Winchelsea’s much-loved Little Shop is well on the way to becoming a community owned business after a well-attended meeting on Sunday October 5. More than 90 residents came to New Hall, demonstrating just how important securing the future of the shop is to the town.
At the meeting, the five members of the steering group announced that a Community Benefit Society has now been established, to operate the shop. It’s called the Winchelsea Community Shop Limited and has been registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
£42,000 has been transferred to our new bank account from the Little Shop Association. This money was raised when the previous community shop was sold almost twenty years ago.
Now that the legal structure is in place, detailed negotiations are taking place with the owner regarding the transfer of the business and the purchase of the building. To speed things up, it is likely that the new community shop will initially lease the current building, rather than purchase the freehold (although purchasing it when sufficient funds are available remains the longer term plan).
Nathan Bligh, the current manager will be employed by the new business, supported by volunteers. There are now a team of 30 volunteers who operate the shop on Sundays and covers Nathan’s holidays. More volunteers are being trained and the tasks they need to perform have been documented in a printed manual.
Nathan is very important to the success of this venture, and has enjoyed working with residents. Although not attending the meeting he asked us to say: “I’m very grateful to the team of volunteers for giving their time to help the shop open on Sundays. Their help has been invaluable and shows the potential going forward for a community shop.”
Although the community does not yet own the business, working in the shop as volunteers has provided us with a real understanding of the business and has been invaluable in creating the first draft of our business plan.
This has been helped by having full visibility of the shop accounts. It’s common knowledge that the business has been losing money. The use of volunteers has reduced this, but it is still running at a projected annual deficit in community ownership of around £10,000. The steering group have ideas on how this might be reduced through an increase in sales and efficiencies, however, inevitably, some regular fundraising will also be required. In fact, residents have already started raising money, the ABBA evening in the early summer, and tours of the town’s medieval cellars, run as part of the Rye Arts Festival, has added £2,000 to our coffers.
To purchase the building, there is a need to raise a more substantial amount. One of the ways a community business can achieve this is through a share offer, where residents can buy a stake in the business. We have applied for a grant from the Community Shares Booster Fund, which would cover the costs of setting this up. We will explain how it works at our next meeting in the new year.
A lot has been already achieved, but there will be challenges that will need to be overcome.
One key concern identified by the steering group is the Winchelsea Resident Association’s proposal for a no right turn (down), and no left turn (up) Strand Hill, which effectively closes the road. Those of us who have worked in the shop have been surprised at the amount of people from outside of the town who use it. It equates on some days to up to half of our customers. Clearly, anything that reduces access to the town, will have a negative impact on the shop’s sales. As an example, when the road was closed for a couple of days this summer, sales dipped between 25% to 33% each day. It is our view that if this proposal was implemented our current plans to take the shop into community ownership would become unviable. The steering group have already met with the Residents Association to see if it is possible to make our roads safer, without endangering the future of the shop.
A community shop by definition needs community support, and there are lots of ways we can help.
The most obvious is by volunteering, and that doesn’t just mean volunteering behind the counter. Help is needed in a range of different tasks, that might be maintenance, deliveries, bookkeeping, stocktaking, marketing, administration, you name it, and we will probably need it. People are also needed to be involved in the management of the business and to help with fundraising.
Please contact the steering group if you feel you have some skills that could be of use. The shop also needs as many people as possible to become shareholders in the business. And of course, customers too, so please keep using the shop as much as you can!
Winchelsea Community Shop Ltd – Steering Group
Ian Rowlands, Rosemarie Roberts, Glen Marks, David Richards and Ali Casey.
You can contact us on shopgroup@winchelsea.com
Image Credits: Chris Chappell .