01/07/2023
So proud of this community-led venture
AN IMPORTANT (AND EXCITING) UPDATE FROM THE CHAIR OF YORK SUPPLIES ACTION GROUP
I’m writing to you as promised with an important update on our plans to save York Supplies for the local community.
Please do take a few minutes to read it – it will be worth it!
Dear valued supporter,
This has been truly a landmark week. Your committee has been been working long hours for some time to ensure we are exploring every avenue of help available to buy the shop. We have developed detailed business plans backed up by research and data, and filled in long and complicated application forms for support funding. Two committee members worked through the night recently to complete a major application in time, for which we are enormously grateful.
This week began with some most welcome news. We heard that we had been successful in our application for a Co-op Booster grant. This will give us more than £9,000 to help pay the costs around launching and managing a community share offer – of which more news below. Co-ops UK have already been extremely helpful in supporting us with indispensible advice through our award from the “Start a co-op” scheme. And also this week the Co-op Bank expedited approval of our bank account so that it is ready for the share offer.
Then yesterday, we got the result much quicker than expected about another grant application – news that has bowled us over. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has approved our application in full for a major grant from the Community Ownership Fund. This means that government funding will match every pound of investment from the local community up to a maximum of £300,000. It’s impossible to overstate what a major win this is in our efforts to save York Supplies. This grant programme is highly competitive and we had to demonstrate that we will deliver a programme of real community benefits. We believe we will more than do this, and the Minister agreed.
This is a massive boost. It means that nearly half of our target for the share offer will be met by these matching funds. Of course, we must still raise over £300,000 in our Community Share Offer in order to get the match funding, so we cannot afford to relax! But buyers of shares will now know that what they put in will be doubled by this grant, making their investment more worthwhile. And a successful share offer will mean we start York Supplies Community Co-op without any significant debt, which will obviously be a great advantage for the continuation of the business.
I want to give huge thanks to the members of your committee for their hard work and collaboration that have got us to this place.
All this work has been building to a point where we will shortly be able to announce the launch date of the community share offer, when you will be invited to invest in the business. This will be your chance to be part of saving this beloved local asset for a future generation. We expect the launch to be in mid-July. We are currently finalising the share offer document which will give investors the information they will need to make an investment decision. You may remember that we were previously approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to become a community benefit society (CBS). As a CBS we are able to issue a share offer, and naturally this process is tightly regulated. We will be in touch soon with the exact date of the launch and information about how to invest, and also with news of an informal launch event to which we hope you will come along.
If you see a film crew around when you next visit York Supplies, don’t hide! They’re working to prepare some video material to support our launch and might ask to interview you (only if you’re willing) about why you love York Supplies.
And now, a job ad.
To help us run the community share offer, we are looking for someone to do the administration for the offer. This is a paid position, requiring one day a week for 10-12 weeks.
We need someone with experience of detailed administrative work as this role will be critical in the running of the share offer. If you, or someone you know, is interested please let us know in confidence. We are currently preparing a job description and organising an application process, and we’re happy to talk to anyone who might be interested in the job.
Finally, for now, we will be at Kings Heath Farmers Market as usual tomorrow, so please come and say hello.
It’s been an amazing week, and the committee are all slightly stunned. We’re not there yet, but we’re in with a real chance of success if we can get the community investment we need.
And of course, none of this would be possible without the support of you and our volunteers. Thank you all.
With warmest wishes,
Naomi
(Chair)
