Summary

The bakery has made a commitment to the local rural economy by contracting to buy flour milled from locally sourced wheat for the next 3 years. This gives local farmers confidence to grow bread making wheat and reduces the food miles for the bakery’s products.

Background

• The bakery was started in 1952 as a small transport café by the grandmother of the current owners.       It now makes about 1 million items of bread and cake products per week for supermarkets, hotels & restaurants, airlines and for sandwich suppliers.
• The company’s Vision statement says “We want to be your favourite baker” and the values are Open-mindedness, Integrity and Loyalty (Mnemonic = OIL)    Open-mindedness is about always looking to make things better.   Integrity includes responsible environmental policies and fostering a caring culture.   Loyalty includes working with suppliers and customers to tackle the challenges in today’s business.
• The company is very committed to its workforce and has won numerous awards and recognitions for its approach to recruitment, diversity, training, apprenticeships, work with young people and employment of ex-offenders.

Responsible Business Objectives

• Reduce costs by having a more efficient supply chain (and share the savings)
• Ensure continuity of supplies of raw material
• Feel better by doing the right thing.

How they do it

• Long standing recycling practices involving plastics, metals, food waste, paper, cardboard, motor parts, toner cartridges, mobile phones, wood pallets.
•  Long standing energy saving policies including lighting, heating, transport. Minimisation of packaging in products 
• Local sourcing of majority of raw materials, in particularly flour from local wheat farmers.

What Impact It Has

• Boots the Chemist launched a range of sandwiches made on our bread because it reduced the carbon footprint.
• Boots were so impressed that they put our name on the packaging and told the story about the more environmentally friendly bread.

Business Benefits

On the Boots Bread:  £7500 of extra sales per week