Glyn Wylfa: Always profit making, but not profit taking – that’s how to make both profit and purpose count

“Always profit making, but not profit taking: that’s how to balance profit and purpose for sustainability.” 

That’s the advice from Brian Colley, Finance and Operations Director of Glyn Wylfa in Chirk, north Wales. Glyn Wylfa is listed in the NatWest top 100 social enterprises in the UK for 2025, for the fifth year running. 

In 2012, Wrexham County Borough Council faced a decision over a dilapidated ex-council office in Chirk: hand it over to the local community or demolish it to build new houses. 

The Chirk community chose to keep the property as a community hub, and Glyn Wylfa grew from there. 

It cost £600k to renovate the house and create the café. 

Glyn Wylfa is self-supporting now, and expanding each year with double digit growth. 

When I visited, Café Wylfa was busy with walking groups, minority groups, a special needs group, and many couples and groups of all ages, even on a rainy day. The walls were brightened by images and creations from local artists. 

“We employ a great team of seventeen in the café, including local young people, giving them opportunities to build their experience and then go on to new careers. 

“The local community uses the venue as a hub. It’s always busy with tourists, but local residents use it extensively too. The social capital aspect of social enterprise is important, so the community sees the shared benefits feeding back into the local economy, boosting economic benefit and relationships within the community.”  

It’s obvious that Caffi Wylfa/Glyn Wylfa is a caring, friendly space, which welcomes more than 80,000 customers a year. 

“We get great reviews, which is so lovely for our staff to see. 

“One of our regular customers was, unusually, sitting alone one day. I spoke to him, and he told me that he’d recently lost his wife. He’d come to Caffi Wylfa to remember the good times, and maybe look for some solace here. I introduced him to a group which meet here in the café, who could offer him support and friendship. I was able to fulfil a kind of informal social prescribing service.”  

Glyn Wylfa supports around 20 local organisations to the tune of over £10,000 annually, covering everything from youth football and cricket to the Llangollen Music Eisteddfod; Hope House (a children’s palliative care home); Welsh language groups; Chirk pantomime group and bowling club; Rainbow Foundation (care for the elderly); Picnic in the Park; St John Ambulance; and Advanced Brighter Futures (a mental health charity). 

“Our mission from the start was to benefit the local community. Anyone can request support in the form of donations or sponsorship. 

“We make a profit, and we re-invest it. Over the years we’ve continuously re-invested 75-80% of our profit into expanding and improving our facilities, and supporting the community.” 

As well as Caffi Wylfa (open daily from 9.30am-5pm), Glyn Wylfa Business Centre rents modern, fully-equipped offices in the refurbished original building to local businesses, which themselves employ 35-40 people: an electronics distribution company which promotes ‘Beyond Borders,’ a charity for imported art from Haiti an electronics company which promotes ‘Beyond Borders’, an importer of art manufactured in Haiti; two psychologists; a children’s additional education needs support company; the local police station; a wholesale administration company in the dairy sector; a secretary to a local forensic pathologist; and a web designer. 

The Glyn Wylfa site has reduced its energy consumption by 50% in line with social enterprise objectives by installing the latest environmentally-friendly equipment. 

“We have 57 solar panels on the roof. All our light fittings are low energy. We continue to target and improve our energy-efficiency. 

“In 2024 we won the Pioneers Post NatWest Business award in London, where we were congratulated for our role as ‘business pioneer’ in the Social Enterprise sector.  

“We manage a good space, which delivers a good service, and generates good business, which benefits our customers and community.” 

Brian and Glyn Wylfa work in partnership with the Chirk town council on a lot of events. 

The first annual Chirk 10k run started from Glyn Wylfa car park with 500 runners a few weeks ago, with funds donated to Oswestry orthopaedic hospital. 

On 4 October the Baton of Hope, a national initiative for suicide prevention which takes in 20 cities in the UK, will journey from Café Wylfa to Chirk Castle, and then on to Wrexham University – this year’s only Welsh visit.  

Mental health and wellbeing support is clearly very important to Brian and Glyn Wylfa. Several members of staff are trained as mental health first aiders. 

Glyn Wylfa runs as a business, but with a defined community and social benefit. 

What advice would Brian give to someone wanting to set up a social enterprise? 

“Identify the sector you want to support, whether it’s a community or a social challenge, then look at financial stability. 

“Prepare a good business plan, which addresses support for your target audience. Make your purpose broad. If it’s too narrow and tightly-focused, you might find your options for funding limited. Make the business as robust financially as you can, and then re-invest the profits for the benefit of your community or social cause. And always make both profit and purpose count.” 

Towards the end of the grant monitoring period (long since passed), the Big Lottery Fund hosted a meeting at Glyn Wylfa. That meeting obviously went well, as the business partners called the grant ‘money well spent’, achieving ‘everything that was written in the business plan, and a lot more.’ 

From the busy-ness I saw, it seems that the community still feel that it’s money well spent.