THE TRAVELLERS REST S K E E B Y Skeeby Community Pub Society Limited A Community Benefit Society Operating for the Benefit of the Community - Society Number 31027R BUSINESS PLAN April 2021 An opportunity to invest in a Community Enterprise in the Richmondshire Village of Skeeby 1 SUMMARY We are seeking investors who wish to become members of a community co-operative that plans to buy The Travellers Rest Pub in Skeeby, North Yorkshire. Our village pub - The Travellers Rest - closeD in the summer of 2008. The owner planneD for a brief period to lease it as an architectural salvage yarD, but it has remaineD empty anD boarDeD up since. We plan to reopen it as a pub anD community hub, run for the benefit of the resiDents of Skeeby anD visitors to the area. It will be a profitable business anD represents a fair investment opportunity that will offer moDest returns to the members of the Society. It will proviDe a service to the village anD to visitors to the area anD will support other local businesses anD tourism within RichmonDshire. More importantly, it will put the heart back into the village anD proviDe a place for social gathering, cultural activities, a place to meet people anD exchange information anD it will promote a cohesive and friendly community in the area. It is our intention that the pub will work closely with anD in support of the other community facilities in the area, in particular the village hall. If you make an investment you will become a member of the Skeeby Community Pub Society LtD. We are a Community Benefit Society (CBS) – a co-operative, run for the benefit of the local community. You will have a say in how the society is run, anD in who runs the society. You will be a co-owner of a traDitional North Yorkshire Village pub anD will always receive a frienDly welcome in the pub that you own. We anticipate that to buy anD renovate the builDing will cost at arounD £325,000. This is the minimum amount that we neeD to raise in orDer to purchase, renovate anD re-open the Travellers Rest but we will keep the shareholDing offer open up to a maximum of £375,000 (incluDing the £50,000 CIF grant) to help build up cash flow. Therefore we need to raise a minimum of £275,000 from the share offer. We can raise that money by selling shares in the Skeeby Community Pub Society LimiteD – anD everyone who buys a share becomes a member of the Society anD will own a piece of the Travellers Rest. We are looking to the people of the Skeeby anD surrounDing areas anD the community for support - anD relatives, friends, and others far and wide. We have to raise a lot of money within about 10 weeks, so we are asking for a minimum of £250 (thats 250 shares). Family and friends can get together to share the cost; and groups, organisations, and businesses can also invest. However, no one shareholDer or organisation can buy more than 20,000 shares (£20,000). We will initially market the shares locally and provide the opportunity to invest to the residents of Skeeby anD then the wiDer RichmonDshire community starting with those who have already offereD pleDges. We will also offer shares to local businesses before broaDening the marketing strategy through social meDia, traDitional meDia (newspaper eDitorials etc.) until we achieve the minimum investment requireD. The offer is available from 24th April to 3rD July 2021, or when the maximum target is reacheD, whichever is sooner. The management committee reserves the right to extenD the offer beyonD this initial perioD if they believe doing so would be of benefit. We have also already progressed as CIF (Community Investment FunD) grant application through RichmonDshire District Council anD are delighted that we have been able to secure a grant of £50,000. Each member will have an equal say in the enterprise. The initial Directors that have formeD the Society are accountable to the membership anD will, in future, be electeD by them. Members will receive a regular newsletter and be entitled to attend the Annual General Meeting and other special general meetings that may be calleD from time to time. You will be preserving the history anD heritage of our village an investing in the future of Skeeby anD its people. This will be a pub owneD by the community anD you will have your voice in what services the pub will proviDe. You will also receive interest on your shareholDing which we estimate will between 1-3%. We have agreed a figure of £175,000 plus legal / survey costs to acquire the freeholD from the current owner. 2 The Society will agree a lease with a tenant who will run the licenseD business selling food anD Drink anD providing other yet to be confirmed services to the local community in our premises anD pay rent to the co- operative at a level that will reflect the profitability of the business. The rental income will proviDe for interest on the share capital to be paiD to our members/investors. We estimate an interest payment of between 1 and 3% of the value of investment will be payable from the second full year of trading. This is a great opportunity to invest in a worthwhile community enterprise that will proviDe a valuable service to its members anD users as well as proviDing a return on investment higher than the prevailing savings account market. We firmly believe that the business will be profitable, but if it is not, the Society owns a valuable asset – the building and land associated with it - which can be solD in orDer to return funds to investors. Your investment is in the building anD lanD – the bricks anD mortar, not the licenseD business. BACKGROUND Like many North Yorkshire villages, Skeeby once haD a thriving local community with a village shop, post office, pub, church, chapel anD village hall. Unfortunately, that sense of community is being unDermineD by the graDual loss of our village facilities. Our only village pub - The Travellers Rest - closeD in the summer of 2008 anD has remaineD empty anD occasionally boarDeD up since. In previous years The Travellers Rest was a successful, privately run village pub. However, in the early 2000’s the pub was sold to a commercial pub company and let as a tenanted pub with ties to the pub company for the supply of its wet gooDs. The rental levels set by the pub chain were unsustainably high, predicated on over-ambitious assumptions of turnover. The pub consequently suffereD from a high turnover of tenants due to the difficulty of sustaining the level of business required to satisfy the rental DemanD. Not all the tenants During this perioD were of the stanDard requireD anD the pub’s reputation suffereD. In 2010 The Travellers Rest was bought by the current owner, a private Developer, for £155,000 anD a planning application was lodged seeking to convert the property to a private Dwelling house. The community opposeD that application anD it was subsequently withDrawn. In an effort to retain the pub as a village amenity anD fight the change of use application the Skeeby Community Pub Campaign was launcheD by a group of village residents promoting the idea of forming a community cooperative with the purpose of raising investment anD grant funDing to purchase anD refurbish the property. The aim was to enable the pub to operate at a fair rent that woulD give it every chance of success. There is local anD national preceDent of successful community pub operations anD the campaign receiveD much support anD aDvice from those other communities. This leD to the formation of the Skeeby Community Pub Society later in 2010, a registereD Community Benefit Society operating for the benefit of the community which remains in existence. The Society raiseD significant profile in local and national press including the Telegraph and Times newspapers, local radio anD TV, anD featured in a BCC Radio 4 programme on community initiatives and through support from the Plunkett FounDation the Skeeby campaign was influential in shaping the community right to buy legislation in the Localism Act. The Society is leD by several people involveD in the leaDership of local anD national businesses anD has developed robust business plans for the operation of The Travellers Rest. Based on those plans the Society has made several formal offers to the current owner, many of which have been in excess of his purchase price in 2010, and the first of which was made prior to the current owner undertaking the now aborteD external refurbishment anD internal remoDeling works. Over the years, the property has been poorly marketeD at a price which is beyonD market value by the current owner. He has carrieD out re-roofing work, but he has strippeD out the public bar, public toilets, kitchen, anD beer cellar leaving an unfinisheD shell that is open to the elements. Some of this work, incluDing removal of painteD renDer to the front elevation, contraveneD conDitions on the limiteD Planning consent 3 for the roofing work. The pub has now remained unoccupied and in a poor state of repair for 12 years and therefore to bring the property back into operation as a viable pub will require significant investment which is not recogniseD in the asking price of the property. Marie Church, one of the founDing members of the Skeeby Community Pub Society campaigning to William Hague on behalf of the Traveller’s Rest at the re-opening of the George anD Dragon in HuDswell In 2015 the owner again loDgeD an application for change of use.