CCI Scotland is a unique social enterprise which is part of Clydesdale Community Initiatives. The social enterprise runs several businesses with its volunteers, one of which is Langloch Botanics which makes natural cosmetic products with home grown herbs. CCI’s managing director, Niall McShannon, plans to set up a rural farm shop in Langloch to sell its cosmetics.
Name: Niall McShannon
Age: 52
Position: Managing director
WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS CALLED?
Langloch Botanics
WHERE IS IT BASED?
Langloch, Lanark
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WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
CCI’s mission is to give people the opportunity to make a contribution to the community. It’s for people who may have barriers to inclusion. We run a range of enterprises for people to take part in to improve their health and well-being and skills.
We ask volunteers to come up with ideas for potential businesses and one of them is making soaps and cosmetics. CCI helps with recipes and research and covers the business side of things.
I’m a social worker to trade and have worked in this industry for many years. I set up CCI to change the perception of people being service users to taking control of their own self-improvement.
Langloch Botanics is a very new business grown out of the ideas of our volunteers. We also have a landscape construction company and we grow and process food like jams and chutneys and make furniture from wood.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
CCI will work with anyone who has a barrier to overcome and wants to work and make a contribution. The people we work with have a wide range of abilities and interests. We start with people’s strengths and interests. Around 1000 people have used CCI and the feedback has been outstanding. People are gaining skills and independence and having the feeling they are contributing to the community.
In terms of Langloch Botanics, our aim is boutique hotels. We sell at craft fairs as well. We plan to establish a rural farm shop in Langloch where we sell chutneys and plants too.
Cosmetics is very much in the start-up phase but it has had a lot of success. This financial year we have sold as many soaps as last year. It’s an ideal example of a social enterprise where we have taken the ideas of individuals and expanded it.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
LANGLOCH has a community aspect. It is recipes with locally grown botanics. It is all grown as part of CCI projects and all incorporated. The whole supply chain gives people an opportunity to improve their health and well-being.
The value chain is beyond financial returns. It’s a circular idea.
IS SCOTLAND A GOOD PLACE FOR THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS?
THERE’S a good environment for social enterprise here and lots of support available, and Scotland prides itself on that. We won Social Enterprise of the Year 2018 [at the Social Enterprise UK awards]. However, the big challenge is trying to access markets where you compete with commercial companies.
Unlike a traditional business, a social enterprise by definition has a split focus on the commercial side of the business but also the community aspect.
Social enterprise has to compete against social enterprise I’m trying to invest in more commercial capacity – we have a business development manager for Langloch but that’s a cost that most [social enterprise] businesses don’t have.
Scotland is a bit of a world leader in social enterprise but I have genuine concerns about how it will last in the long term.
I have no criticism for the level of support out there – the Government is trying to support social enterprise but it will lose if asked to compete in an open market. The public sector should have spending targets for social enterprise – that would be transformative.
WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?
I WOULD like to see at least some of the businesses becoming commercially viable in their own right and turn the social impact they have into employment with the profits reinvested in supporting people in the community.
We rely on funding right now but would like to reduce that.
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