In February 2022, over 500 Shareholders came together to raise £400,000 to enable our Community Benefit Society (CBS), Bampton Valley Community Pub (BVCP) to buy The Mardale Inn and bring it back to life.

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Since opening in July 2022, we're proud to say that the pub has acquired a positive reputation as a friendly local pub offering good food and drink, and six comfortable bedrooms. Today we operate a financially positive business run by professional managers on behalf of the CBS.

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As we near completion of our 3rd year of operation of The Mardale Inn, we are offering those who have previously expressed an interest to now acquire shares in our CBS. This is a limited tranche of shares which will be available until June 15th 2025.

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The primary goal of the offer is to permit some liquidity for existing Shareholder Members, ie so that they can withdraw their original investment if their personal circumstances demand after having held their shares for over 3 years. Withdrawal of shares is at the discretion of the Management Committee as specified in Clause 8.4 of the Rules of the Society (see full document below) and per the rules, can be funded from trading profits, reserves or new shares.

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The Management Committee plans to permit withdrawals in 2025 on the basis of new shares having been purchased by new Members. We believe it is important, for the time being, to retain trading profits and reserves to continue to invest in the pub to assure its long term future. New share purchases are therefore required to create some liquidity for those that need to withdraw at this time. (An example of investment to be funded from trading profits is the upgrading of the roof to avoid leaks and the inclusion of more solar panels to the rear to reduce our future energy costs.)

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As this is an informal offer, we are not producing an updated Share Prospectus or Business Plan. The original documents are available for review below, as is the report pack from the Annual Members Meeting (AMM) held in August 2024.

 

It will be noted in the original offer documents that we originally anticipated running The Mardale on a 'tenancy' model, ie where the CBS would let the building to an independent tenant (business). Today we in fact operate a 'managed' model employing professional managers to run the business on the CBS' behalf. More background on this change is included in the Chair's Report in the AMM August 2024 report pack. The Committee continues to believe that 'managed' delivers the best outcome for our community in our current circumstances.

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Shares in our CBS cost £100 each (the same cost as in February 2022 as CBS shares are asset locked). As with the original offer, between 1 and 250 Shares may be purchased now by a single Member. Our model also permits gifting of Shares to others including minors under the age of 18. 

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The Shares are identical to those that were offered in February 2022 except it should be noted that (i) they are no longer eligible for Social Interest Tax Relief (SITR) as this was withdrawn by the HMRC in 2023 and (ii) they will not be eligible for dividends until they have been held for a minimum of 2 years. (Existing Shareholder Members have not yet received dividends, due to investment being prioritised, and we believe it is fair to defer dividends for new Shareholders until they have been held for a similar period. Future dividends are of course not guaranteed).

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An easy read for the Shares model is in the 'Frequently Asked Questions' document provided in the next section.