Who's Who

The staff and board members at The Green Valley Grocer.

Carol Wood

Central to the entire operation, Carol is our shop manager. She was the main employee at The Artichoke and she has a wealth of relevant knowledge and experience that has been vital to our success. She knows the business, she knows the customers, and we all look to her for her expertise and common sense insight into what will work, and what won't. She captains the ship every day from  Monday to Friday.

The Staff Team

Working alongside Carol, we have Heather Carter, Helen Coxan, Jim Dooher, Ange Dews, Marie-Claire Kidd, Jane McGrath and Freddie Best. You'll see Helen in the shop on Mondays and Tuesdays and she is our chief 'titivator'. Jim is the 'early bird'. He drives our big van (Moby) on the early morning trips to the wholesale market, selecting the best quality and freshness that we can get - if you want something special, Jim's the man to ask.  He is also developing our home delivery service.

We're lucky to still have Heather on our staff team, she has taken on some of the stock ordering and displays, and also deputises for Carol when she's on holiday. She's most likely to be discussing Rugby League and the Huddersfield Giants with our regular customers.

Ange works on Fridays and alternate Thursdays and Saturdays, and often brings her own produce in to sell, as well as providing admin/bookkeeping support to Carol. Carol and Ange are also volunteers for the Slaithwaite Meals on Wheels service.

Marie-Claire is a journalist by profession and works in the shop on alternate Thursdays and Saturdays. She has recently taken on the role of Local Food Co-ordinator, so will be linking up with all our local growers and producers who supply the shop, aiming to increase the amount of local produce we offer.

Jane has become invaluable to the GVG this year, producing delicious cakes and buns - baked early in the mornings and delivered still warm - and is a real expert in giving customers advice about recipes and ingredients. You can sample some of her more innovative inventions on Saturday mornings and take a copy of the recipes home to try.

Freddie is our 'Saturday boy', keeping the shelves stocked up on our busiest day. 

We must mention here our valued volunteers - Jill Stein has helped us from the beginning, and Tom and David from Waves have joined us this year.

Current Board Members

• Lee Corner: 
• Ange Dews: Ange has joined Carol as a staff representative on the board. She has expertise and interest in business management and development and has quickly become instrumental in helping to set up the systems that keep the shop ticking over.  She has also filled in as the buyer at market when Jim has been away, and loves that side of the job.
• Tony Edwards:
• Camilla Govan: Camilla is keen to develop our connections with local growers and producers. She has a background in community economic regeneration, most recently with Action for Market Towns, and solid experience in social enterprise. She is currently vice chair of the Marsden and Slaithwaite Renaissance steering group.
• Caroline Hall: 
  
• Richard Izzard: Richard participated in the first public meeting we held in early May 09, and approached us straight after the meeting, dead keen to get involved. He has retail experience, and is also active in the local scouting movement. Richard is part of the Moonraking Festival team.
• Graham Mitchell: Graham, working in partnership with his wife Helen, runs MC3, a small internet consultancy from the first floor of 14 Carr Lane (which is how he got to learn of the opportunity to create the Green Valley Grocer). He has been involved in cooperative enterprise since the 1980s, has extensive experience of starting and running small businesses, and is a strong supporter of the cooperative business model, seeing it as a fairer more sustainable way of doing business. Graham is also a member of the Marsden and Slaithwaite Renaissance steering group.
• Paul Salveson:
• Jenny Stein: Jenny acts as Treasurer for the Cooperative, and comes to the steering group with solid and relevant experience as a finance specialist with Suma, the UK's largest employee owned cooperative, based in Elland.
• Susan Thomas:  Susan is our environmental guru, providing advice on how to make the business greener.  She fronted our involvement in "Greener Together", an initiative aimed at getting us all to act a little more responsibly with regard to our use of power, oil and water.  Susan also has many years experience as a retailer.
• Jon Walker: Jon and Graham were working together on a project to network people involved in food projects as part of Transition Towns initiatives using the web, when it became clear that The Artichoke was close to closure. Jon has many years experience in cooperatives and the food business, both in wholesaling and distribution, and in retailing, so it was natural, to say nothing of being extremely useful, for him to be involved. He is taking responsibility for the refurbishment and refitting of the premises, amongst other things, and would have been a founder director of Slaithwaite Cooperative Limited if he had been available to sign the papers. Jon is the treasurer of Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Towns initiative (MASTT).
  

   

The Handmade Bakery

Right from the start we have been working closely with the team at The Handmade Bakery. Currently a nine strong employee-owned cooperative business, the bakery began trading in early 2009 out of borrowed kitchen and retail space in Mozzarella's in Marsden, producing and retailing some of the best bread we have ever tasted.

Their need for space coincided neatly with the opportunity to do something at 14 Carr Lane in Slaithwaite, and it is a brilliant symbiotic relationship that has strengthened both businesses. The Handmade Bakery has rapidly built a strong reputation and following not just locally, but right across the country, not just for the fine quality of their bread, but also for the innovative way that they have financed the birth and ongoing development of their business, a model now known as Community Supported Baking.

We are very lucky to have the bakery in Slaithwaite, and we are sure they will go on to be extremely successful, and an even greater asset to our community. Working with them certainly gave the Green Valley Grocer a head start in working with local producers!