Campaign

This is the email that started the campaign on the 16th of February

From: David Alexander

Date: 16 February 2010 16:37

Subject: An opportunity for the us all to buy / own / run the Village Shop exists now - Will you help / invest?

As may be aware the village shop is currently on the market for sale as a going concern. I personally think this is a vital service to the village and I am keen to ensure that it remains open and viable over the long term so that we can ensure local services for local people. We fought a good campaign to stop the planned closure of the post office counter in the store, now is the time to ensure the long term future.

The current family that own the business are looking to, in the case of Pat and Tim, retire, Jane is keen to reduce her time commitments to a part time involvement and Grainger wants to explore some other ideas he has. They are committed to ensuring the transfer of the ownership goes smoothly for the whole village. They currently have one commercial offer for the shop from people outside of the community who are very keen to buy the business, with some of the family buying it living above the shop.

I have an idea which I would like to discuss with you, That idea is simply to buy the shop as a community, operate it as a going concern and develop it over time to continue to reflect the needs of the community.

This is not a new idea or concept, it has been successfully done in many rural and near rural communities where access to local services such as a post office and village stores is deemed essential to meet the needs of the local people. There are at least 150 such community shops across the UK. See links at the bottom of this email for examples.

I have had an initial meeting with the current owners to explain my idea, they are supportive. I have a set of the accounts for the business. In short to buy the shop as a community would require

• The creation of special type of company called a community interest company which is designed to operate a proper business with social aims and goals and provides protection for the assets overtime. There are other types of organisations we could form to do this but I think this is the most practical and easy to manage.

• Funding initially to buy the business from the present owners, including the purchase of stock in hand and to provide a cash float to deliver the head room needed for cashflow and operations

• Additional funding in the future will be needed to maintain and refurbish the premises and layout of the business as it is developed, e.g. decoration, new layout, shelving and development of the upstairs facilities if needed. Much of this could be funded out of the turnover of the business but to accelerate such developments would require investment ahead of profits generated.

• Additionally an opportunity also exists to acquire the freehold at some point in the future if desired which would allow further development of the building to increase the scope of services the shop could offer to the community. I have spoken with the owner, who is in principle supportive of the outline plan

I am seeking feedback from members of the community who would be prepared to do one or more of the following

1. Invest some money into this new business to enable it to buy the village shop

2. Offer to provide some form of support or another in its operation on a day to day basis. This could be services to the business in the form of book keeping, working in the shop on a rota basis either as a volunteer or for an hourly rate, or helping with the development of the premises through supply of time and materials in one form or another.

3. Be prepared to consider additional funding at a later date to help develop the business and potentially buy the freehold

I estimate that the current cost to buy the business as a going concern, including stock, legal fees and working capital to operate the business would be in the order of £183,000. I do not, as yet, have estimates for future development costs of the premises or what the purchase price of the freehold would be but these are secondary to the immediate issue of securing the shop for the community.

I am asking for people to consider investing what ever they can afford to. You will receive shares in the community interest company and be entitled to a dividend from the profit it makes, but you would in essence be locking in your investment to the business in perpetuity. The more you invest the more shares you will hold. We have 1,580 people living in Sarratt ward today aged 16 and over. That means if we can raise on average £116 per person we could easily afford to buy the shop and secure the future.

I realise of course that not everyone could afford to contribute cash and in reality we need to seek investments far higher from people who may be in a better position to provide the initial funding but not able to offer their time so readily.

I am therefore asking for offers of assistance now either financial or otherwise. Time is limited so we need to move quickly if we are to succeed in keeping the shop in the village and owned by the village. Ideally I need to know this week no later than Friday if you are prepared to invest in principle in this idea and have some firm commitments by a week Friday on specific funds you could invest.

Thanks for reading this, please do not hesitate to contact me directly if you wish to know more about this opportunity. I have put some links at the bottom of this email to show other communities who have done something similar and more information on community interest companies. Please feel free to pass this email on to others you know locally who may want to be involved or at least aware of what is under way with the village shop.

The benefits to me are we protect the shop for the future by ensuring we

1. Manage it for the benefit of the community in terms of services it offers and products it sells

2. We ensure its prices are affordable for the community at large

3. We are all stakeholders in its success and support it by using it and investing time in operating it

4. We can generate income for the community which can be reinvested in the community

The existing owners would be very supportive of such a proposal if we can move quickly. They would also assist us with transition to our new operating model of a community owned shop run by and for the community.

Why am I doing this?, simply speaking I want my 6 year old son to enjoy the benefits of a local community, I want my local village shop to thrive and remain part of the community, connected to the people and able to give something back. I believe we can make it thrive and develop over the years to meet an increasing range of needs. I have lots of ideas on how it can be developed, add more value and support us all in the years ahead

Regards

David Alexander

0771 747 3661

Great Wheelers Farm, The Green, Sarratt, WD3 6BJ

Information on Village Shops and Community Interest Companies

Hambledon Village Shop - http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/content/view/26/76/

Etchingham Community Stores - http://www.zyworld.com/ColinBoylett/commshopind.htm

Rural Communities shops - http://www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/rcs/ruralcommunityshops.cfm

Burton-in-Lonsdale village shop - http://www.burton-in-lonsdale.net/village_shop.htm

Community First Village - http://www.communityfirst.org.uk/village-shops.htm

Community Interest Companies overview - http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/ Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role