Over £1million lent to community-owned shops
Co-operative and Community Finance has reached an impressive benchmark, having loaned over £1 million to support over 60 community-owned shops throughout the country during the past two years. The milestone was reached with a loan to Gaydon Village Store in the county of Oxfordshire.
For the last 20 years, residents of Gaydon village were forced to travel over six miles to do their shopping. During a public meeting in February of 2008, over 85% of residents voted in favour of setting up a community-owned shop. Villagers formed a 10 person strong management committee and began applying for loans and funding to support the shop. The loan from Community and Co-operative Finance will be used to employ a part-time manager for the store, which has been run by volunteers since its opening in May.
Chairman of the store, Claire Hamm, says, “The employment of a manager will relieve some of the pressure on the busy people from the local community. The manager will be responsible for stock control and waste management among other things. We hope to increase the amount of locally sourced produce we stock.”
Co-operative & Community Finance exclusively serves the social enterprise and co-operative sectors and is a partner in the Village CORE Programme alongside the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which supports community-owned shops in rural areas.
Claire added, “The advice and support we received from Co-operative and Community Finance and the Village CORE Programme was very helpful. We chose the community co-operative model because it had been successfully used by many other village shops. There seemed no point in reinventing a very effective wheel.”
Ian Rothwell, Development Manager of Co-operative and Community Finance, says, “The Village CORE Programme has proved to be tremendously successful. It has been great working with village communities and seeing the energy and enthusiasm they have generated to create a successful enterprise.”
Visit the Co-operative and Community Finance website for more information about the loans it provides.
Follow the link to view a map of community-owned shops across the country.