Business is booming for a Fife social enterprise which helped divert over 800 tonnes of furniture and electrical goods from landfill last year.
Furniture Plus, a charity-based reuse and recycle organisation, also undertook 7,500 collections throughout Fife and saw sales remain steady at around £500,000.
Now the enterprise, which has been helped by Business Gateway Fife, plans to further develop its training programme and open an IT suite by this summer at its Dysart base, as well as transfer its Inverkeithing warehouse and shop to Dunfermline by the end of the year.
Daniel Rous, Managing Director, Furniture Plus said: “When Furniture Plus was set up in 2001 its aim was to reduce furniture poverty through a low cost or discounted furniture reuse programme, and increase social inclusion through training and employability programmes in Fife – and that is exactly what we are doing.
“This year we will launch a home maintenance programme that will arm participants with new skills to help them back into employment and our IT suite will increase computer literacy and provide a neutral place to meet and look for work over the Internet.”
He added: “As a thriving social enterprise - with 36 paid employees - we need to ensure that as we grow we keep on top of things such as HR. That is why we turned to Business Gateway Fife. It was able to provide us with essential HR support which allowed us to standardise employee contracts and review our new start policies, two things we would not have been able to do on our own. Business Gateway’s support has been fantastic and its networking events have also helped increase awareness of what we do.”
David Howie, Business Adviser, Business Gateway said: “Although many of Furniture Plus’ employees deal with HR none had the expertise needed to ensure the different contracts – and policy booklet – meet with current legislation and guidelines. Via our Expert Help Programme, we sourced an external HR consultancy to work closely with the team and this resulted in everything being brought in line in just four days. We will continue to work with Furniture Plus as and when they need our support.”
Recently named ‘Fife’s Social Enterprise of the Year’, Furniture Plus has noted a shift in its customer base over the past two years which it believes will play an important part in its continued success.
Daniel said: “Although a great percentage of our customers are those in need we’re seeing an increase in custom from those opting to buy second hand furniture for ethical reasons. More and more people are looking for interesting, unique and restored pieces of furniture and by helping to increase our sales the growing green movement will allow us to continually pass on greater savings to those in need.”
For more information on how Business Gateway can help your business grow and prosper visit www.yourbusinessgateway.co.uk or call 0845 609 6611. Alternatively contact your local office on 01592 858333.