FairShares fish and chips shop?

Why?

Maureen McCullochSenior Lecturer in Accounting
Co-ordinator - Accounting for Community: Engaging Students
Department of Accounting, Finance and EconomicsOxford Brookes Business School
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I was contacted by a field worker and they were told this by their Business Manager Donna Smith so she was not sure. Half of me wants to set up a meeting and the other half thinks that we might be wasting our time ....

It can be a multi-stakeholder co-op under FairShares and that is compatible with Plunkett's models. I don't want you to waste your time but I think it might be worth pursuing - plus it would be very good for Plunkett to know about FairShares because they deal with so many community co-ops.

Maureen McCullochSenior Lecturer in Accounting
Co-ordinator - Accounting for Community: Engaging Students
Department of Accounting, Finance and EconomicsOxford Brookes Business School
CLC. 2.27, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Oxford, OX3 0BP
T: (+44) 01865 48 5818

Business: ( http://www.brookes.ac.uk/business/ ) ( https://www.facebook.com/brookesBS ) ( https://twitter.com/brookesBS ) ( https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2218568/profile ) ( https://www.instagram.com/brookesbusiness/ ) ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAHuT0jExgIAxWvvfjJ4Qg/ )

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I work part-time. I may not pick up emails sent to me on Friday and Monday until Tuesday. I am on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester. My office hours are Tuesdays 11.00 to 13.00. If these times are not good for you please email me and we can arrange an appointment.

This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Oxford Brookes University. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error.

I agree with Maureen that it's worth pursuing if only to educate them around the model?

Send them this file.

And this link:

https://sites.google.com/view/fairsharesrules/cooperatives

And ask why a multistakeholder cooperative model accepted by the FCA, and respected by Mr Hyungsik Eum, ICA strategist (after presentation to the ICA think tank), would be incompatible with Plunkett’s model?

Good luck
Rory

From what I read this opportunity is all about how much time you've got. The vendor has a cash offer on the table and the clock is ticking. It sounds like they are sympathetic to a community-owned approach, but right now you've nothing more concrete than that to offer them. For me the first step is to understand more clearly from the vendor how much time you have. If you are serious about making this happen and believe that you can make it happen, and can convey that, they might be willing to give you a few months. If so, then you've got a fighting chance. If they want to get it sorted more quickly then you are going to struggle. I did a community buy-out some years back and it all went really smoothly, and it still took 16 weeks. Having said that i love the idea of a community-owned chippy. I think my approach would be to set aside potential issues around the Fairshares model for the time being. If you can get the backing of Plunkett for the project that would a) give comfort to the vendor, and b) open doors to other backers that could smooth the path - Key Fund springs to mind. Given the timing constraint, you might need to do it two steps: An org like Key Fund buys the business with a commitment to sell on the new co-op once it is in place? Just a thought.

A sufficient source of autonomous finance is needed, with advisors that understand democratic enterprises. Also required are people who know that there are cooperative options to realise an enterprise and who want to it in this
way. There might be a vague sentimental feel among some of the public about cooperation, much rarer are people who choose this as an option. It seems as an outsider of the cooperative development circles, that they are waiting for the rare punters. This
has been countered in a limited way by the emergence of community benefit societies which has allowed what might have been framed in other ways to take a coop form, this sees a growth area.

Cooperative development might benefit if able to reach out way beyond insiders and try to improve engagement to a wider public, this will require both explaining to possibility of coops and also listening to people.
There are promising developments, SolidFund, Fair shares, P6, all at an early stage of development, these themselves might become a stage from which a more proactive development modal could be built. Potential pioneers can be
nested in these and when opportunities arise these can then be supported so that a new generation of coops can be launched from an association of coops acting though shared secondary instruments. This might be by boosting and revitalising what already exists
or and a new generation of secondary coops.

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Thanks for the comments. I have one other advantage, 12 years ago I persuaded the village to set up its own Broadband Coop which has been running successfully www.rhbmesh.net (if anyone is interested ) so there is some awareness and confidence in community owned businesses here already. will keep you all updated and keep asking for your advice!

Thats good, seems you have a base to build upon, best of luck.

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Dear all. I have just been informed that the owners have accepted a cash offer and so the that is the end of that. But the process has raised a couple of issues. One it has exposed how little organisations like the Plunkett Foundation understand FairShares, and hopefully they will respond to the emails Rory and I have sent them, and the other raised by AW that we need to be geared up better with a fund/ support etc ready to take advantages of opportunities such as this. So thanks to all for the support and emails that I received this week.