AN outdoor education centre that was closed five years ago because its council owners said it was too expensive to run has been turned into one of the success stories of the social enterprise movement.
Retired businessman George Bruce took on the Ardroy centre in Lochgoilhead, Argyll and Bute, with just £100 in the bank and set it up as a charity and social enterprise (SE), established to provide employment and a service to the community, in October 2011.
The centre, once run by Fife Council, now has 21 staff – a 75 per cent increase on five years ago – and an annual turnover of £600,000, with 2,500 schoolchildren visiting it this year. Bruce has just stepped down and handed the running to new chief executive Diane Cameron, formerly a worker for Scotland’s Sport SEN, or social enterprise network.
Bruce is happy that he has left the business on a sound footing: “We managed with a combination of grant and loan to buy the centre from Fife Council,” he said.
“We have built a conservatory on the dining room to give us an extra meeting area, we have added a biomass boiler, and last year we actually made a small profit.
“Being a social enterprise has meant the staff are working for the ideals and principles of the centre. They aren’t seeing any profits being taken by an owner or shareholder, so there’s not that contention.”
Bruce said SE status has meant more help and support from the Government, and from the general public, who can see the benefits the centre is bringing to communities.
SE status also means the centre has been able to tap into funding sources such as charitable foundations that would not have been available under local government ownership.
The centre provides adventure and educational weeks and long weekends for children mainly from the primary six and seven age group. Activities include climbing, abseiling, canoeing and gorge-walking, with a skilful and experienced team of outdoor instructors.
Most of the clients are still from Fife, and many are the schools that used the centre when it was under local authority control.
Crucially, the centre focuses on the educational aspect of outdoor experiences, tailoring activities and learning to the curriculum needs of individual schools and pupils.
Instructors and teachers who use the centre say children who are less confident academically can often shine in the physical and problem-solving challenges they face at Ardroy.
In the summer holidays, the centre also hosts a Government initiative for hundreds of teenagers from the north of England, called Challenge Network. As well as building the business, the buyout has been a godsend for staff.
Instructor Cam Rivers, who has worked at the centre for eight years, said: “We have just had another great week with these young people and it’s because Ardroy was kept going that we’re able to do this and that I have the chance to go on working in such a great place.”
Kitchen assistant Peter McNab said: “It’s much more professional. There’s a lot more work because they have brought the numbers up, but that’s great because the whole place is more secure now. For 10 years
I ran the local taxi here and that didn’t make a profit: if this place wasn’t here now I wouldn’t have been still in Lochgoilhead.”
Cameron said: “We need to look at alternative markets now but the team here has done a lot of the capital work that needed doing and we don’t need to worry about that sort of thing now.
“The reality is that organisations such as Ardroy, and a lot of others that I have worked with, have had to become social enterprises, otherwise they just wouldn’t be here any more.
“A social enterprise is like any business and has to be properly run, but it can also look to the community as a focus too.”
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