Shelter plans big expansion in charity shops

Finance | Gareth Jones | 5 Jul 2011

Shelter is planning to make “a significant increase” to its number of charity shops in the next few years, and will pilot a new shop format incorporating an advice centre within the retail space.

The homelessness charity opened 11 shops in the 2010/11 financial year, taking it to a total of 97. Although it could not be specific about how many it will open during its expansion phase, in the next year it estimates it will open another 17.

The plans coincide with the appointment at the start of this year of Richard Sweet as director of trading. Sweet’s CV includes 23 years at Marks and Spencer in roles including head of international business development and managing director of the company’s Chinese operations.

He told civilsociety.co.uk: “Our shops have traded successfully and profitably for a number of years and as such we are planning to expand our retail chain.

“In particular we are not well represented in London and other key cities, which presents an opportunity for the charity.

“Obviously the retail market is challenging at the moment so we will be proceeding with a strong degree of caution.”

Service provision

Shelter is also taking an innovative approach in a new London-based store by incorporating a housing advice office, providing advice and support on housing, debt and welfare for its service users alongside the shop's traditional retail activity.

Sweet said: “This is likely to incorporate face-to-face advice around two and a half days per week, supplemented by access to web and telephone support.

“We hope this new model will enable us to help more people in housing need in a very cost-efficient way.”

Directory: Shelter

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.