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HfT transfers 18 charity shops to Barnardo's

Finance | Tania Mason | 9 Nov 2011

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has taken over 18 charity shops from HfT, the charity for adults with learning disabilities, as part of its shops expansion plan.

The 18-strong shop chain owned by HfT (formerly Home Farm Trust) was mainly in the North West and East Anglia, and some of the stores had been run by the charity for more than 20 years.

However, most of HfT’s income now comes from contracts with around 120 local authorities. The charity provides accommodation and community-based services to adults with learning disabilities, supporting around 1,700 people a year.

In its most recent financial year to March 2011, HfT’s overall income grew by about £1m to £41m, but it admitted in its annual report: “The performance of charity shops in 2010/11 was poor, with the net loss of £3,000 in 2009/10 deteriorating to a net loss of £93,000 in 2010/11. This was a reflection of poorer trading conditions across the network, and we do not foresee any short to medium-term improvement in this situation.”

Jacqui Gwilliam, director of communications and fundraising at HfT, told civilsociety.co.uk that the growing difficulty of obtaining donated stock had prompted the charity to review its shops portfolio.

She said: “We’re not a household brand, and most of our shops are not near where our services are, so we don’t have that local draw like a hospice or a local charity.  

“And because of the size of our shops division, we didn’t have the infrastructure like Barnardo’s and the bigger charities do, whereby they can do stock collections and warehousing and so on.  We didn’t have the same economies of scale.”

So HfT appointed a charity retail expert to conduct an independent review of the division and concluded that the best option was to offload it.  No money changed hands.

Barnardo's shops network expanding

Barnardo’s said its shops portfolio is currently in expansion mode so the deal fitted well within its strategy. In this year’s Charity Shops Survey, Barnardo’s topped the league table for the number of net new shops that opened during the 2010/11 year, at 50.

This increase took its total network of shops at its year-end to 430, and it was also among the top four charities planning to add the most new shops over the coming year.

During 2010/11, Barnardo’s saw its shops income grow by 11.5 per cent while profits were up 22.5 per cent.

All 44 permanent staff transferred from HfT to Barnardo’s as part of the deal. 

Gwilliam added that HfT would be looking to increase its fundraising income from other sources including trusts, legacies and regional fundraising.

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