About Us

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Let's start by answering some basic questions if you've not come across Mica before.

​What exactly is Mica?

We are a co-operative voluntary trading group, owned by our Members who are all first class independent hardware stores. It is retailer owned and directed, and management run.

​What is Mica for?

Mica is here to helps its retailer members compete, particularly in the field of marketing, with the larger corporate stores.

​Are there any other organisations similar to Mica?

​In many ways Mica is similar to Nisa - what they are to grocery stores, Mica is to hardware/DIY stores.

​What else should I know?

You'll see mentioned throughout this website that Mica is a cooperative. That is very important to our membership and something that is very difficult for an organisation to achieve. We have a cooperative constitution approved by Cooperatives UK (https://www.uk.coop/directory/location/mica-diy-r005080).

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This means our retailers have a lot of say in the running, governance & direction of the business, as well as a guaranteed share in the profits from the company on an annual basis.

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In 2019 Mica members unanimously approved an investment by the Bira Group (British Independent Retailers Association) in which all Mica members would become Bira members, Bira would become major shareholders in the group and the two organisations would share some office functions.

 

Bira like Mica is a membership only organisation so it was a natural fit to work together rather than compete with each other, and the agreement guarantees Mica as a separate company safeguarding its cooperative status, input etc into the business as well as members rebates / dividends for the future.

​Further Information

You can read more about Mica's aims and how we got here in our Mission and History pages of this site, an you can see our consumer homepage at www.micahardware.co.uk which carries some of the same information.

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