SocialEnterpriseDay

Why wouldn’t an organisation owned by its customers strive to give them the best possible service?

This was the question asked by Matt Lane of the Phone Co-op based in Chipping Norton during an Introduction to Social Enterprise in Oxfordshire event on Thursday, November 19 to celebrate Social Enterprise Day.

He went on to explain how the company had grown from a bedroom-based business to a firm employing 40 members of staff, providing phone, mobile and broadband services to 13,000 residential customers, 3,000 business customers and recording an annual turnover of £7.5 million in just 10 years.

The Phone Co-op, he said, was taking on the communication giants and winning by providing competitive rates and excellent customer service, whilst picking up plaudits including the Federation of Communications Services' Green Business of the Year award and the title of overall winner at the Enterprising Solutions Award 2008.

Dan Harris from Oxford Cycle Workshop Training - which celebrates its first birthday this month - talked about how his co-operative works with disadvantaged people in the community.

OCWT, he said, provides training to the unemployed, young offenders, prisoners and asylum seekers in cycle maintenance, whilst giving them skills and vital work experience to help them into employment.

The trainees are encouraged to become members of the business and take up active roles within the organisation.

Josie Mottershead from Midcounties Co-operative explained how even a large business could have ethical values and principles at its heart, whilst turning a healthy profit.

"Co-operative retail was the first to introduce concepts like fairtrade, cruelty free and responsible sourcing to supermarket shelves. These are business decisions, driven by our members," she said.

Last year Midcounties Co-operative with a current membership of 459,000 - operates 275 food stores, as well as a range of other businesses including funeral homes, pharmacies, and travel agents.employing a total of 8,500 people - recorded gross sales of £748 million and a trading profit of £16.2 million - up 35 percent on the previous year.

Meanwhile it gave donations, resources and time worth £749,000 to community organisations, supported employees in giving 22,300 hours of voluntary service.

And Sarah Flood from the Plunkett Foundation explained how her organisation was helping establish community owned enterprises to deliver a range of services in rural locations, including community-owned pubs and village shops, health and community centres, and even farms in which the community owned a stake and shared the produce.

"This has been a really exciting year for rural communities taking control," said Sarah. "The number of communities exploring and setting up community-owned shops is at a record level. Even the villagers of Ambridge in The Archers on Radio 4 are considering community-ownership to save their village shop".

Jo White, of Co-operative Futures who provide specialist support to co-operatives and community owned enterprises, revealed there are 62,000 social enterprises in the UK, 10,000 of which are based in the South East region, with a combined turnover of £27 billion, contributing £8.4 billion a year to the UK economy - about one percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

The event was jointly organised by the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Network and the Oxfordshire Stronger Communities Alliance and was one of a number of events being held across the region on behalf of Business Link and Social Enterprise South East.

Delegates included representatives from Oxfordshire County Council, NHS Oxfordshire, West Oxfordshire District Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action, Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, Churches Together in Oxfordshire and Business Link Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

Anyone interested in starting or growing a business that is a co-operative or community owned enterprise can contact Jo White at Co-operative Futures on 0845 456 2506 or at info@co-operativefutures.coop

Pictured: Front row l-r Dan Harris, Oxford Cycle Workshop; Sarah Flood, The Plunkett Foundation; Jo White, Co-operative Futures; Josie Mottershead, Midcounties Co-operative; Matt Lane, The Phone Co-operative; with delegates.