Conference Report (Continued)
Workshops Session 1
After a break, in which delegates were able to network and browse stalls from local producers in the marketplace, they were divided into six workshops as follows:
The effect of the Recession on Community Retail - Gill Withers, Plunkett Foundation
Head of the Plunkett Foundation’s Community Retail team, Gill updated her group on the immediate effects that the economic downturn is having on community owned shops, as customers look to the big discounters in order to tighten their purse strings. On a positive note, the Making Local Food Work programme is helping community owned and village shops to make themselves more attractive by offering food from local producers at competitive prices and by promoting their additional benefits to local customers. The group then discussed their particular support needs and opportunities, with an action point to work together with existing schemes and organisations to ensure that information, support and networking are co-ordinated and widely available. See the presentation here.
Social Enterprise at work - Patricia Van Zyl and Jane Stammers, Country Markets Ltd
The workshop began with a general introduction to Country Markets. As the session moved on to discuss the benefits to the system and its downsides (or ‘barriers’) it became clear that many of the workshop participants wanted more information about how Country Markets works. This information – e.g. details of how the system is run and financed, food safety certification etc – was then provided in response to specific questions as the session progressed, ending on a discussion of what future steps Country Markets Ltd could take. Detailed notes are available here and a copy of the presentation can be viewed here.
Co-ops and collaboration, taking control of the food supply - Adam York, Unicorn Grocery and Maresa Bossano, Sustain
Adam York is a founder of an award-winning, worker-owned food co-op in Manchester, whilst Maresa Bossano runs the Making Local Food Work programme’s Food Co-ops project, which helps existing and potential food co-ops to develop and thrive. They delivered a masterclass in what makes a successful food co-op, giving the delegates a list of recommendations and considerations to take their own schemes forward. View their presentations here.
What are the challenges in the Local Food sector? - Sarah Alldred and Mark Simmonds, Co-operativesUK
This workshop was a group discussion, which examined the challenges faced by local food enterprises as identified by the delegates. These were divided into Strategic/Policy – Related, Consumer – Related and Producer-Related, with six key issues identified as follows:
1. Co-ordination of local, regional and national strategic needs
2. Supermarket dominance
3. Affordability
4. Education and Communication
5. Sustainable distribution and supply chain
6. Sustainable local production capacity
To view a detailed ‘mind map’ of these discussions, click here.
Alternative economic models - Rob Hopkins, Transition Towns
Rob gave an introduction to the concept of Peak Oil and its effect in the UK, which is already being felt. He described how Britain would look were it to produce all of its food, notably the space taken up to feed London. Then he talked through his twelve point plan for engaging local communities and creating successful, alternative local ecnomies. A copy of his presentation will be available soon.
Back to basics: balancing the books for food businesses - Claire Pritchard, Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency
A lively audience listened to a retail accounting refresher, including what to include in a Profit and Loss Account, and more importantly how and when to account for fixed as against variable costs. Claire’s presentation also focused on how to measure, monitor and increase Gross Profit and some tips on some of the ‘invisible’ things that can erode gross profit, such as wastage and theft. The second part of the presentation concentrated on maximising income for food based businesses and the group then discussed an action point from the session. The group agreed an action point to produce ‘model’ sets of financial accounts, as a resource to illustrate good financial management, and also to use examples of best accounting practice from food businesses.
This resource and other ‘top tips’ for financial management will shortly be available from the Enterprise Support pages of the Making Local Food Work website.
