Community shops to use Ethecol's credit/debit card system
Howard Lake | 24 March 2011 | News
The Plunkett Community Shop Network, launched last week to support the UK’s 255 community owned shops, expects to save in the region of £1,300 per year for each shop by employing Ethecol’s card processing services. Founded by social entrepreneur Robert Ashton and credit card specialist Peter King, Ethecol are a social enterprise company who process credit and debit cards at greatly reduced rates for community concerns.
“Community run shops are often quite small and traditional card processors charge prohibitive rates,” said Ashton. “Ethecol offers a service solely to social enterprises and charges about half the rate of high street banks.
“Ethecol works with the Allied Irish Bank who will pay commission to the Plunkett Foundation, who will then reinvest that commission into further benefits for members of the Community Shop Network. Ethecol’s running costs are covered by the commission we receive when each retailer buys or leases their chip and pin terminal.”
With an estimated 400 village shop closures each year, community shops are effectively replacing almost 5% of all village shops closures.
The Plunkett Foundation helps rural communities to take control of the issues affecting them through community ownership. The focus of their work is helping rural communities to set up and run community-owned shops and a wide range of other community-owned rural services.
www.plunkett.uk.net
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.