Residents of the tiny Victorian town of Colbinabbin are set to buy their general store after a mammoth fundraising campaign
A general store in the regional Victorian town of Colbinabbin is set to be kept in local hands after a mammoth fundraising campaign generated more than $400,000 to set up a community-funded cooperative that will purchase and manage the business.
The Colbinabbin General Store, at 37 Mitchell Street, has been on the market for more than two years after the existing owners made the decision to retire. This prompted concerns among the town’s approximately 290 residents about its future.
“The possibility of the store closing down looms as a disaster for the town,” said Matt McEvoy, a Colbinabbin resident who has been heading up the cooperative bid.
The store’s closure would be particularly hard felt by the town’s elderly residents, with the closest major shopping centres at least 40 minutes away and few other options available for sourcing food.
“It would essentially mean that elderly people can’t stay and there would be less reason for young people to stay or come home,” Mr McEvoy said.
The campaign to get investors to back a cooperative – a member-owned business structure where each member has voting rights and receives dividends – began in earnest last year.
“We came up with the idea of purchasing it as a community-owned cooperative. We ran the idea past the owners and they have been really supportive of it.”
Efforts have heated up as the end of February – the deadline to raise the $400,000 required to purchase the store and conduct initial refurbishments – approached.
As of this week, the campaign has raised “a little more than $400,000”, according to Mr McEvoy, with 160 individuals or groups pledging support. The minimum investment amount required for a stake in the cooperative was $500, with investments ranging up to $10,000. Amounts less than $500 were accepted as donations.
Most of the money will be used to purchase the freehold property and business, with additional funds needed for the store’s ongoing operations.
“Realistically we need to raise another $150,000 approximately in pledges to get off to a good start and have enough working capital and funds for refurbishment,” said Mr McEvoy, whose day job involves running his osteopath business.
The next 10 weeks will be spent processing pledged funds, registering the cooperative, establishing a board of directors and then eventually exchanging contracts on the property.
A blueprint for other small towns?
Inspiration came from the successful effort to save the Lockington Hotel, in nearby Lockington, by way of a co-op takeover last year.
Mr McEvoy said small towns like Colbinabbin would increasingly be turning to the cooperative model in an attempt to keep local businesses, and the services they provide, afloat.
“That’s part of the reason we’re trying to take on this project – this is a way to step into a new age. Australia was historically built on cooperatives in rural areas and with corporatisation it’s made it harder and harder for people in rural communities to sustain business,” he said.
“We see this as a natural progress, even though it’s circling back, it’s enabling the capital to expand on the services and it’s about sharing the workload rather than everything falling back on one person, couple or family. It also reduces the risks associated with running a small business.”
A co-op run general store will have flow-on effects for the local economy, according to Mr McEvoy, with the new store to feature local produce.
“One of the things we want to promote with this venture is local produce. We’ve got a number of difference business ventures and local produce already in the area; there are a lot of wineries in the area,” he said.
A revitalised store would also help boost the town’s tourism, which has been growing on the back of other new ventures in the town.
“There’s a local brewery, there is a pub that is also booming under new ownership and we’ve also got the Silo Art Project – the largest in the country so far – that started recently.”
