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Just Us! Coffee Roasters [JUCR] was founded in the fall of 1995 and, in March 1996, was formally incorporated as a worker-owned co-operative - to import, roast and market organic coffee on a fair trade basis". Early on, JUCR wanted to take advantage of the provincial government’s Equity Tax Credit program which gave tax breaks to investors in Nova Scotia businesses. This program was open to JUCR employees as well as people acquainted with the business but it could not be promoted "publicly." A small number of people, who were not workers, invested in JUCR which lead to there being ‘worker owners’ and ‘investment owners’. A condition of the equity tax program was that investors in a co-op must become members with equal standing. Therefore, a definitional problem arose in that the workers no longer formed the majority and could not technically control the co-op. In fact, some argued that JUCR was no longer a worker co-op. The solution was simply to set up a separate co-op for "investor owners", now known as the Just Us! Fair Trade Investment Co-op [JUFTIC]. This was done in 2002 under the provincial Community Economic Development Investment Fund Program. It allowed the Equity Tax Credit program to be used by independent Investment Funds, which could also promote the investments publicly. So now there are two co-operatives, JUCR and JUFTIC, each with its own Board of Directors elected by and from among their members. To facilitate co-operation and communication between the two Boards, two of the JUFTIC directors also sit on the JUCR Board. The two co-operatives are intended to work closely together to promote Just Us! as a Nova Scotia business, and Fair Trade as a model for doing business.
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JUCR |
JUFTIC |
Purpose or Objectives |
To be a viable business that promotes fair trade commerce |
To secure capital to invest in common shares of JUCR and to provide a return to the members on their investments |
Members |
Worker owners Investment owners (until 2006 only) |
Community investors Worker/owner investors |
Shares |
$500.00 (minimum of four) |
$1000.00 (no minimum) |
Directors of the Board |
* elected by members * currently 2/3 worker owners and 1/3 investment owners (investment owners until 2006 only) * policy, not management, board * no less than 6, no more than 9 |
* elected by members * no less than 6, no more than 9 * policy |
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