Know Your Board: David King

As I start my 2^nd term (3^rd year) on the Board of the Richmond Food Co-op, I am focused on opening the store. 

Our membership number (650+) shows us to be rounding the clubhouse turn, with 800 members being the next furlong marker in the financing of our grocery store.  As cooperative, we need a critical mass of members to ensure that our member loan campaign can succeed; reaching our member loan target in turn will allow us to secure a commercial loan.  We also need a critical mass of members to ensure that we meet our sales projections once the store is open.

This year, the Board will take very seriously our role as your representatives as we commit the Co-op to a financing plan for opening the store.  Nothing could be more important.  We are confident that, with the assistance of Michele and our outside consultants from the Food Co-op Initiative, we can and will get this right.

As we enter the season of planting after a long winter – very enjoyable to those of us who love snow – I get a strong feeling (in addition to the numbers) that the Co-op grocery store will soon be a reality!

-David King, Richmond Food Co-op Board Member

Know Your Board: David King

The vision for the Richmond Food Co-op resonates with me because at its core it boils down to two things:  a community and a grocery store. 

By a community, I mean a group of like-minded people with similar values – in this case, healthy and exciting living.  Too much of what is important to me in society has been “taken over” by large commercial interests – food, clothing, music, entertainment.  Fortunately, in recent years there is a trend back to local:  in Richmond we can again find really good local live music, theatre, and restaurants.  Co-op member/owners care about such things.  We are a community.

Sources of locally produced and healthy foods are expanding, too, which for those of us who like to cook is a promising trend.  It’s not easy, though:  “What day of the week is it – okay, Wednesday, I’ll drop by Lakeside Farmer’s Market.”  The evolution from supermarkets (with very little in the way of local foods) to specialty (and expensive) organic grocery stores to farmers’ markets to CSA’s should now be….a grocery store that sources IT ALL, every day, all day.  This is a an important component of the vision.

If you are reading this, here’s the most important thing you can do this week:  find one person and invite him/her to join the Richmond Food Co-op.  Thank you!

-David King, Board Secretary

Co-op Capitalization Timeline

On Friday we got a call from the State confirming that our incorporation is finalized and we are officially in business. As a cooperative, our community of member/owners will serve as the foundation for our capital campaign, and the key factor in taking us from a highly researched and developed idea to a brick and mortar store open for business.

Our Board has developed a start-up budget that calls for us to raise $1.5 million in capital to open the Richmond Food Cooperative.  The capital plan depends on “member equity” (at $125 equity + $25 joining fee each) from 800 member/owners, to raise a total of $120,000.  How soon we open the Co-op depends on how quickly we can sign up these 800 member/owners.

Our hoped-for recruitment schedule is to sign up 100 member/owners per month, starting this month.  This would allow us to open in September (a 9-month timeline).  In order to be realistic, we have also developed back-up timelines:  12 months (opening in December, 2013) and 18 months (opening in June, 2014).

A second step in financing the Co-op is to set up a member loan campaign. Once we have reached our halfway point of 400 member/owners, we will invite members to further support start up costs by lending money to the Co-op. These loans would be money that the Co-op pays back, with interest, over a set schedule.  Our budget calls for us to raise $600,000 in this way. While not provided by all members, member loans represent commitment and engagement in the co-op on behalf of its members, and will serve as a local investing opportunity to make this a truly Richmond-based venture.

            

We also expect to raise capital from the proceeds from fundraising events, government economic development funds, crowd sourcing, landlord improvements, contributed product, vendor credit, etc.

           

The most vital source of capital is a commercial loan.  In our budget, we are planning for about 35% of our total capital to come from a bank loan.  We must, however, have secured the member equity and member loans before we can seek a bank loan.

            

So, what we are doing right now – recruiting Co-op member/owners – is perhaps the most crucial part of our capital plan, and our timeline for opening the doors of the Richmond Food Cooperative depends on it! It starts with you!

-David King, Board Treasurer