Social Enterprise
Social enterprises are businesses driven by a social or environmental purpose. There are 62,000 of them in the UK, contributing over £24bn to the economy, employing approximately 800,000 people (2005-2007 data from the Annual Survey of Small Business UK).
As with all businesses, they compete to deliver goods and services. The difference is that social purpose is at the very heart of what they do, and the profits they make are reinvested towards achieving that purpose. Well known examples of social enterprises include The Big Issue, Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen, and the fair-trade chocolate company Divine Chocolate.
As a charitable company, Active Luton are proud to be able to contribute towards the goals an objectives of social enterprises and we have a number of current projects already running.
The government defines social enterprises as "businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners."
Social enterprises operated by Active luton include Moonbucks, a community cafe, Sports Traider, a charity sports shop based in the Mall in Luton and Maintenance Mates a small operation that carries out grounds maintenance.
For further information on our social enterprises
- check the links on the left hand side
- e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Call the Active Communities team 01582 400272
