enterprise-newsnkuk

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finance

profile: BIGinvest

profile: BIGinvest

Thinking BIG when

it comes to finance

Spawned by street newspaper The Big Issue, the BIGinvest loan fund takes a hands-on approach to the enterprises it backs. And that’s just the way they like it! Finola Robinson reports

Barnardo’s is a leading children’s charity which is developing social enterprises that employ people from their homes and help create unrestricted income. BIGinvest’s experience as social entrepreneur and financier formed the basis of the partnership: assisting a traditional charity to enter the sector and develop new social enterprises.

around the world, and this idea – that buying natural mineral water sourced from the Black Mountains in Wales can give muchneeded water to parched villages in the developing world – has made a big splash with consumers. Belu donates all its profits to fund clean water projects around the world. As its first water project, Belu is installing wells and hand pumps for 10,000 people in a village in Tamil Nadu, India. Every bottle of Belu a customer drinks provides clean water to one person in Africa or India for one month. You don’t often hear about better incentives for buying water than that. ‘But we could not have done it without BIGinvest’s willingness to lend to us,’ says Paget. ‘Because we are not-for-profit, we didn’t have back-end support from the commercial sector and getting the funds to grow the company was the hardest part of all. But BIGinvest gave us so much more than that. In addition to the contacts, they gave us assistance right across the board in sales, marketing and financial management. As I say, they were our lifesavers.’ From Belu’s inception, Paget wanted the water to be sold in the biodegradable bottle that is gaining attention as its unique selling point. ‘We wanted to sell our water in a compostable bottle and to be carbon neutral, ‘he says, ‘but we would not have been able to achieve these two things without BIGinvest’s support. Out of 70,000 products stocked in Tesco, ours is the only one that comes from a company with a 0% carbon footprint

18 socialenterprise april07

Barnardo’s

Belu Belu is the first bottled water company in the UK to use compostable bottles made from corn, and sells the first bottled water that doesn’t contribute to climate change. It donates all its profits to fund clean water projects around the world. Its water can be found in major supermarkets.

Hackney Community Transport (HCT) HCT is an award-winning Community Interest Company and a fast-growing provider of public transport and related training services. BIGinvest made a loan to support the expansion of 15 school bus routes in Yorkshire. CT Plus, a subsidiary of HCT, carries over 700 students to school each day.

One Earth One Earth is a not-for-profit agency set up to engage people in socially and environmentally responsible trade and living. With support from BIGinvest, One Earth created Climate Change Now, a unique tool to enable customers to switch to renewable energy suppliers online via www.climatechangenow.com.

Pines Calyx A state-of-the-art environmentally sustainable conference centre in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Dover. The centre works in harmony with nature and is built from recycled materials using groundbreaking architecture and engineering.

Pontin Charitable Trust Set up by John Pontin, the Pontin Charitable Trust is a trust fund based in Bristol that supports charities and groups in the South West of England focusing on environmental issues. The BIGinvest loan gave the trust the working capital to lend to groups working on renewable energy.

RMS Locotec RMS Locotec is a community transport company that hires out shunting locomotives and offers track maintenance and engineering work. A loan from BIGinvest gave RMS the capital to purchase shunting engines and develop the infrastructure of two railway lines. RMS Locotec is a subsidiary of Ealing Community Transport (ECT).

SCA Healthcare

Nigel Kershaw, chief executive of BIGinvest : ‘We have created a real pool of financial expertise around the social drive.’

PHOTO: ANTHONY EPES PHOTOGRAPHY WWW.ANTHONYEPES.COM

I

t takes Reed Paget, managing director of Belu Water, just a few words and not a moment’s hesitation to sum up his experience of BIGinvest, the sustainable loan fund founded by The Big Issue and a clutch of pioneering social entrepreneurs. ‘They were our lifesavers,’ he enthuses, without missing a beat. In 2007, BIGInvest is increasing its total lending from £3.5m to £5m and is on the lookout for partner social enterprises that need investment of between £50,000 and £500,000. And what makes it unique, according to chief executive Nigel Kershaw, is that the people that make up BIGinvest have the skills and expertise to offer so much more than just the loan. Take Belu’s trajectory as a case in point. A year ago, Belu Water had a staff of two and a modest annual turnover of £150,000. But in 2007 it boasts an impressive £1.8m turnover, product presence in 32 Waitrose stores around the UK and a legion of fans. Plus, it is the only water on the market to be sold in a biodegradable, compostable bottle made from corn. If that wasn’t enough, Belu is positioned against a larger, more global backdrop: those who stand to gain from the sales are not the Belu directors, shareholders or trustees but poor and marginalised people around the world who will gain access to clean water as a direct result of Belu’s partnership with WaterAid. From the outset, Paget pledged to use 100% of profits to fund clean water projects

Who’s been helped by BIGinvest?

SCA Healthcare was established by leading care provider SCA Community Care to meet the need for better dental healthcare provision. SCA Community Care holds 45 NHS contracts for the delivery of domiciliary care, day care and transport services for older people and people with disabilities. BIGinvest financed two of a chain of five SCA Healthcare Dental Surgeries serving disadvantaged inner-city communities on the south coast. SCA is planning to roll out this model across the south of England.

Thorpete Gas Services Ltd Thorpete provides gas and electrical installation and maintenance services to public and private sector customers, but primarily to housing associations in the East Midlands. The business is run as a social enterprise providing job and training opportunities for long-term unemployed local people. BIGinvest financed the upgrade of Thorpete’s customer service IT system.

Venture Partnership Foundation The Venture Partnership Foundation is a philanthropic fund management group and the UK’s first registered grant-making charity that is mutually owned by its supporters. BIGinvest has helped the Venture Partnership Foundation to finance grant and loan packages for growing social enterprises and entrepreneurial charities. april07 socialenterprise 19


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