Stockwood CBS
Equity & withdrawable shares
Stockwood Community Benefit Society was formed to preserve and protect Rush Farm in perpetuity and to embed ethical management of capital in mainstream business.
The organisation is a community benefit society, with members that have invested and so made a financial commitment to the objects of the Society. This method of ownership widens the community hugely from those working on the site to include all the members of the Society too. Those joining Stockwood CBS, which can include the tenants, are all helping to further the objects and demonstrate that social enterprise can reach out into mainstream business, and that just by trading and paying rent, companies can be a positive force for good.
Summary
Stockwood Community Benefit Society has been founded to protect Rush Farm and its Stockwood Business Park – for ever. By purchasing the whole estate – farm and business park together – the Society will achieve its environmental and social objectives. We invite you to join the Society by investing in shares that will pay your SharedImpact account a 5% return and which you can withdraw into your SharedImpact account at any time (terms and conditions apply).
Stockwood CBS was set up in 2012 by the Elysia Partnership and the Biodynamic Land Trust (BDLT), to create a visionary community asset from the land and buildings of:
- Rush Farm – a 150 acre certified ‘biodynamic’ farm with top class organic credentials. Land use is largely pasture with part arable and part woodland.
- Stockwood Business Park – a 27 unit, 40,000 ft2 (net), fully let mix of offices and light industrial units. The anchor tenant is Elysia, including Elysia Natural Skin Care, which has exclusive UK distribution rights to the world famous Dr.Hauschka brand of ethical, natural cosmetics (a business which sources its ingredients from organic and biodynamic farms across the world).
Stockwood CBS will hold Rush Farm and Stockwood Business Park for community benefit in perpetuity. The objects of Stockwood CBS are to farm the land biodynamically, to promote wildlife and farm related enterprise, rural employment and rural training, and to promote sustainability through better use of technology and better practice.
Social Impact
Stockwood CBS aims to demonstrate a new way of working on and alongside the land and to create a model for future rural economic and environmental regeneration.
In combining the Business Park and Farm, the new organisation will support and improve the social and natural environment by:
- Providing places of work in an harmonious setting through the biodynamic management of the Park and Farm to the highest ecological standard.
- Actively increasing and improving the measurable social impacts generated by its tenant businesses (whether ethical or local sourcing, traineeships, waste and energy management, volunteering, charitable support, and so on) using a process of leadership, tenant involvement and financial resourcing.
- Using and promoting ‘natural’, ethical methods and principles of agriculture, horticulture, education and business.
- Staging a wide range of local trade events, farm events and training courses in the rural environment and sustainable business practice.
- Providing free, welcoming and well-managed footpaths, bridle paths and permissive routes through the Farm, woodland and river banks of the Estate.
In addition, the Farm aspect will disseminate experience, research and best practice developed in and through the Stockwood CBS in regard to agricultural and horticultural land trusteeship that secures food-growing land in perpetuity.
On the business park, Stockwood CBS will lead and resource the business community to increase their ethical and environmental practices. The tenant mix will not be selected for its pre-existing credentials, rather, the mission is to influence the full spectrum of businesses. Surplus profits, for example, will be co-invested alongside tenants in helping them make changes appropriate for their line of business.
Business Proposition
Stockwood Business Park is co-located with Rush Farm approximately 15 miles from Worcester in the west, Redditch in the north and Stratford upon Avon in the east. It is well served by the nearby M5 and A422. It comprises a mix of office and light industrial units remodelled from original farm buildings and stables.
Elysia purchased the Farm and Park in 2005.
Stockwood Business Park is an ethically and sustainably-run rural business. It is fully let and generates rental income of £217,000 p.a. Elysia occupies 40% of the space and 19 commercial tenants occupy the remaining 60%. The tenants are mainly small and micro-sized businesses. Some, like Elysia, have a UK and overseas market for their trading, the majority are locally or regionally focused. In this respect the Business Park makes a significant contribution to the local, rural economy, providing local employment and having a combined estimated turnover of around £12m p.a.
Aerial photo showing Stockwood Business Park (bordered in red).
Property management, including the marketing and the collection of rents, is handled by Halls Commercial of Worcester. The Park enjoys strong tenant retention, with 18 of 19 tenants fully expected to renew over the next 5 years, and good tenant payment profiles with tenants showing only 3% arrears (Elysia 0%). The average lease length is 3 years, with recent renewals (summer 2012) being for 5 years.
There is reasonable potential for rental growth, the current average rent being £7.65/ft2 with a target rate £10/ft2 (office). 2012 rent increases achieved this target level.
