03/11/2024
Dear friends, you may have noticed we’ve been a bit quiet recently, apologies but we have had a lot going on behind the scenes.
It's with a heavy heart but an optimistic soul that I have to tell you all that we were given notice to quit our Marshgate base by the end of October, and haven’t managed to secure a suitable and affordable place to relocate to.
Without being able to trade, we can’t go on, so we have to wind the company up. We have fought really hard to avoid this, and been given much support by friends and colleagues, but we have reached a point where we don’t have the means to continue.
We've had the most amazing 12 years in which we have gifted nearly half a million free books into children’s hands. We’ve had some brilliant successes and have overcome a number of obstacles ; being completely ravaged by a flood, the nightmare of trading after Brexit and we survived the Pandemic. We also saved two community libraries from closure and, most of all, created a dozen jobs and hundreds of volunteering opportunities in our local community.
We’ve had much fun, worked really hard, won awards, and earned over three million pounds through selling books that were destined for disposal and provided a safe place for people to come and relax.
Providing free children’s books over the past decade is something that we are so unbelievably proud of; the fact that our books still live in the houses that children brought them home to, became the norm for so many people from all walks of life and this was the biggest achievement and it just makes us all smile every time we think about it.
I cannot thank all my amazing staff enough, who over the years have worked so hard, often in desperately cold environments- without you this enterprise would never have started, never mind lasting 12 years. In addition, their unwavering support and love has been crucial as we made this difficult decision.
To all our friends, traders and on line fans and those of you who supported us day in and day out, thank you so much for believing in us and helping us to distribute so many children’s books.
Jim
