Over £1m in loans for village shops

September 02 2010

Co-operative & Community Finance has now loaned over £1 million to support more than 60 community-owned shops throughout the UK in the past two years.

The milestone was reached with a loan to Gaydon Village Store in Oxfordshire and the money will be used to help employ a part-time manager for the shop which has been run entirely by volunteers since it opened in May.

Store Chair Claire Hamm said: “The manager will relieve some of the pressure on people from the community. The manager will be responsible for stock control and waste management among other things and we hope to increase the amount of locally sourced produce we stock.”

Co-operative & Community Finance, formerly known as ICOF, works exclusively with social enterprises and co-operatives. One of the projects it is involved in is the Village CORE Programme which supports community-owned shops in rural areas.

“The advice and support we received from Co-operative & Community Finance and the Village CORE Programme was very helpful”, added Ms Hamm. “We chose the community co-operative model because it had been successfully used by many other village shops.”

Ian Rothwell, from Co-operative & Community Finance, says: “The Village CORE programme has been tremendously successful. It has been great working with village communities and seeing the energy and enthusiasm they have generated to create a successful enterprise.”

• For more information about Gaydon Village Store please visit: www.gaydonvillagestore.co.uk.

Category: Wider Co-op Movement