.

A typical example might be a group of farmers who need the service of a piece of expensive farm equipment. They all need the equipment but only for small periods of time each. Rather than each buy the equipment, they form a co-op, buy one, and make arrangements to share it between them.

In general, machinery sharing cooperatives provide access to large industrial machines, shared labor, joint purchasing of inputs, and pooled marketing. The group is organized as a limited liability company (LLC) under a cooperative corporation organizational form.

References

• Organizing a Machinery Cooperative