A big year. Unicorn’s landlords decided to sell up, so we had three options – close, relocate, or buy the whole site ourselves. We all know how that ended! An amazing outpouring of support from our community enabled us to raise £350,000 in customer loanstock, which together with other loan finance made us the… Read More »
2001
Year five, and sales had already grown from £275,000 in the first full year of trading to well over £1 million.Still sharing the ground floor with another organisation, we were tucked away in the side of the building furthest from the main road, so couldn’t be seen unless you knew to look. We were… Read More »
1996
Finding suitable premises – large enough to accommodate the bulk-buying and supermarket-scale range that was so fundamental to the vision, and yet central enough to provide sufficient passing trade – was a major challenge. The (now two-person) working group scoured South Manchester….if things had been different, Unicorn could have ended up in Levenshulme, Withington,… Read More »
1995
Unicorn was formally registered on 8th August 1995, but whilst Manchester’s Oasis battled Blur in the pop charts, Unicorn’s working group were battling a somewhat sceptical reception from potential sources of finance for this co-operative enterprise, from an audience unfamiliar with worker co-operatives, and unconvinced by the viability of the radical retail model they were… Read More »
1994
Fed up with the mass-produced food they found at the supermarkets and the expensive offerings of most small health-food shops, Adam York, Griff Dines and Ian Browne started talking about creating some kind of alternative way back in 1994. With the Daily Bread co-op in Northampton providing a practical inspiration and a great source of… Read More »
