Discovering Durham Cic

The aim of Discover Durham is to give smaller local producers and businesses a champion and a presence in the heart of the city. Not just a storefront to sell from but also a hub to facilitate collaboration, create economies of scale and share best practice. We believe this offers a huge opportunity to harness the untapped potential and build a sustainable future. Working together we impact growth, slow business deaths and inspire budding entrepreneurship here in CountyDurham. Using a community interest company enables us to have a leadership structure and a set plan for investing profits back into the local business community. We not only stock products from the local economy we also bring producers in-house to grow their confidence and skills. Helping them to gain faster routes to market and feedback from real customers. We provide training and mentorship in a practical style that is not found in business support organisations. We do this in a fast and flexible way by drawing on our own experiences in the trenches of retail and sharing best practice through our network of suppliers. We will work closely with producers to make sure that each month the projects, marketing and training are meeting their needs. This close collaboration will be monitored by our core group and their feedback will be captured monthly and used to facilitate future plans. This will be detailed in our ongoing reporting. We will use a mixture of email, social media and face to face meetings to gather this feedback. We will nurture close relationships with wider stakeholders and agencies, including Visit County Durham, Durham BID, Prince Bishops Shopping Centre and organisations such as Durham Sparks, Durham Works and the North East Chamber of Commerce. These relationships will enable us to create a wider community, increased opportunity and cost-effective training for our producers. We will achieve this by not only attending their events and making introductions but also by inviting t