Case Study

Founded in 1997 Furniture Finders of Winsford (FFoW) is a furniture re-use and recycling social enterprise based in Winsford, Cheshire.

They say:

We are passionate about our social and environmental well-being and believe that Social Enterprise is the business model for the 21st century. We want to raise expectations, help people to feel better about themselves and become more active members of their community. We do this by providing ethical business services; excellent work based learning; work experience to those in need; and, development opportunities to staff and volunteers. We help to eliminate landfill waste and long-term unemployment by reducing, reusing and recycling what we use, providing real work experience, personal development and new employment opportunities.

The Story so Far

When FFoW approached REalliance, they were already moving towards financial sustainability in their core activities of furniture reuse and, the more recently introduced, training.

Operating out of a large warehouse on a local industrial estate this not for profit business has strong social aims.  However, to ensure their long term viability, they needed to generate income and were considering offering ‘paid for’ services to their local business community.  

Market research undertaken by FFoW and the local council has identified a significant gap in the market for small business waste reuse and recycling. Their base on Winsford Industrial Estate offers a pool of potential customers reducing collection costs and carbon impact.

They intended to provide a "one stop shop" for recyclables for their local SME community. This could involve paper, cardboard, plastic, print cartridges and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).  FFoW had built good relationships with local businesses and discussed the new service and pricing structure with a number of sample businesses. They are beginning to collect cardboard from the closest shopping mall and local nursing home.

The next step was to formally set up a new reuse and recycling division, under the auspices of FFoW.

Capacity Building Intervention

REalliance was approached to provide a package of intervention support in the form of interim management during the 6 month start-up period. This would fund a senior manager, to increase the sales and operational capacity of FFoW. 

The intention was to enable FFoW:

• to fully engage with the local private commercial sector
• establish the new venture
• implement their sustainable growth strategy
•  increase their materials diversion capacity and
• open up new areas of training and skills enhancement

The Interim Manager would:

• look at establishling a commercial waste service as a professional dependable service to SME’s in Cheshire.
• develop and expand the customer base
• develop a marketing and expansion programme
• develop the collection infrastructure and operational strategy based on local experience
• explore new markets for the materials in order to improve the sustainability of the service
• explore the development of new waste streams for re-use and recycling from commercial sources and
• explore innovative ways commercial materials can be used to diversify the activities of the parent organisation

The Six Month Start-up phase

The Interim Manager appointed had been involved with the social enterprise for some time and so ‘hit the ground running’ an important consideration for a short, intensive intervention such as this.

His first action was to look outside, at the opportunities facing the organisation and interviewed a number of local businesses.  Alongside this, he worked within the organisation to calculate their current maximum capacity, examining manpower, storage and transport and processes.

Early on, the opportunity to collect cardboard from the local Shopping Centre presented itself followed by a nursing home and a few local shops. After negotiations with a waste broker and the largest independent retailer in Cheshire, a service was started to collect furniture, cardboard and wrapping plastic. Despite improvements to the handling processes for baling the cardboard, this large contract quickly created capacity problems that put further expansion on hold.

Where we are now

At the time of writing many new training placements are in place including 23 Future Jobs Placements.  One vehicle is collecting commercial furniture every day and so much cardboard that the baler has a difficult job keeping up.  FFoW have signed up 1 big customer and 3 smaller ones but most of the current capacity, time and effort are spent servicing the single large customer.  FFoW are already 75% of the way to achieving their income increase target.  The key to their success so far has been the contract for commercial card, plastic and, crucially, furniture from 1 customer. This means they are satisfying their core activity, while streamlining the development of their commercial waste venture. In addition they are working with Groundwork to look at opportunities on their local Industrial Estate for a “milk run” collection.

The aspiration of diverting an additional 460 tonnes from landfill is looking a bit optimistic. The latest documented month produced 6 tonnes of commercial waste from the existing customers. The main problem is one of capacity. Set up with the intention of servicing a large number of SME’s on the local trading estate the signing up of a large customer some 30 miles distant is proving a mixed blessing.  The material supplied, furniture and cardboard is in sufficient quantities to require collection every, and sometimes twice, a day.  The baling process is struggling to cope with the throughput and there are storage issues as well.

Developing the commercial waste collection project and thus bringing in the service fees from extending the collection rounds is currently stagnating until the capacity issue can be resolved. The demand is out there and many businesses are waiting for a collection service but larger premises and another or larger vehicle will both take capital resource upfront before the revenues are available to support their purchase.

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Case Study by Kate Lord