Co-operative businesses are weathering the storm of Covid-19

Co-operative businesses are weathering the storm of Covid-19, but it's not all rosy.

The New Zealand Co-operative Economy Report showed the country's top 30 co-operatives earned nearly $42 billion in revenue last year, roughly the same as 2015.

It contributed to 13 percent of the national GDP by revenue, which was down four percentage points from 2015.

Members were up nearly a quarter to 1.5 million, but employees were down 13 percent.

However, total assets were up nearly 19 percent to just over $39b.

High profile co-operatives in New Zealand include Fonterra, Farmlands, Mitre 10, Zespri and Foodstuffs.

Co-operative Business NZ said the business model was "thriving" in New Zealand.

The report said 72 percent of co-operatives were in the agri-food sector, and have achieved increased revenues of around 10 percent since 2015.

"These agri-food co-operatives have been performing well with strong growth in revenue and assets, indicating a resistance and strong response to the economic impacts of Covid-19," Co-operative Business NZ chief executive Roz Henry said.

Companies in insurance, banking and finance have also performed strongly, with revenue growth over 40 percent since 2015.

"The past 18 months have shone the light even brighter on how essential these businesses are in keeping New Zealand moving forward," Henry said.

Mitre 10 chief executive Andrea Scown said there were some challenges in having individually owned businesses.

"The downside of not trading in one particular region can't be socialised across the entire network.

"I think it is worth noting that our members in the Auckland region are obviously doing it particularly hard at present. There's no socialising the downside when you're a co-operative, they're all individually owned businesses."

But Scown said compared to regular companies, owner operator models were agile and nimble.

"From my perspective, it feels like a very flat type of organisation, you're very close to the people who are close to customers," she said.

Scown said when ownership issues arose, the company has been able to iron it out.

"We're very aligned in terms of the love of the Mitre 10 brand and it feels like a real privilege to own a business within Mitre 10 and I think that really plays out.

"So we don't have huge misalignment in terms of how we show up in our community."

Scown said co-operatives were ideal for New Zealand given its small population.