To date we have raised £71,800 of investment from the community (alongside a £30,000 investment from the Community Shares Fund) and our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported us so far. We regard this as a real success, having significantly increased our working capital, paid off some historic debt and bought feedstock to supply new biomass chipping contracts. However, after careful consideration, we have decided to extend the share offer deadline until 30th November 2012 for the following reasons.
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We want to take full advantage of the opportunity offered by the Co-operatives United event in Manchester on 31st October to 2nd November. This is an international gathering of the co-operative movement and we will be present at a number of events and talks. We see this as a unique opportunity to engage people who share our vision and values.
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We have been successful in a tender: details to be announced soon.
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The promotional campaign has been rapidly gaining momentum, with a double page spread in the Manchester Evening News, and a growing profile on the internet. Several people have contacting us saying they’ve only just heard of us and would like to invest but need more time to do so. We feel it would be shame to stop now, just when we’ve picked up a head of steam.
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We have also gone through to the second round of a bid for grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). This is for 40% of the cost of equipment. RDPE are now committed to working with us to help to tailor a successful bid. But we cannot take advantage of this without being able to show that we can finance the other 60%. In year one of the 3 year grant, we have applied for about £100,000 of equipment, so to take full advantage of this we need at least another £50,000 (taking us to £120,000 total). This would enable us to get the Oxtrac and another self-propelled chipper, an unbeatable combination for low impact woodland management. This is to facilitate the management of under-managed small woodlands, with benefits to recreational and habitat value as well as generating locally-produced timber. We are in talks with a number of Greater Manchester local authorities about how the Oxtrac can help us achieve this.
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Another £68,000 would mean we reach our full target of £140,000 and would enable us to buy other essential equipment: a dedicated, narrow-access firewood delivery van to help us fit through more customer’s driveways; on-site fuel stores to increase our efficiency and bring cost savings on diesel and biodiesel fuels; additional hook lift bins to give more flexibility to our woodchip production and to allow us to collect more tree work arisings and put them to good use. It would also enable us to replace the Community Shares Fund investment with longer term investment from the community; we hope in this way to be able to ask Cooperative and Community Finance for support in the future.
Can you now help us to raise another £68,000?
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Tell your friends and family
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Use social networking to draw attention to the share offer (re-tweet our tweets, and message your facebook friends/linkedin connections)
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Distribute our leaflets
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Add the Microgenius Sidebar to your website