Eday Community Enterprises

Trading address:
Millbounds
Eday
Orkney Islands
KW17 2AB
Category:
Retail
Description:

The island shop, run by Eday Community Enterprises, is now estimated to account for 90% of the islanders' food shopping and has become the cornerstone of the island's viability. The shop, catering for a population on 136, employs nine part-time staff, and one comment made to me was that property values might fall by as much as 50% if the shop were to shut. So what is the story behind its success? Community-owned shops received a huge boost in the early 1980s from support given by the old Highlands & Islands Development Board. That support eventually tapered off, and many of the shops started then did not survive. But Eday, established in 1982, is one that did. Much of its success is due to the supply chain arrangements it has with the Co-operative Group. Eday is one of a number of community shops that is able as a 'corporate member' of the Co-operative Group to buy on the same terms as the Co-op's shops. The direct ordering from the Co-op's depot in Cumbernauld is also supplemented