Together For Cinema has announced it has achieved Community Interest Company (CIC) status, which will help to “secure its future and ability to deliver cinema rooms to good causes”.
The formalisation also sees the appointment of four directors: Ian Morrish (founder); Melanie Malcolm from Bespoke Home Cinemas; Cadaema Consulting Services’ David Parrett; and Chris Pinder from HDANYWHERE and OneAV. Each director has the responsibility to protect and cradle the business, the main drive being to ensure that the good work continues.
CICs were introduced by the UK government in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. They are intended to be easy to establish, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community and are overseen by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies.
Together For Cinema has been running for 14 years, and until March 2021 was operated by founder Ian Morrish in his spare time. In April 2021, the industry began to purchase sponsorship packages that Morrish created to help fund the operation and further establish the Together For Cinema brand, making a significant difference to the community with the installation of cinema rooms into children’s hospices. Morrish said that the structure proved the desire of the industry to support project, but that there was a realisation that this was not sustainable long term and, that with such incredible industry goodwill and financial support, it was important to formalise the enterprise and become a CIC.
“We are a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners,” said Morrish. “This is a great development for Together For Cinema and means that we are bound by the registrar at Companies House to be not for profit and to continue to deliver good to our community. It also formalises our position in our industry and will hopefully secure Together For Cinema as a recognised channel of good to our community for many years to come.”
