Kennerleigh Community Shop Share Offer
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KENNERLEIGH COMMUNITY SHOP SHARE OFFER Launch date: 1st August 2014 - Closing date: 30th September 2014 Kennerleigh and District Community Stores Limited: a Community Benefit Society to be registered in England Registered address: Kennerleigh Post Office, Kennerleigh, Crediton, Devon EX17 4RS You are invited to invest in your community with this share offer to secure the long-term future of your local Shop and Post Office. By buying the freehold premises and business and creating a community- owned enterprise everyone in the area will benefit both now and for many years to come. 1 Introduction: This document: • Describes an opportunity to secure the long-term future of the Shop and Post Office as an essential asset and social hub of the local communities in Kennerleigh, Black Dog, Woolfardisworthy, Washford Pyne, Puddington and surrounding areas. • Outlines the project and its benefits. • Explains how the share offer works. • Invites you to be involved in bringing this exciting opportunity to fruition. Please read this document carefully in full before making a decision to subscribe for shares. This offer for shares opens on 1 st August 2014 and closes on 30 th September 2014 unless closed earlier or extended by the Interim Management Committee. How to contact us: Write to us at our registered office: Kennerleigh Post Office, Kennerleigh, Crediton Devon EX17 4RS Telephone : Sheila Kirby (Interim Treasurer) 01363-866137 E-mail : [email protected] Visit our website : Look out for details of an up and coming website 2 ABOUT KENNERLEIGH COMMUNITY SHOP The property was originally a Blacksmiths shop, strategically located in the centre of Kennerleigh Village at the junction of the main Crediton to Witheridge turnpike road with Langham Lane linking farmstead communities to the West. The road is still a principal North-South route, capturing the passing trade from a wide area of about ten parishes in this otherwise rural and isolated part of Mid Devon. After the last war a shop was opened on the site and run by a succession of owners; and for the last 25 years by Sonia Andrews. Sonia has consistently invested time and skill in developing the business, building up an ever-expanding loyal customer base and establishing contracts with local and national suppliers. Sonia has created a unique and special place that has put her and the Shop at the heart of this wide community. She has gained deserved success with the Shop not only as a Village Store and Post office but also as an essential hub of the community that would be a tragedy to lose. Gwen Lancaster and an enthusiastic and loyal team of volunteers from the Kennerleigh and District Community Association (“KaDCA”) have been instrumental in working with Sonia in recent years both in the business of the Shop and the wider community outreach that it affords. Without their dedication the Shop would not have survived, let alone thrived. And thrive it has done. Sonia has run the Shop on a growing sound financial footing. It makes an annual operating profit, albeit modest, as well as creating a vital centre regularly available to us all. The Shop stocks a remarkably wide range of goods, including fresh bread, vegetables, dairy products, juices and meat all from excellent local suppliers, together with cigarettes, wine, spirits and beers, frozen and tinned foods, and does so at prices which often undercut local supermarkets. It also sells newspapers and magazines, domestic products and stationery, as well as offers a busy Post office service. The decision by Sonia to retire after so many years has given us an exciting opportunity to secure this vital community asset for the long-term. We have been very fortunate that Kate Povey, with local business experience, has offered to manage the shop for us. Kate is already working closely with Sonia in both the Shop and Post Office towards a planned handover in October this year. In addition we have had a healthy response to our request for volunteers from all around to help Kate and the enterprise. We have canvassed support from the community. Everyone who came to our meetings and who has completed our survey believes it is a good idea to continue this special community asset. Many people, by far the majority, have also expressed an interest in contributing generously to the enterprise if we raised a share issue. In fact we have already received pledges totalling almost half of the total sums needed to acquire and equip the business as well as have a prudent running reserve for the costs of employing a manager for the first three years. 3 INCORPORATION The enterprise is in the process of being set up by the Steering Committee as a Community Benefit Society. This and other activities have been much facilitated by help from the Plunkett Foundation, a charity that has been instrumental in helping communities across Britain take over and run several hundred successful shops and pubs . There are currently 319 community owned shops. They are profitable and operate with a 96% success rate. We have adopted the Plunkett Foundation’s model Rules. Our Community Benefit Society will be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. The structure gives its members limited liability and provides a guarantee that the assets and net profits of the Society can only be used for the benefit of the community and cannot be sold for private profit. A copy of the Community Benefit Society rules will be available on the website once launched. In the meantime a hardcopy of the Rules are available for you to see in the Shop or can be obtained on request by e-mailing us at [email protected] or by telephoning the Committee Secretary Steph Warren on 01363 860004 GOVERNANCE - Following our first public meeting this year a Steering Committee of volunteers has been working towards setting up the Society, using a donation from KaDCA, along with their own and other local talents and funds, to get us this far. This is an informal group with no legal authority, so they must hand over to a properly constituted body, chosen by the Members, as soon as the project is viable to confirm the arrangements currently in place and complete the formalities of transfer of the business and premises and the terms of engagement for Kate as Manager. Ahead of the issue of shares and to comply with the Community Benefit Society Rules we therefore need to have a formal body in place. Accordingly an Interim Management Board, comprising Adrian Miller (Chair), Laura Hammond (Vice-Chair) Sheila Kirby (Treasurer) and Steph Warren (Secretary), has been made up from the Steering Committee members, all of whom are remaining fully involved in helping the process through. Following the closing date of the share issue there will be an early meeting for all the successful applicant shareholders to attend in their capacity as Members of the Community Benefit Society and appoint a replacement Management Committee that will then continue to progress and complete all the necessary formalities for the issue of shares and the purchase of the business and to go on and manage the affairs of the Community Benefit Society. The Management Committee will be unpaid and will work on your behalf to ensure a successful business that benefits the needs of the community. They will follow a Code of Conduct which aims to ensure good management of the business. 4 THE SHARE OFFER The share offer has been designed to provide local people and the organisations that we work with the opportunity to contribute financially on a long-term basis to the success of the enterprise and to become its part owners. We are aiming to raise an initial £50,000 needed for the purchase and initial outgoings, and a further £25,000 to underwrite the first three years’ trading of the Shop and Post Office. By raising as much as possible for this target from our own resources through share capital, donations and fundraising, we can demonstrate the commitment of the community to project funders to support us in reaching our target. This should also help establish a vital capital reserve to assure security and success to the enterprise in the initial years, and hopefully enable Kate and the Management Committee to develop and improve the facilities for customers and staff. Shares are priced at £50.00 per share. There is no minimum amount for this share offer but we hope that supporters can invest as much as possible to help us all reach the target. As the enterprise is owned equally by the Members, regardless of the size of their individual shareholdings no application in joint names can be accepted: i.e. one application per individual or organisation. As the number of Members supporting the enterprise is important to some of the grant-making organisations, and in any event to reflect a wide spectrum of support for the community, we would like to encourage separate applications from all members of a household rather than from just one person where possible. Whilst by law the members of the Management Committee have to be aged over 16, there is no age limit for Members. The application form for shares attached to this therefore makes provision for a Custodian to apply and act as a bare trustee or nominee (usually a parent) to hold shares and vote on behalf of any Child Member aged under 16. On attaining majority the Child Member and Custodian can apply to the Treasurer for the shareholding and membership rights to be transferred to the Child Member in his \ her own right. Under present legislation the maximum investment is £100,000 per person or organisation.