Fine food wholesaler, Cotswold Fayre, has today, published its second annual Impact Report. After a year of uncertainty on a global scale, the business has performed incredibly well, while also undergoing a B Corp reassessment.
As a B Corp, Cotswold Fayre is one of a new generation of businesses that are redefining the way that business is done, by committing to be better for the world over the five main categories, governance, community, environment, workers and customers.
Paul Hargreaves, CEO at Cotswold Fayre, says: “The B Corp reassessment is a rigorous process to prove that we are doing what we say we do, but the absolute highlight of my year was receiving back our new B Corp score, a remarkable 107.8 (it was 84 on the two previous assessments). There are now more than 500 B Corps in the UK and this score puts us near the top for FMCG companies. We are incredibly proud to work with 24 B Corp suppliers, with more soon to be certified, and of course we’d love this figure to be even higher.”
As a distributor, the supply chain plays an extremely important part in how the business operates, and in particular, how sustainable it is. Since its last Impact Report, the company has employed a new team member to monitor, measure and drive change throughout the supply chain to reduce the company’s overall impact on the environment. Focussing on identifying areas of improvement, Cotswold Fayre’s Sustainability Manager also provides ongoing support to suppliers via conferences and webinars, as well as developing working groups to help bring together suppliers facing similar challenges, like improving packaging and reducing plastic – as well as supporting other companies with their B Corp assessment.
“It has been a really busy year for us, but with a new B Corp score, we’re not about to sit back on our laurels – and we already have big plans for the year ahead, and beyond. This year we introduced 1,340 new products to our portfolio and welcomed 90 new suppliers and 584 new customers to the Cotswold Fayre family! We also launched our packaging-free refill unit, UnpackagedAT, and expect to see many more retailers adopt this over the coming year to help reduce plastic and other packaging in the supply chain. And this month our new retail and restaurant site Flourish Foodhall & Kitchen opened in Saltford!”, says Paul Hargreaves, CEO at Cotswold Fayre.
In addition, the company has also reduced its carbon impact over the last year and offset 1,578 tonnes of CO2 – as the number of cases per order increased significantly, resulting in fewer deliveries to retailers. Chilled distribution also grew exponentially with the team now investing in more infrastructure to deliver to a wider area with higher frequency, the company also has plans to revisit its goal to offer a frozen range during 2021-22.
The full report is available to download by visiting CF_ImpactReport_2020-21.pdf (cotswold-fayre.co.uk).
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