THE COCOS ISLANDS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD

BACKGROUND

The Cocos Islands Co-operative Society (the Co-operative) is a locally owned community based company. It was originally formed in 1978 with the intention of providing administration and infrastructure for some of the larger core services on Cocos not provided by the government sector.

The Co-operative is made up of 263 shareholders holding 181,725 shares with every family on Island represented. The management committee who is voted into service by the community is made up of 8 members chosen from those who are shareholders. The committee meets once a month and is advised on day-to-day matters by an operations manager and a finance manager/advisor. It is audited by RT Kidd and Associates, Perth and submits annual returns to ASIC.

Profits of the Co-operative are distributed to shareholders and therefore all benefits remain on Island. The main objective of the Co-operative is to provide employment and training opportunities and other essential services not financially viable in their own right due to the small scale of the operation. The Co-operative employs up to 60 people at any one time of which at least 95% are Cocos Malays.

The current areas in which the Co-operative is involved is stevedoring and barge services, inter-island transport by bus and ferry, airport services including reporting officer services for administration and general ground handling and travel agency services for the National Jet movements through Cocos.

The Co-operative also provides accommodation services on Cocos through its 28 room motel which includes a 50 seat restaurant facility, the West and Home Island supermarkets, the hardware store, Home Island fuel supply, bank agencies on both islands, teacher's aides to both schools, CentreLink office and cleaning and maintenance contracts.

The Co-operative owns the Cocos Beach Motel, Tropika Restaurant and West Island supermarket freehold and owns a large amount of plant and machinery including forklifts, prime mover, side lifter, sea barge, utilities, flat bed trucks, 18 tonne IT loader, large mobile compressors and welders.

The Co-operative also has 4 tradesmen on staff that specialises in carpentry, painting, vinyl laying, tree lopping, concreting, welding, sand-bagging, window replacements and ground maintenance. A further 8 staff are available as the need arises.

The Co-operative has no borrowings. Assets are around $4 million.