CREDITON’s Community Bookshop, The Bookery has launched a community share offer and there is some exciting news to reveal.

The Bookery has received a huge boost from Co-operatives UK, which has agreed to match the investment from supporters.

This means that for every pound raised from individuals who purchase a share, Co-operatives UK will match by purchasing shares to the same value.

The Bookery’s aim is to raise £20,000.

The commitment from Co-operatives UK is a significant endorsement of the business plan and means that if the target of £20,000 is reached the total investment would become £40,000.

Chair, Andrew Davey, said: “This pledge from Co-operative UK is fantastic news.

“The shareholders investment will make a huge difference to our ability to carry on growing the bookshop as a commercially successful business and develop further our outreach into the community including working with schools - providing advice and practical support to encourage a love of books and reading among children and providing volunteers to share books with older people living in care homes or those living alone at home who may be isolated or lacking company.”

In 2025 The Bookery will celebrate 12 years of trading and work benefitting the wider community.

It wants to build on its success, develop the business and increase its reach so that it can:

• Deliver more activities with schools, older people, families and great book events

• Engage with more people, gain more members/shareholders and deepen its connections to the community

• Develop the business to increase its capacity for more work in the community.

The Bookery sells new books, tries to generate a surplus, then uses that surplus together with the huge energy and commitment of a wonderful group of volunteers to deliver high valued community activities.

The Bookery now needs some capital to achieve its plans and that is why it is now seeking some new investment.

It wants to:

• Invest in outreach development and grant funding generation

• Increase staffing to assist in delivery of outreach activities

• Increase the quality of resources utilised for outreach activities.

It plans to develop the business to generate more surplus by:

• Improving lighting, signage and display in the bookshop

• Increasing resources to revitalise online book sales

• Investing in software to analyse sales data

• Building its capacity and use of social media to reach more and different people

• Upgrading the kitchen and social area of the Hub.

The share offer opened on November 13 and will close on January 25, 2025.

Shares will be priced at £20 with a maximum investment of 400 shares.

It was in 2012 that Crediton Community Bookshop was set up to raise some capital to set up the Bookshop, now trading as The Bookery.

The Bookery acknowledges the support of its customers, volunteers, shareholders and many local organisations which, its says, has been critical to the success of the business.

To find out more about the community share offer visit The Bookery in the High Street or online: www.thebookery.org.uk/shareoffer .