This, more than anything, illustrates what a truly unique concept we have in imutual. How many other companies, especially cashback sites, do you know that:
- Give 90% of its shares to its customers
- Give full shareholder rights to anyone who registers
- Allow members to vote for (or against) directors
- See full details of the accounts of the company
- Get to put questions directly to the board of directors, both via the AGM webcast but also on a daily basis through these forums
???
No catches, no hidden conditions, no charges, no risk. Just an open and honest internet 'mutual' owned and controlled by its members, and it is my intention to help us achieve imutual's massive potential. It is my hope that, as a result of creating this revolutionary new type of company, we will attract many more members in the future and build a hugely-powerful money-saving organisation that operates purely in the interests of its customers. The larger we grow, the more valuable the company becomes and, well, what happens after that is up to you!
As is normal with start-up companies of this nature, our first year of trading shows a loss. But, as I will detail at the AGM, the achievements and performance of the company to date have been significant and I believe we are well-placed to see significant growth in the year ahead. A large proportion of our efforts during the first year were spent on 'start-up' activities such as technical development and business processes and administration. There wasn't really much revenue generated until the final few months of the financial year - in fact, my unofficial figures indicate that our trading since July has already exceeded what we managed in the whole of year one!
And, once the AGM is out of the way, we can really roll our sleeves up and work on building up imutual's member base and extending what the site has to offer.
As you will see from the accounts, the establishment of the company has been funded by myself and Sue (via imutual Worldwide Ltd) and we have taken no salary from the company since its incorporation. I hope you will take this as a sign of our commitment and belief in the imutual vision, and that you will share our confidence in the company's future.
Please read the accounts, including the business review, and then cast your vote on the AGM resolutions at http://www.imutual.co.uk/vote. It would be good to see a healthy 'turnout' of voters for our first AGM
I hope that many of you will 'tune in' to the AGM webcast, at which you are free to put questions directly to me about the accounts or related matters. But there is no need to wait until then; as ever, I am always willing to answer members' questions on the forum so please speak up!
And finally, and most importantly, I would like to say a huge thank you to all current shareholders who have shown faith in imutual and helped to take it from its modest (and at times, difficult) beginnings to its current position. We've only really just started, and there is a lot of hard work ahead, but I'm sure that those of you who have helped to get this going are, at some future point, going to be able to look back with pride (and perhaps just a little bit of smugness
) at what you helped to achieve. 
