Our Plan

• To provide a permanent community shop;
• To provide additional facilities – like a community café.

Since  launching the Emergency Shop as a team of volunteers, we have – with help from the Plunkett Foundation – become a registered Community Benefit Society (Brent Knoll Community Shop Limited): registered number 8416. This means that we are now established as a Community Benefit Society, controlled by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). That enabled us to open our own bank account, and to apply for grants.

As a Community Benefit Society, under the aegis of the Plunkett Foundation, we have now conducted a Membership Share-Sale, secured more than 160 shareholding members, and held our first three Annual Members' Meetings.

Those Annual Members’ Meetings elected the seven members of our Management Committee, which the Financial Conduct Authority has allowed us to increase to nine.  Co-opted members will stand for election at the next Annual Members' Meeting in July:

• David Yates (Chairman)
• Bob Smith, (Treasurer)
• Caroline Sturgess (Book-keeper)
• David Sturgess (Secretary)
• Ros Burridge (head of IT - co-opted)
• Kim Willcox (head of grant applications)
• Lucy White (head of purchasing)
• Red Hocken (co-opted)
• Ade Povey (co-opted)

Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. 

THE SHOP:

- We continue to trade profitably;

- We have now moved from the Portakabin into the new building, for which we have paid about £66,000 to have converted from a basic shell to provide a fully accessible modern shop.

-  Since moving into the new shop, our sales have increased by about 15%.

-  Meanwhile we're seeking people to join our wonderful team of more than 30 volunteers to enable us to extend our opening hours in the new shop - please pick up a "Will you lend us a hand?" leaflet in the shop to register your interest.