| On 14th May 2002, the NewStart committee undertook a 360 mile journey to Cornwall to visit social firms in the region. There are a number of full and emerging social firms in this area. Cornwall suffers from high levels of unemployment after the collapse of the tin mining industry and the decline in fishing. Affordable housing is not readily available as 80% of property in Cornwall is owned by people from outside the region. This makes it particularly hard for people with disabilities to find local work. We visited Tremorvah Industries which was established fifty years ago in Truro. Tremorvah Industries aims to maximise employment and development opportunities for people with a disability in a supportive environment. Forty out of the fifty staff have a recognised disability and all are paid a full market wage for their work. Over 70% of Tremorvah’s earnings come from its own business activities, with some top up from the Social Services and through the Workstep programme. |
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| Tremorvah’s businesses covers a wide range of activities. They have an extensive showroom selling a variety of mobility aids and a Lifestyle Centre featuring home living aids that can be tried out and tested. They also have a range of stair lifts. They undertake motor vehicle adaptions and repair mobility appliances. The textile department produces a range of workwear and sportswear, and offers an embroidery service. They also have a linen inspection and folding service, a packaging service and they undertake carpentry and upholstery. |
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They are currently looking into smart appliances, such as video door entry and security devices. We particularly liked the fact that Tremorvah were selling products aimed at people with disabilities and helping to improve their lifestyle. They were also a fully operational social firm that had created a very pleasant working environment. |
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| We next visited Lyonesse Trading Places who are an emerging social firm in the Penzance area. They have developed under Pentreath Industries, originally a hospital trust. They provide supportive employment for people with severe or enduring mental ill health. They had a total of 45 trainees, all referred through the health care service from whom they receive funding. However, as they were not very profitable in any one area, they only paid a small wage and help towards transport cost to work. They also employ seven full time staff. Lyonesse operated four main businesses from their Penzance base. They produce the quarterly Cornish World magazine, relating to all aspects of Cornish heritage. It has 5500 subscribers, many of whom are based abroad and it is also sold through local outlets, such as supermarkets. They also sell CD’s, books and cassettes through the magazine. The magazine has an internet site featuring some of the articles. They provide a garden landscaping service to private individuals, which is very busy. They operate a bike hire company called Pedals that also repairs and reconditions bikes for the local community. The fourth operation is called Neat Document Management. This is an information retrieval service which involves scanning and indexing images which are held on a database and then put to CD to reduce the amount of paperwork a company needs to store. This was a very busy operation and an area in which many of their trainees work in. |
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| The lessons we learnt from our visit is that a social firm should not rely on one customer or service in case you loose this. It is better to diversify and have a range of activities. Also, in order to function commercially and make your own decisions, you need to be independent from your umbrella organization. You do however have to be profitable to be able to break away from the funding they provide. |
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