Save The Red Lion Campaign: launch of ‘Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited’ share offer

Following a successful campaign to save the Red Lion from being sold off
Futures Forum: Red Lion Sidbury: now an Asset of Community Value
a limited company has been formed to purchase the pub:

Share offer plan to buy the Red Lion

The Red Lion Inn, Sidbury. Picture by Alex Walton. Ref shb 4432-40-13AW

Harvey GavinMonday, November 25, 2013 

A group fighting to save the Red Lion in Sidbury has unveiled plans to sell shares to help fund its purchase of the pub.

Campaigners from Save the Red Lion will make shares in the newly formed ‘Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited’ available for £50 each, which will go towards buying and refurbishing the Fore Street pub.

The group hopes to use the tavern as a place to provide community services, and have sent a questionnaire out to village residents asking their views on how they would like to see the pub used as a community asset.

Chair of the campaign Fred Burnett said that the creation of the new company was evidence of the group’s determination to buy the business. He added: “We want it to not only be a successful local business, but also to be owned by and to support the local community. We think that the name of the company says it all. We are determined to get the Red Lion for the community”.

The campaign was recently bolstered after it received a £10,000 government grant to fund the creation of the new company.

East Devon MP Hugo Swire, a patron of the campaign, said: “A community owned pub in Sidbury would be excellent news for all those in the area. “I wish them good luck in their continuing endeavours to buy the Red Lion.”

Share offer plan to buy the Red Lion - News - Sidmouth Herald 
View From Online - News from West Dorset, East Devon & South Somerset

The campaign website has more details: 

Friday, 15 November 2013

Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited Wants To Make The Red Lion Roar!

Save The Red Lion Campaign is serious about seeking to purchase the Red Lion in Sidbury, East Devon on behalf of the community and has commenced a dialogue with its current owner the pub company Punch Taverns.

In order to purchase and to own the Red Lion the Campaign has had to create a limited company through which to trade. Save The Red Lion Campaign is pleased to announce that it has now received formal registration from the Financial Conduct Authority of its company – Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited. It is this company that the Campaign hopes will become the new owner of the Red Lion.

Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited, whilst being a limited company, is also an Industrial Provident Society. The company has been both named and created so that it will trade for the benefit of its members and its community. This ethos will set it apart from most existing local pub owners, or potential pub owners, whose main aim will be to maximise the profits for them or their remote shareholders.

Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited will be owned by its members, who will be those who invest in its business. A central element in how the company will fund the purchase and the upgrading and refurbishment of the Red Lion will be by publicly issuing shares which will start at what is hoped will be an attractive and affordable price of £50 each.

Each shareholder will in turn become a member who owns the company. This way all shareholders, who Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited hope will mainly come from the Sid Valley, will be able to directly benefit from a profitable Red Lion enterprise.

Sidbury Community Enterprises Ltd has a vision that it is developing as part of its business plan, of making the Red Lion a community hub. This would mean that as well as being a village pub which undertakes the traditional business activities such as serving drinks, selling meals and catering for bed & breakfast customers, it will also seek to serve and support its local community.

Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited sees the future Red Lion business as providing community related services, offering opportunities for the wider community to make maximum use of its facilities and playing a key role in local community life. The company will want the Red Lion to be seen and used as the Asset of Community Value that East Devon District Council has listed it as.

To assist in shaping the community related aspect of its business the company’s campaigning arm, Save The Red Lion Campaign has issued a questionnaire across the whole of Sidbury inviting residents to say how they would want to be able to use the pub in future. The feedback from the questionnaire will help to shape Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited’s business plan for a future successful Red Lion business.

In announcing the creation of Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited Fred Burnett Chair of Save The Red Lion Campaign said “By creating Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited we are making it clear that we are determined to purchase the Red Lion as we think that it can be made a successful community based pub. We want the pub to not only be a successful local business, but also to be owned by and to support the local community. We think that the name says it all. We are determined to get the Red Lion for the community”.

Local MP and Save The Red Lion Campaign Patron the Rt Hon Hugo Swire said“The fact that Sidbury Community Enterprises Ltd has now been formed shows the determination that local campaigners have to buy the Red Lion for the local community. A community owned pub in Sidbury would be excellent news for all those in the area. I wish them good luck in their continuing endeavours to buy the Red Lion.”

This marks a significant stage as what started out as a campaign group is now developing into a potential community based owner of a future Red Lion business.

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Help To Shape A Future Red Lion

As members of Save The Red Lion Campaign’s Steering Group beaver away over their abacus trying to make sense of the reams of figures that they are pouring over, under the guise of a draft business plan, there is still time to help to influence what sort of pub you would like to see a future Red Lion business to be.

It is important that the future business that the Campaign tries to create for the Red Lion reflects feedback that we receive from the local community. To help gain this feedback we have issued a questionnaire which has been distributed at Sidbury Fair Day, at our public meeting & more recently across Sidbury door to door.

In the questionnaire we have asked what sort of pub you would like to be created and in particular we have asked when you think you would want to drink in it, when you would want to eat in it, what sort of food you would like to be served and what other services/facilities you would like the pub to offer.

The questionnaire not only is designed to understand what sort of pub you want but also how you think the pub can support & serve the local community. This latter part of the questionnaire is every bit as important as the parts that try to help to shape the business.

We have had a large number of people responding to the questionnaire which shows that there is interest in trying to influence the future Red Lion. There is still a little bit longer to get your form in if you haven’t already done so.

The form can be downloaded at –http://sites.google.com/site/thepubinthevillage/SaveTheRedLionPublicQuestionnnaireFinal2.doc

Completed forms should be returned to any of the addresses at the bottom of the questionnaire or returned to the Campaign email –thepubinthevillage@gmail.com.

The Pub In The Village
Save The Red Lion Campaign : Sidbury Village Website
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