Southern Loggers Cooperative (SLC) is a member-owned purchasing cooperative comprised of businesses and individuals in the forestry and agricultural sectors. By purchasing together, the cooperative uses the buying power of all its members to secure lower costs for products and services. This in turn gives small businesses a big-business advantage.
Being member-owned, all profits of the cooperative belong to the members and are distributed back to them in the form of dividends. Each June, SLC pays those dividends back to participating members based on the co-op’s performance from the previous year (i.e. — a member purchased 10% of dividend-eligible sales, they get 10% of the co-op’s profit for that year).
40% of those dividends are paid in cash each year, and the other 60% is retained by SLC for the life of the account. If a member decides to close their account, SLC pays them their dividends that have been retained over time. Members who receive dividends will subsequently receive a 1099-PATR for dividend income in the year following the dividend payment.
