Dunsfold Village Shop
DUNSFOLD VILLAGERS SAVE VILLAGE SHOP FROM CLOSURE WITH SUCCESSFUL BUYOUT
Today February 8th, Dunsfold Village Stores and Post Office has been successfully bought by the inhabitants of the village. This concludes the remarkably quick process which has seen the villagers uniting together and raising the necessary funds to save Dunsfold from losing their last remaining shop and with it the heart of the village.
The shop has been owned and run by Sue and Tony Bowden for the last 28 years. In 2009 Sue and Tony decided they wanted to sell the shop and retire. In the spring of 2009, having been unable to find a suitable buyer, they asked the Parish Council to arrange a community buy out. The Dunsfold Community Shop Association was informally set up in July.
The Association's first action was to send out a questionnaire to all households in the village to ascertain the level of support for the shop. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with massive enthusiasm and commitment throughout the village.
At the same time, assisted by the Plunkett Foundation, the buy out team started investigating what grants might be available.
The next steps were to agree the purchase price and the share offer documentation before lanching the fund raising appeal to the village at a packed meeting in the village hall in late November.
The offer for sale of shares was launched on December 1st. £200,000 needed to be raised by January 17th with the minimum shareholding being one £10 share. Following fantastic support from the village, the money has been raised remarkably quickly. Over 80% of the buyout costs were raised from the village itself, with the balance coming from grants from The Plunkett Foundation, Surrey Community Action, Surrey County Council and Dunsfold Parish Council plus a linked loan from the Co-Op.
The committee also needed to recruit a full time manager for the shop, which was successfully achieved by the appointment of Mrs Gwen Edwards during December. At the same time new local suppliers have been sourced, an EPOS system(electronic scanning) has been bought and 42 local volunteers recruited. Crucially the Post Office has confirmed the appointment of Annie Wace, who lives within a stone's throw of the shop, as the new sub-postmistress.
The committee's primary aim is to ensure a smooth transition to the new management and a seamless continuation of the service. For this reason most aspects of the shop operation will continue unchanged initially. However a number of new locally sourced products will be introduced from day one, the opening hours will be extended, volunteers will be working alongside the existing staff and the EPOS system will be in operation. Later on in the year, the shop will be refitted and thoroughly remerchandised, with a wide range of local products and fresh food introduced.
Feedback from Helen Melia at the Plunkett Foundation has indicated that Dunsfold has raised the finance and successfully managed the transformation into a community owned shop faster than almost any she has known.