Jordans Village Community Store Ltd

Minutes for Annual Members Meeting (AMM) for the year 2024 to 25

Held Tuesday, 17th March 2026

Present:

Committee:  Paul Wright, Diana Kyvhylo, Angela Hamme, Phil George, Kate Ritchie, Louise Daughtry

Managers:    Sally Wilson, Lesley Bantock, Jill Jeffery (not present)

Members & Villagers:  N. Morgan, C. Waymouth,  R. Hall,  S Orchard, Fields,  Mary Bellamy, Cork, F.Bagneris, Graham Short, Georgina Wright, Gordon Hamme, John Rogers, Kim Edwards, S&G Glover, Paul Wilson, Heather Rowe, Eva Marzec, Janet Fields, Marc Henri Bagneris, Esther Cavett.

Apologies:  K. Bradnock,  Bunce, Janet & Alan Sealy,  Mr & Mrs Newport, Phil & Vanessa Hughes, Ali Cork, Ian Gordon, Pat Holdsworth.

 

1. The Chairman asked for approval of the Minutes from last year’s meeting --- Paul Wilson was the mover and Paul Wright the seconder. Approval granted by all.

2. The Chairman, Paul Wright, presented the Chairman’s report (copy below).

3. Sally Wilson presented the Managers report (copy below).

4. The Financial report was presented and approved.

5. Approval for the submission of the accounts was moved by Paul Wilson and seconded by Colin Cork.

6. The re-election of Phil George and Angela Hamme was approved by all members.

7. Paul Wright reported on the action taken for last year’s suggestion.

8. Members and villagers made a number of suggestion at end of the meeting (list below).

9. Paul Wright closed the meeting and thanked members and villagers for their support.

Chairman’s Report for the Management Committee for the year ending 30th September 2025
Paul Wright (Chairman), Diana Kyvhylo (Treasurer), Angela Hamme (Secretary), Phil George, Kate Richie, Louise Daughtrey.
As this is my first report as Chairman of the Committee, I would like to thank my predecessor Phil Hughes for his sterling work as Chairman in leading the Committee through the difficult period of Covid and the subsequent increased pressure from inflation and the knock-on effect of increased cost of stock. Paul Wilson has been the Treasurer for many years and during the year he was eventually able to hand over his responsibilities to Diana Kyvhylo. I would like to thank both Paul, for his invaluable service, and Diana, for agreeing to take over the role going forward. Finally, following the end of the financial year, another stalwart of the Committee, Graham Short retired after over 20 years of dedicated service to the shop. His tireless work in organising the rota of volunteers and other helpers has ensured the smooth running of the shop service and that the shop managers have the help and support that they need. Kate Ritchie has kindly agreed to take on these duties from Graham, which is very much appreciated.
We wouldn’t have been able to deliver our shop service to the Jordans community this year without the tremendous contribution from our volunteers who continue to make a huge input to the continuing existence of the shop. We always have a need for more volunteers, so if you would like to join us, whether to pop in for a few hours for a variety of jobs, or to work occasionally behind the counter, then we would love to hear from you. Please come into the shop or drop and email to enquiries@jordansvillagestore.co.uk. While on the subject of help, as noted above we have lost a couple of valued members of the Committee over the last couple of years, and would very much appreciate anyone who feels able to devote some time to support the vital work of the shop to join the Committee. I look forward to hearing from you!
During the year, as a result of fundraising events that took place in previous years, the Committee has been able to invest further in the shop. To complement the smart new counter area, we purchased a new chiller cabinet for the fruit and vegetables, as well as new and improved signage to advertise products. Sally Wilson and the shop management team have more plans for improving the facilities in the shop and the experience of customers, so please look out for details of these during the year.
Unfortunately, we continue to be operating in a challenging economic environment, with many food prices rising faster than the general level of inflation. Staff salaries have increased significantly in line with the Government’s increase in the National Living Wage, a trend that is likely to continue each year. While we have managed to hold the level of our sales, these increased costs, as well has higher depreciation charges on the new fixtures and fittings, have resulted in an erosion of our margin, resulting in a small overall trading loss for the year (See the Financial Report for further details).
No significant fundraising events have taken place during the year but we again held our Christmas raffle and special thanks to Angela for their contribution to this. We continue to encourage use of the Easyfundraising app and web site, as this raises monies when goods are bought on the websites of most of the major retailers, including Amazon with no cost to the shop or supporters. We continue to benefit from sales to The Jolly Quaker. It continues to be extremely popular and especially with the occasional pop-up kitchen; thanks to Francesca Bagneris and Paul Wilson for their creativity and commitment. Our fundraising is further enhanced by those of you who generously make a contribution via Amenity Donations, with £7,812 contributed to the shop over the year, which is slightly down on last year. I would like to thank all those who support our shop either with one-off or regular donations as this is a most important source of income for the shop and ensures we can remain open to serve the village.
The committee and staff continue to seek improvements and careful selection of products. Our objective is to continue to stock those products that our customers want but reduce wastage and surplus stock. I would like to thank our ‘permanent staff’ of Anita, Lesley, Terry, Jill, Sally, Pippa, Faith, Lauren and Rosemary for their flexibility and commitment in keeping the shop a wonderfully welcoming and an enjoyable place to shop. Do please drop in to the shop and give it your support as it performs a vital function in our unique community. On a personal note, I would like to thank all of the Committee who give their time, effort and continued support to ensure that the shop continues to run in the best way possible.
Paul Wright, Chairman,
On behalf of the Management Committee of Jordans Village Community Store Ltd.

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Managers’ Report 2026

Firstly we are delighted to report another successful Christmas which generated an increase on last year of over £500 in gross profit in sales, despite overall number of single transactions going down. We were given lots of praise for the range and variety that we were able to offer and the fact that we have only a few leftover items to put in our January sale is testament to how well we know our customers. We must also take this opportunity to thank Gabby Burke (assisted by a small but perfectly formed team of volunteers) for her wonderful shop Christmas decorations which added such a festive feel.

 

Staffing has been an issue this year because of a number of long absences due to illness. We were lucky enough to find 2 new employees who have been prepared to do supply cover, both local and both of whom have quickly picked up the intricacies of the way that the shop works. Many thanks to Lauren Khouri and Faith Key for performing this vital role for us. We have also been able to recruit a couple of extra volunteers to the counter volunteer team; again a vital part of enabling the shop to keep running. This said, there has been a worrying steady downward trend in individual transactions in the shop, from a peak of 34,000 in 2022, down to just under 33,000 in 2025. This coupled with the fact that we had a difficult staffing year, will account for some of the losses that we have incurred. There has also been a significant amount of investment in the shop. Most of these improvements were absolutely necessary and where possible, used fundraising and donations to supplement the costs. Looking to the future, however, we need to focus on how best to reduce overall costs and increase footfall.

 

 Shop improvements have included replacing the fruit and vegetable chiller with a unit that not only displays our goods better, but has significantly lower running costs due to being more efficient and, crucially, doors which prevent the heat gain and keep the contents fresher for longer. We also needed to upgrade our electric circuit board in line with modern regulations and finally got our air conditioning unit cleaned and serviced which will allow us to keep the goods in store at a better temperature during the increasingly hot summers. Further improvements included internal and external decorating and general improvements to the fabric of the building which has been starting to deteriorate. We also acquired a wonderful new blackboard for behind the counter which was beautifully hand-painted by Eva Marzec. A new external coffee sign will hopefully bring in even more customers to sample our wide variety of hot drinks and an extra rear storage unit allows us to store our cardboard and paper in the dry until it can be taken away and make it more easily accessible.

 

Looking to the future we have now started work, after many requests, on creating a small internal coffee corner where customers will be able to sit in comfort in more inclement weather. This has required a reasonable amount of forethought starting with reducing our stationery stock and then at the beginning of March, the shop committee and a few staff spent an afternoon shifting stock and shelving around in order to create a space to set up a some tables and chairs. This is still a work in progress as we need to work on sprucing up the newly created area, but we feel that that without compromising the existing shop, we will be introducing another valuable asset to our village.

 

We are hugely grateful to be supported by a wonderful committee who help share the responsibility that comes with running a community shop which not only must have stock that an ever changing customer base requires, but provides a welcome environment to go for company, local news, the opportunity to learn new skills and so much more. We must also thank our volunteers: from the teams who do the weekly delivery to Clinimed and who take our recycling to the dump, to the weekly, monthly and one-off people who turn up to do their part: serving behind the counter, stocking shelves, cleaning, stock-taking, product date checking and much more. Our staff: Anita, Terry, Lauren and Faith, too, go above and beyond their contract: sourcing unusual stock, delivering purchases and looking out for customers, and deserve a massive thank you. Finally we must thank our loyal customers and community who help to keep Jordans Village Community Store the wonderful place that it is.

Sally, Lesley and Jill

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Suggestion List from March 2026 Annual Members Meeting.

1.    Kim Edwards suggested umbrellas for the tables on the village green. 

2.    Georgian Wright suggested creating a meal deal to encourage builders or visitors to the village -- i.e. a discount for several items bought together.

3.    John Rogers suggested a reduction in the front hedge to create a better view of the shop and offer a better view for children to see the road and for drivers to see them.