Real Food Exeter – what's the story?

By Emma Parkin, on Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Exeter prides itself on being the regional capital of Devon, successfully attracting new businesses, like the Met Office, being a centre for education, commerce, local government and health services. Nestled in the beautiful Exe valley, it is possible to catch glimpses of the rolling hills and fields from almost anywhere in the city, but it is virtually impossible to buy anything that might have been produced there.

As the prospect of ‘peak-oil’ looms ever nearer a project initiated by Transition Exeter in March 2009, is about to become new model of social enterprise addressing the issue of food security, local food economies and provenance.

After months of voluntary meetings and individual actions a group registered as Exeter Local Food Ltd (a Community Benefit Society incorporated under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965, registered with the Financial Services Authority) is nearly in a position to sign the lease on city centre shop premises. Trading as the Real Food Store, this is a strikingly innovative example of an alternative retail business giving Exeter residents the opportunity to change the way they shop.

The vision is to provide a food store with locally sourced fresh food and a limited range of Fairtrade imported or exotic food stuffs, a café serving simple seasonal dishes and in-store artisan bakery (independently financed) supplying both parts of the store.

It hasn’t been a straightforward process as the group had to raise nearly £135,000 from community shareholders or ‘members’ in order to provide the capital to set up and finance the business through its first three years of trading. A meticulous business plan together with cashflow forecasts and profit and loss sheets was presented to potential investors and has been subsequently tweaked and refined over the past critical two months since the share offer was launched. It seems amazing now that a public meeting held on June 10 has managed to inspire over 200 people to take the plunge, write cheques and back Real Food.

The marketing budget was non-existent and both virtual and social networking has been the chief source of communication. The seven ‘movers and shakers’ have financed any printed material from their own pockets and given literally hundreds of hours of their own time to make this scheme a success.

The minimum investment required is just £100 but many people have invested considerably more. The glorious part is that people of all ages and backgrounds have supported the scheme and will be its customers when the store opens early next year.

There is still a lot of work to do and the final £10,000 is still not accounted though confidence is running high. Once the money is in the bank, the lease signed and contractors appointed to carry out essential refitting work, the next job is to appoint staff and get the producers on board.

The share offer closes on Thursday, September 30 so now is the time to invest and be part of Real Food Exeter!

If you’re interested, please visit us on www.realfoodexeter.co.uk or contact us at info@realfoodexeter.co.uk to ask for paper copies to be sent to you.