The fortunes of Dunbar Community Bakery have gone up and down and up again since it started trading in 2011. Dunbar is a small coastal town about 40 miles east of Edinburgh with a population of 8,500. Local people decided to set up the community bakery after the local 150-year-old high street bakery closed. They […]
The only co-operative brewery in Northern Ireland, whose ‘funky modern beer’ is appreciated from Finland to Singapore to USA, is set for further expansion with support from Co-op Loan Fund.Production at Belfast-based Boundary Brewing Co-operative has increased rapidly since it started in 2015 as demand for its high quality craft beers has boomed. Last year […]
Work has started on the development of a 15-acre site on the edge of Sheffield as a community-owned market garden to supply the city with organic fruit and vegetables. Co-op Loan Fund has provided the multi-faceted Regather Co-operative with loan finance to expand its food production operation. Regather Co-operative provides a range of inter-related services […]
One of the UK’s longest established and most successful social enterprise development agencies is opening two new commercial kitchens and cafes in London, north and south of the Thames, that will provide training and business incubation, as well as good food and refreshments. Co-op Loan Fund and Big Issue Invest have provided Greenwich Co-operative Development […]
Co-operatives are known for being innovative and Co-op Loan Fund’s latest borrower is certainly that. It is also very unusual. Hempen, based near Reading, is the leading grower and producer of organic hemp CBD (cannabidiol) products in the UK. The worker co-op, which has six members and six volunteers, has been developing since 2015 By […]
An Essex farm that is one of the leading practitioners of biodynamic farming and conservation has secured its long-term future by becoming a charitable community benefit society. The new community-owned venture is being helped by a loan from the Co-operative Loan Fund as part of the Just Growth programme. Lauriston Farm is located on the […]
A wholefood shop and online retail co-operative business in Leicester is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the purchase of a new van, partly financed by the Co-operative Loan Fund. Leicester Wholefoods operates from the same 4,600 sq ft warehouse on the outskirts of the city where it started trading in 1987. The majority of its […]
New lending to a community-based food and farming enterprise has added to the accolades being given to the managers of the Co-operative Loan Fund. Just two weeks after winning the Citi Microentrepreneurship Award for Effective Partnership in recognition of its work with the Just Growth Fund, Co-operative & Community Finance, which manages the Co-operative Loan Fund, […]
An ambitious venture that aims to use high quality bread to improve diet, health and the local economy in Scotland is taking a step up in production thanks to a loan from The Co-operative Loan Fund. Scotland The Bread, based in the Scottish Borders, is a collaborative project to establish a Scottish flour and bread supply […]
A community-owned vegetable growing business in Somerset is making major improvements to its site with help from The Co-operative Loan Fund. Plotgate Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms a 10-acre site in Barton St David near Glastonbury and supplies the local community with boxes of seasonal organic fruit and vegetables. The community benefit society was set […]