Bringing Circular Economy to the High Street

Today is a day that brings smiles and hopes to our CIC.
Today is the day we open our second shop on the high street and its all very exciting.
This shop is different to the one we took on in February 2019 with that one being aimed at communities and bringing benefits to those people in the community.
The new shop is aimed more at production and industry and will be promoting Circular Economy, waste reduction and how this benefits the community of Bodmin and further afield.
The simple act of taking on a second shop brings benefit in itself by filling those gaps and promoting healthy high streets. The shop had lain empty for around 8 months and although not a long time, it is central; it is now a hive of activity.
The equipment to fill it has been a journey in itself with borrowed, donated and bought at cut price enough industrial sewing machines to be able to kick off production in a short period of time. The short term aim is to increase income for this space and although production has started we think it will be 6 months before sustainability is achieved and a year before any serious profits are felt.
Profit is often not the main aim for many CIC`s and they are often community centred, as we are, but profit will need to be found in this arm of our cic / social enterprise as we try to come away from being less reliant on funding and grants in the future. We believe that profit for purpose is a good think and that any profits made from our work in the Circular Economy can and will go back into the communities we work in.
Setting this up in an area that is of social deprivation and has suffered from little investment in the past can only be a good thing as it will create those jobs and opportunities that are often missing and in high demand. Paying a wage that can be lived on is also a very important part of the structure of our organisation and we have set out clear goals to be able to do this.
At present we are in serious talks with numerous companies based in the SW who are looking to find ways to reduce their waste textiles either through their production methods or through their end user waste. We offer a solution that not only offers real benefit to them but to the communities we are based in. This tells a great story and a `Win Win` for everyone involved. The benefit to companies involved with this is often very financially favourable as they eliminate or reduce their waste costs whilst the environment is gains from diversion from landfill and incineration as at times this for some has been the only other options.
We still have a long way to go before we are fully sustainable and the journey there will be interesting and its including employing more staff, working with more partners on waste reduction and actually fully equipping the space we have creating in our vision on bringing Circular Economy to the high street.
If you would like to find out more, reduce your textile or other waste, join us in creating a future that is both meaningful and of great purpose while simultaneously building more resilient and stronger communities, then get in touch or better still, come and join us and see how we are doing things.