![C792-420 : C130-21 [tobacco : UK] Co-Operative Wholesale Society Ltd. (C.W.S) "African Types" (1936) 3/24](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-02/20%20CWS%20fruit.jpg?itok=I1zTBQ5M)
The Co-Operative Wholesale Society, or C.W.S. were based in Manchester, and these cards were issued in their "Raydex" Cigarettes. They never used their full name on the cards only these initials, or C.W.S. Tobacco Factory. Someone once told me they wanted to keep the tobacco and grocery separate at all times, but I am not sure how true that is.
In the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue odds from this set are listed for sale at 1/2d. each, sets for 9d. and if that is not cheap enough, it says that special offers on that series appear in their abridged catalogue! Anyone who has an LCCC abridged catalogue for 1950 and wishes to tell us that lower price please do.
Our clue word here was fruit, but it could equally have been for the Co-Op, a very keen retailer of fairtrade products. Co-op were the first UK Supermarket to sell Fairtrade bananas, and since 2012 they have only sold Fairtrade bananas in all of their shops.