We advise organisations from a wide range of sectors including retail, leisure, energy and care, and from all sorts of businesses including an independent cinema and a service station!
We also support and promote co-operative and community business models, through workshops, policy work, and campaigning.
Business development and support
Hear from a few of our clients. We asked for some honest feedback – watch the videos below to see what our clients really think about us!
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust
Co-operative Futures worked with Gloucestershire Gateway Trust to develop the concept for the Gloucester Services business on the M5. Recently we’ve helped the Podsmead Big Local community create a legacy vehicle – the Blackbridge Charitable Community Benefit Society, which is developing a multimillion pound community hub and sports facility as a social enterprise.
Flo’s – The Place in the Park
Through the Bright Ideas Fund, Co-operative Futures provided business development support to Flo’s. We assisted Flo’s in creating a new trading subsidiary, in order to allow them to grow and develop the provision provided by their Community Cafe and their new Refill Shop and carried out a full audit of Flo’s Policies and Procedures.
Gloucester Resource Centre
Beth Hill from Gloucestershire Resource Centre, at City Works in Gloucester, runs a scrap store where they collect waste from businesses that can be reused. They also own the building and have offices and tenants, with many community organisations based there. Jo White from Co-operative Futures is on the board of trustees and has advised on much of their financial and business planning.
The Ultimate Picture Palace
We caught up with Margaret Wolf from UPP at our Community Businesses & Co-ops Social Meet Up. Co-operative Futures supported the local community to take on UPP, Oxford’s oldest independent cinema and one of the oldest cinemas in the UK, in a number of ways: Defining their legal structure; registering as a Community Benefit Society (CBS); applying for funding; ad-hoc business and governance advice; launching their share offer.
Highlights from last year
2023 started with a packed Future Co-ops Conference and ended with the launch of the Save Birmingham campaign, helping communities protect their public spaces. In between we’ve helped raise over £5 million in funds for co-operatives and we’ve supported 68 co-op and community led organisations across the country, including registering 6 brand new co-operatives!
