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SERVICE WITH A SMILE: Amelia Bethell and Jessie Davis at the Hub shop.
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If the Hub can pull off their plans to create an up-to-date equivalent of the good old-fashioned corner grocery store in their Eaglehawk premises, it may become a blueprint for similar enterprises across the state.
“We’re being viewed as a model of what this can become,” the Hub’s manager Gavin Fisher says.
“It is a risk to go there, but the plan is to become self-sustaining within a year.
“If this goes right, this can be a model that can be duplicated statewide.”
The Hub opened four years ago in an empty milkbar with a residence attached, redeveloped by Bendigo Access Employment with funding from community renewal schemes.
The idea was to create not only a milkbar so locals would not always have to go a couple of kilometres to Eaglehawk’s main street or into Long Gully, but also meeting rooms, a homework centre and a tool-equipped workshed.
With that round of funding now completed, and the centre needing to put itself into a solid – and sustainable – financial position, the plans are to create a social-enterprise store as an adjunct to their already established catering business.
“It has always been our philosophy to make a difference in the community you’re in,” Access Employment director Michael Langdon says.
“In this part of Eaglehawk there is a strong presence of public housing, with new houses being added all the time, so it makes sense to create a social enterprise arm of our existing catering business.
“We must stem the tide on the losses the centre is making, and while this model is not aimed
at making huge profits, we do want it to be built on strong business principles so that it can pay for itself.”
A couple of months ago, the Hub took over the cafe at the Myers Street end of St Andrews Avenue, in the BTEC building.
They moved their catering business from Bright Street, to the larger kitchen facilities in central Bendigo, which has also improved their ability to deliver to more addresses.
“I can now make five catering deliveries driving about 13 kilometres,” Mr Fisher says. “When I delivered from our Eaglehawk premises, it could take me about 75 kilometres to do the same run.”
From Access Employment’s point of view, the expansion into the city cafe has given them the opportunity to employ people with disabilities, which extends their core business of training in order to find placements in the workforce for their clients.
Right now, Mr Fisher is putting the finishing touches to his business plan for the social-trading enterprise they are banking on to lift the Hub out of a precarious financial situation and into self-sustaining profitability.
“Finding the sources of funding isn’t easy,” Mr Langdon says.
“Social enterprise is in its infancy in Australia, although it’s better developed in England, where governments are really getting behind the concept.
“The concept is you need to be sustainable, so you can be viable in the long-term.”
The Hub is being mentored by Godfrey Agius at Melbourne-based Social Traders, which was set up to encourage the development of commercially viable social enterprises in Australia.
Mr Fisher says he is “quietly confident” that it is all developing in the right direction, and that the store will be able to build on the catering side of their increasingly busy business.
“We hope to be able to make it a mini-mart that’s useful to the community, like the old-fashioned general store,” he says.
“We’re looking at setting up a veggie exchange too, because a lot of people grow vegetables in this area, and we also want to promote healthy eating.”
Access Employment already runs the PepperGreen Farm site at Thunder Street in North Bendigo, where the popularity of the veggie patch has inspired them to think about how they can market vegetables within the community.
Mr Fisher knows there is strong competition for the shopping dollar but he hopes to be able to offer the locals a good deal on their bread and milk, as well as the advantage of super-fresh vegetables and other products.
“Even in the milkbar, we noticed that when the multi-nationals were cutting the price of bread and milk it had an effect on our business, but we hope we will be able to do a deal with a local supplier so we are competitive,” he says.
He is working the figures to make sure his social trading enterprise has the best opportunity to succeed.
“You have a room being used for five or six hours a week, that isn’t economical,” he says.
He is also taking a close look at the use of the Men’s Shed alongside the Hub. With the new Long Gully shed open, Mr Fisher believes it would be more profitable for the Hub’s Men’s Shed to concentrate on repair work, so you could fix your lawnmower or other equipment there.
That’s a discussion currently under way: woodworker Gary Perry, hard at work this week making nesting boxes for regional parks, is keen to see the facility stay as it is.
“I don’t want to go over into Long Gully,” he says.
“This is good here. Gets me out of the house, and keeps me busy.”
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