SIOP HAVARDS
THE 1st COMMUNITY OWNED HARDWARE SHOP IN BRITAIN
Shwmae/hello everyone!
Welcome to our October Newsletter, bringing you up to date with our activities since July.
Now, we could talk about the weather again, and it would be fair to say that this has had a bit of a dampening effect on some aspects of local life and business. But we think you’d all agree that the peak summer holiday weeks were really very busy – with the restaurants and cafés very full, the Parrog and Boat Club brimming with cars, families and sand encrusted children. Bank Holiday at Traeth Mawr saw it absolutely stuffed too and, happily, even with the rain, Havards had a busy time as well.
Top sellers for Havards this Summer have been across the board e.g. white beach clogs (a must for the teens amongst us it would seem), buoyancy aids for adults and children, wet suits for all, body boards, wooden rather than plastic spades for the beach (but far fewer buckets for some reason), fidget toys for children, novelty torches, fire pits and charcoal, plumbing rods, sink ‘plungers’ and, last but not least, 2kg bags of Burns dry dog food just flew off the shelves.
As an indication of how busy things became, at one point Betty served a customer in his car in the road outside Havards who wanted to buy two spades to help the family deal with their dogs’ ‘offerings’. Very satisfied with the spades displayed outside Havards, and with Betty wielding the handheld card terminal through the driver’s window, a transaction was successfully and swiftly completed! Apologies to the traffic that backed up in East Street to allow all this to happen. (Please note: we aim to be as flexible as we can, but we don’t encourage drive-by shopping!)
So, we’re now looking forward to the Autumn into Winter season, when gardens are being put to bed and the houses are being prepared for colder and damper (is that possible?) weather and help everyone prepare and look forward to the Christmas season.
And with that in mind we have put together a selection of products that should help on both fronts – these are highlighted below.
Once again, we thank you for your custom and do remember whether you’re a shareholder or friend of Siop Havards, please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help you source anything.
BUSINESS NEWS
Havards’ Trading Performance
Following our presentation at the recent annual meeting, we have now received the first draft of accounts for the year to March 2024 from the auditors. We are addressing several minor queries, none of which will affect the figures for the year.
The figures to 31 March 2024 are the first full year of trading under community ownership and it is not appropriate to compare with previous years.
The key figures are:-
Profit & Loss
- Turnover £197k
- Cost of sales £95k
- Gross profit £102k
- Gross margin 52%
- Total Costs £91k of which employment costs account for £67k (74% of total costs)
- Operating profit £11k
- Interest receivable £2k
Balance Sheet
- Shareholders funds amount to £680k – the two main constituent parts are the value of premises at £386k and cash of £226k
- Stock levels at £73k
- The cash figure is made up of the net figure of £177k remaining from the Community Opportunities Fund and £49k from trading
The directors believe that the first full year’s figures are reasonable in the prevailing trading conditions and that a profit of £11k in our first full year is satisfactory.
As highlighted at the Annual General Meeting, we are currently employing more staff than in our original business plan, due to the challenges of implementing a new business system which will improve our efficiency in the longer term. We also depend on some very committed volunteers, and will be embarking on a fresh volunteer recruitment drive in the near future.
Stock levels are also higher than desirable; however, since the year-end we have invested in a proven inventory management system, which is already helping and we are evidencing a reduction in stock levels (at the end of August, the amount tied up in stock had reduced to £65k). We are working to reduce the amount of cash tied up in stock further by March 2025.
Whilst the first 5 months trading of the new financial year starting April 2024 have been reasonable and we are in a healthy position financially, turnover has not grown, as like other businesses in the area, we have been affected by lower visitor numbers. Further challenges for the year ahead include a new utilities contract, the store refurbishment (more later in this note) and we also expect to be impacted by the closure of the main road through town in late January 2025 for 8 weeks.
We anticipate finalising the accounts in the next few weeks and will circulate to all shareholders prior to arranging a virtual presentation to go through the accounts in detail and answer any questions you may have.
We are currently finalising figured for half-year. However, in the 5 months to August, turnover was £95k (2023 - £100k) and net profit was £22k (2023 - £22k). Whilst turnover is slightly down, we have managed to improve profitability. An update on trading for the first six months of 2024 will be covered at the forthcoming meeting.
However, we enter the winter period which is generally quieter. Also, the impact of the closure of the main road in January and February 2025 is unclear in relation to trading.
Our Annual General Meeting
This was held on 15th August at the Boat Club in the Commodore’s Lounge on the first floor.
As with our first AGM last year, we exceeded our minimum quorum of 40 members attending by a respectable margin (we counted 28 in person and 24 attending on-line).
Our Chair, Clive, shared a brief PowerPoint of the highlights of the previous year, including progress on the milestones achieved and our plans for the current year, including those for reconfiguring and expanding the ground floor.
You can view the Powerpoint presentation on our website by clicking here or in PDF format.
Please Note: we will be calling an Extraordinary AGM (via Zoom) before the end of November in order to approve a few key items, namely:
Given the important steps we are about to take with regard to expanding our sales area as well as the need to have your vote on adopting the financial report, we would really appreciate you giving some more of your time at this Extraordinary AGM.
This will be held via Zoom – so please keep an eye out for the formal announcement (giving 4 weeks’ notice) which should be with you soon.
Update on Plans for Reshaping Our Sales Area
Things are now gathering speed with a commitment from the Siop Havards Directors to go ahead with the planned reconfiguration and expansion of the ground floor sales area. This will enlarge the cookware and homeware section by knocking down the current party wall between it and the office and kitchen behind. We will then build a small extension to enclose the current external storage at the back of the property. Betty and the ‘back-office’ will move upstairs shortly.
There will be two stages to the work, the first later this year potentially during November and the second during January and February next year, using the opportunity to undertake the most intrusive and potentially messy phase, when the main road through town is closed to repair the culvert that crosses the road by the Royal Oak.
We will review Siop Havards’ opening hours over this period and make an announcement in the December Newsletter.
On the formal side, we have submitted our final plans for Building Regs approval and are seeking two quotes from local builders on a time and material basis.
The Directors have set up a working committee that will consider the optimum layout for the extended sales area. This is starting imminently.
Our thanks to both Clive Hooper and John Harries for bringing us to this important next step in the development of the future Siop Havards.
PRODUCT NEWS
With the Autumn in mind and everyone preparing both the house and garden for the end of the current and forthcoming Winter season, we’ve put forward a short selection of the kind of products that we stock here in Siop Havards that might help you, your family and friends.
Damp Control
‘Damp Kontrol’ branded products and crystals that you can use around the house, including a hanging version for the wardrobe and stand alone units that can be placed anywhere. Ranging from £17.85 for the larger unit to £5.45 for the wardrobe version.
Wood Burners – Maintenance
‘Hotspot’ and ‘HG’ branded wood burning stove cleaning and maintenance products, including heat resistant stove paints, stove rope and adhesives, glass cleaners, self-adhesive flat rope etc. Ranging in price from £7.70 for stove rope to £11.99 for a medium tin of black matt stove paint
Humane Mouse Traps & Bait
‘Big Cheese’ and ‘Pest Stop’ ‘welfare friendly’ mouse trap and bait station, as well as poison free block bait suitable for both rats and mice. The Trip-Trap’ costs £5.60, the bait station is £5.85 and the bait itself £11.50
Gorilla Tubs/Trugs
We own a selection of these for our work around the garden and have found them particularly useful during Autumn scooping up all those leaves or alternatively carrying a range of garden tools around with you as you’re trimming, cutting back, getting rid of bramble etc.
Available in a range of colours and sizes, plus ‘shallow’ rather as well as full sided options, these cost from £7.99 for the Mini Shallow (5 litres) to £29.95 for the Extra Large (75 litres)
Glue Gun
This Bostik ‘Handy Hot Melt Glue Gun’ is compact and easy-to-use and can achieve a strong, permanent bond to most materials including paper, ceramics, wood, plastic, metal, glass, leather, fabric and more. So something to consider for light household repairs or indeed arts and crafts. This costs just £16.99 including two glue sticks.
Burns Dog and Cat Food
Burns’ Cat and Dog Food is available in several sizes: a 1.5kg Cat Food pack costs £15.99 and a 2kg pack of Dog foods costs £15.49
Roofing Felt
One of the jobs that always needs to be done as Autumn and Winter approach is to make sure that your shed roof is in good condition (ours partly blew off earlier this year) and, if needs be, replaced. There are two rolls of this top quality roofing felt available at Havards for £62.95 each – heavy duty but good, with a 10+ year guarantee.
Repair Services - provided by John Harries
As you’re all probably aware by now, John is able to provide a cornucopia of ‘at cost’ repair services including:
- Knife and blade sharpening: kitchen and garden tools
- Blade sharpening: for smaller petrol, electric and manual lawnmowers
- Mechanical repairs: for petrol and manual mowers
- Sewing machine repairs: both manual and computerised
- IT repairs: phones, tablets and laptops
Most of these services are provided by local experts in Cardigan and Fishguard. As blade sharpening and repairs for mowers are undertaken in Haverfordwest, John would make a small charge for 'petrol money'.
If you require any of these services, please call John Harries on 07804 487642 to discuss and make arrangements. Please note that we can't yet offer to re-sharpen saws.
Remember everything is charged at cost – we add nothing to the price quoted.
STAFF & VOLUNTEER NEWS
We’re really sorry to tell you that we are about to say goodbye to Sue at the end of this month. Sue has been with Havards as a community owned shop from the start and prior to that with Bryce and Sonnie.
Sue’s welcoming smile and extensive knowledge of where to find that elusive item will be missed by both ourselves as well as our customers.
Sue is leaving to support and care for a family member near London. A collection box is being organised. We wish her all the very best and thank her for her time here.
INVESTOR NEWS
Share Certificates
There are still a large number of as yet unclaimed certificates at Siop Havards, so we will be mailing these out during October.
E-Mail Addresses & Junk Mail Settings
Just a reminder on this topic as this does crop up from time to time.
Do please remember to:
- Let us know if you change your e-mail address or any of your contact details
- Please make sure you set siophavards.cymru as a safe domain in your ‘junk mail’ settings
These will help ensure that our Newsletters and important Investor Information will be received by our members.
Newsletter Feedback
Just a further reminder to share your views about our Newsletters, if you haven’t done so already: the link to the questionnaire is here https://siophavards.cymru/newsletter-survey.htm Many thanks!
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
MACMILLAN Coffee Morning
We held a coffee morning raising funds for Macmillan on 30th September, a damp Monday after a very windy Sunday!
We welcomed a good number of regular customers and passers-by day who were refuelled with cake and cookies supplied by keen bakers amongst Havard’s staff and volunteers.
We can now report that we raised just over £160 over the day – many thanks indeed for all our kind donors; we hope you enjoyed the cake too!
Community Activities in Havards
We’re still looking for your ideas for using the space we’re planning to make available for community activities, organised by Havards or indeed other groups.
For instance these might include:
- Bread baking courses
- Trouble shooting basic domestic plumbing or electrical appliance issues
- Talks on Preseli walks
- A local Repair Shop’
- A warm place to meet and have a cuppa
If you or any of your friends and relatives have any thoughts or suggestions please let us know by emailing these to secretary@siophavards.cymru
AND LASTLY …………
Diolch/Thank you for your continued interest and generosity; it is very much appreciated. We hope to see you in Havards this Autumn with your friends and family.
And don’t forget that you can still be part of the Siop Havards project by buying shares either for yourself or a child – an opportunity to make them feel even more part of the community by becoming a member of the Havards Community Shop. More information can be found by using this link: https://siophavards.cymru/invest.htm
The Siop Havards Team