Sector:  Other
No.of Employees:  1-20
Region: East Midlands

Summary
Viridian is a small vitamin company with big ethical ambitions. Viridian's philosophy is 'Care For Others As You Care For Yourself' and the company donates half its annual profits to environmental and children's charities each year.

Background
Viridian is a Northants-based company that produces vitamins which are sold at health food stores throughout the United Kingdom and abroad. The company has a deep commitment to making a positive impact on the communities in which they do business. Viridian donates up to 50% of its profits to children's and environmental charities - more than £48,000 since the company launched in Dec 1999, and has developed a recycling programme to reduce the impact of their product packaging on the environment. These, and additional green business practices, have helped Viridian to become well established in the vitamin market and have directly led to remarkable company growth.

How they do it

• Partnership with retailer and community agency. The Viridian and Children's Country Holiday Fund Cause Related Marketing programme is a joint initiative between top organic retailing chain, Fresh & Wild and Viridian to generate funds for the Children's Country Holiday Fund (CCHF) and boost sales of Viridian products through the stores.
  - Viridian provided shelf talkers, recycling bins, neck tags, advertising and PR support to the project.
  - A launch to the Fresh & Wild staff was also undertaken, where Viridian management and staff, together with senior CCHF representatives met with staff at Fresh & Wild discussed how to maximise the project in-store.

What impact it has

• For every bottle of Viridian vitamins purchased through the six Fresh & Wild stores between April and December 03, Viridian donated 20p to the CCHF. In addition, for every Viridian bottle recycled through the stores, Fresh & Wild will give another 25p to CCHF.

Business Benefits

• Business growth. Viridian is now one of the fastest growing vitamin companies in the independent health store sector, if not the fastest growing. It is now supplying nearly 400 health food stores, more than doubling the number since September 2001 and the daily number of enquiries from consumers has increased 72% since September 2001.

• Increased sales. The Cause Related Marketing Campaign has had a direct impact on Viridian's bottom line. It has experienced sales growth in excess of 100% year-on-year and the number of stores has more than doubled in the last year. It has also has a direct positive impact on the local community.