So where are we now?... Latest news in Green 

The committee are very pleased to report that we have closed out the Early Adopter share offer oversubscribed thanks to a flurry of signups on the last day of the offer. Total funds raised are just under £34,000 which covers the lease premium, remaining property renovations and leaves a significant amount for working capital and towards the purchase.

The Sweffling White Horse is now officially a Community Pub!

A lot has happened behind the scenes over the past few weeks and the good news is that we are now officially a Community Benefit Society! As a result, we have a slightly different committee structure which is detailed under the INFORMATION...PERSONNEL menu.

Michelle Scales, Oli Stockman and Ben Morris will be acting general managers while we search for a full-time one.

We will additionally be looking for the following roles in the long term:

  •  A Vice-Chair as a fully appointed committee member,
  •  A Marketing Co-ordinator and a Fundraising/Grants Co-ordinator.

The original Steering Group was formally disbanded on 15th December, and the Sweffling Community Support Group have agreed to transfer the funds they had in treasury for the group to the new CBS. (See DOCUMENTS menu for minutes of both meetings).
We are finalising the lease at the moment, if there are any issues we have an alternative method to enable us to open over the Christmas period.

Shareholdings: It is possible to buy shares from this point, and in the short term we will send an email to everyone who has expressed interest to see if they wish to be early adopters. Share purchase will either be via a Docusign/Electronic Signature or paper form. We will formally, publicly launch the share offering in mid-to-late January for the following reason. As CBS shares are unregulated, we are applying for the 'Community Shares Standard Mark' from Co-operatives UK, which involves a third party validating our share offer and giving us a review of business plans etc. This not only gives investors confidence in the scheme, but also enables us to access additional match funding, and potentially a scheme to enable people to pay for their shares over a period of time, underwritten by Co-operatives UK. Unfortunately due to our level of projected property revenue we will be excluded from the EIS tax relief scheme but will be keeping an eye out for any further relief opportunities available.

Next Steps:

  • We will be taking over pub operations from 23rd December
  • We will launch the share offer around mid-January.
  • We will hold fundraising events next year.
  • We are bringing back a loyalty scheme for shareholders only (one free pint for every 20 bought for over £4).
  • We will open over the festive season (see OPENING TIMES menu). No food until mid-Jan but feel free to bring your own until then.

Text below refers to actions prior to being accepted as a Community Benefit Society (CBS).

  • We setup a Steering Group and investigated the options and the work required to take a pub into community ownership. We now have everything in place to start the legal and financial steps for bank accounts and the legal structures we need to move forward.

  • We're also receiving pledges, which are non-binding indications from people that would wish to become shareholders of approximately how much they'd be prepared to commit. We need more so please see the front page of the website for details of how to pledge support. 

  • We raised sufficient funds to pay for the Red Book Valuation which is a requirement. 

  • We have held several fundraisers, information for which can be found on the "fundraisers" menu on the website. 

  • We've offered to take on a lease of the pub or to staff it from the community while we complete a formal share offering, subject to a number of points, including agreement with the owners both around the lease terms and the future bid, and the ability to fully form our Community Benefit Society.

  • The Red Book Valuation is complete gas we have the details. We will be available to discuss this with you at the Sweffling Village Hut on Tuesday 16th September between 6pm and 8pm. Now that the figure is known, the community will attempt to come to some form of an agreement by the 22nd October (date of auction) .We have agreement in principle to lease the pub from early November, subject to us making a suitable offer for purchase once the valuation is assessed. We have also offered for the Community to help staff the pub in the interim period.

  • We have the figures from the valuation but they do not include the value from the rental of the accommodation, hence we need to put a value on that before we can make an offer. We have a draft business plan and we intend to discuss this and the valuation at a meeting at the Village Hut on Monday 29th September at 7pm. Please come along and share your views.

  • The offer amount which was agreed by vote at the last meeting was rejected. There will be one final meeting to try to place an acceptable offer. 

  • With a new Financial Projection incorporating the rental properties within the pub, a final meeting was held to try to save the pub from auction. This meeting was a resounding success with a packed village hut voting almost unanimously to place a revised offer to the pub owners. Lots of work to do now...more details on that later.

  • We're now registered with Plunkett, have been assigned an advisor and had our first meeting with them. We're in the process of completing the paperwork to form the Community Benefit Society and we've had a Steering Group meeting on Monday. We've also re-arranged the roles of the group, which will be updated on the THE COMMITTEE menu page.