Marty Brown
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Nov 18/98) - Almost 200 members of the Kissarvik Co-op in Rankin Inlet crowded into the Leo Ussak gymnasium for the annual general meeting of shareholders and heard good news and bad news.

The bad news is that for the past four years the co-op has lost money. The good news is that the doors are still open and things are looking a little brighter.

"This cop-op was in serious financial difficulty and came close to closing," Bill Umphrey, area manager of the Kivalliq region said.

Last year it lost $147,043, the year before it lost $32,911. In 1996 it lost $36,429 and in 1995 $17,873. Umphrey's said the co-op had almost $2 million dollars in assets though including the building.

Because the co-op is owned by the members, the onus is on the membership, Umphrey's said.

"If you keep buying at the co-op, you will eventually get dividends. We can support the Northern Store so they can send millions of dollars south, or we can shop at the co-op and the dividends will stay here. Not one dollar of profits at the co-op flows south," Umphrey's said, adding, as far as he's aware the Northern Store in Rankin Inlet shows the second-largest profit out of 150 stores.

Lavinia Brown, president of the co-op pointed out that a federal study on pricing reported that when communities only have one store, the prices go up.

The crowd's big concern was dividends. Several members have complained they had not been paid a dividend in years. Umphrey's pointed out three co-ops in the Keewatin region do pay dividends -- Repulse Bay, Whale Cove and Arviat -- and if the membership supports the store, they, too, would be receiving dividends.

The Kissarvik Co-op's financial difficulties stem from poor management in the past and stiff competition from a larger Northern Store.

"The board has been under a lot of stress," Brown told the crowd. "We almost gave up and closed the doors."

The future looks rosier. Plans are under way to install open chest freezers before Christmas and in the New Year there are plans to expand the entire retail store, the co-op's manager Lindsay Cook said.

"Everybody in this room must make a concentrated effort to make the co-op work," Cook said.