by John Cleary, Board Treasurer
Over the last few years, reviewing the finances of the Co-op has been a bit stressful for the Board, staff and the Co-op community. There was so much uncertainty about whether we had the financial and management capacity to pull off this big and exciting expansion project. The good (great!) news is that we did it! While we will continue to face challenges, we survived the transition and are now able to focus on growing the business at the new location. The support from the Vermont Community Foundation, Vermont Economic Development Authority, and the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast was amazing and essential. They believed in us—but only because YOU, the members, believed in our Co-op. The capital campaign that raised over $500,000 in member loans and donations gave these lenders the assurance that this project had a future.
The fundamentals of the business are stronger today because we now own a larger, well-located business with a talented and committed staff and have tremendous potential to grow and serve even more community members. While we increased our debt load significantly, we now have a road map to a successful future. We also survived our first winter season when sales always slow and are now entering the busy spring season when monthly revenue increases significantly. We can’t wait to see you in the greenhouse! We now need to focus on continuing to grow the business to finance the necessary improvements to the building, service our debt and have adequate cash flow for operations.
Annual revenue for 2024 was approximately $1.2 million which included several months of a difficult transition period to Route 2 during the fall/winter while the village store continued to operate. Sales were down at both locations during this transition and labor costs were high. The consolidation of all operations at one location has helped to streamline the business and improve the labor budget. We are now seeing significant growth in monthly sales revenue. The budget for 2025 shows estimated gross revenue of approximately $2.5 million. Both our assets and liabilities have increased significantly. Having adequate cash on hand for inventory and unexpected capital needs continues to be a major focus for the staff and Board. There is still a lot of hard work ahead, but I have confidence in both the Co-op and our community.
Information about Special Membership Meetings on May 11th & 12th, can be found here: https://plainfieldcoop.com/special-membership-meetings-sale-of-153-main-street
