The Crunchy Carrot Buyout

Unfortunately our application to the Lottery to buy the shop was not successful and we now need to look at alternatives as we are as keen as ever to keep the Crunchy Carrot in our community. Indeed over the months that we have been working together it has become increasingly clear that we need much more than a shop. We need to be able to support and co-ordinate the growing, selling, cooking and composting food locally.

We are considering options to find a buyer for the Crunchy Carrot shop who would then rent it back to our group on commercial terms. So if you know an individual – or a group of individuals interested in this please get in touch.

Watch this space over the next few months to see how we progress.

The group made an application for funding to the BIG Lottery Growing Community Assets fund – we were asking for our application to be progressed to the next stage and for some additional funding to be released to pay for professional fees – especially for architect support to develop plans to change and fit out the current shop.

Unfortunately the lottery did not feel that the project was developed enough to progress through to stage 2 and have suggested some additional work that needs to be done. So over the next couple of months we wiill be speaking to more local groups and individuals to explore what their needs are and how they might be addressed by a community owned fruit and vegetable shop on the high street.

We hope to resubmit the funding application in the near future and will let you know how we get on.

this involves consulting widely with the Dunbar community, looking at other models of good practice and checking the sums to make sure that we could run this as a profitable long term business.

If you know of a really good fruit and vegetable shop, a box delivery scheme, a successful link with local growers and allotment owners then drop us a line to let us know.

We recently looked at the shop with a local architect and believe that we could improve the layout of the existing shop making it more accessible for wheelchairs, pushchairs and those who have difficulty with steps. This would also create a much bigger space joining up the front and back rooms allowing the better presentation of a wider range of goods. So watch this space and we will let you know how our plans are developing.

See below an article from this week’s East Lothian Courier:

by Bryan Copland

 THE future of an up-for-sale Dunbar fruit and veg shop, descibed as a “cornerstone of the High Street”, could be secured if a new community-backed buy-out gets the go-ahead. Crunchy Carrot, 43 High Street, has been put on the market by its three bosses, after nearly 11 years in the town.

 The owners – Chris Eden, Jo Gibson, and Sarah Wall – plan to move on to pastures new, but a group backed by members of environmental organisation Sustaining Dunbar has launched a bid to take over the running of the business, and is looking at options for funding and running it as a social enterprise.

And if the plan gets the green light, it could become the second community-backed culinary project to grace the town’s High Street – with a separate group working towards opening a community bakery nearby.

Janet Barnes, a Dunbar-based consultant, has been appointed to help the new group form a business plan. It has already received a £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery to help develop proposals to buy the business. Janet told the Courier that there had been “overwhelming” support for saving the much-loved business, which gives custom to many county-based food producers.

 The group now hopes an application for funding to the Big Lottery Growing Community Assets Fund will be successful, which could help it promote a number of community initiatives, including healthy eating, home deliveries and working with local schools and allotments.

Ms Barnes said: “A lot of us in the Dunbar community think Crunchy Carrot is much more than a fruit and vegetable shop – it’s a cornerstone of the high street. It’s a well-known local resource, and we are very keen it stays a community shop that supplies local produce, bought locally, and organic products.”

The group – comprising about 12 members – believes the business could start making money under its leadership immediately, with profits being ploughed back into the community. Ms Barnes estimated up to £250,000 could be needed to fund the project over three years. A buy-out would see the group take over both the business and its premises, while it is the group’s intention to keep current staff on the pay roll.

A spokesperson for the current shop management said they were in full support of the buy-out plan. “It’s a great idea,” said the spokesperson.  “It would be wonderful if it was a sort of community shop. It might encourage other applications for other similar community projects, so we feel very positive about it.”

There should be an article in the Courier this week about the plans for a community buy out of the shop.

Make sure that everyone knows that the Crunchy Carrot isn’t closing – it is business as usual until the shop gets sold and the group has the full support of everyone working in the Crunchy – it is just time for some of them to move onto pastures new.

The small group of people developing proposals for a community buy out of the Crunchy Carrot meet agagin this week. We will be considering plans for refitting out the shop after visiting a lot of other fruit and vegetable shops for inspiration. We will also be taking on board feedback from a survey of local people – it would be great if anyone reading this could follow the link below to fill in the on line form – it really will only take a few minutes. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Crunchy at the moment or not – we are interested in all of your views. Please feel free to pass the link onto your friends and encourage them to give feedback.

Once this information gathering and planning stage is complete we hope to submit an application to the BIG Lottery for a grant to make sure this well loved local business not only stays but grows and develops to meet community needs.

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/a/sustainingdunbar.org/viewform?formkey=dDlhOWVVR2ttRWJpeVJsUnhIbXNmc3c6MQ