Our neighbourhood

In order to be a good ‘neighbour’ in all the communities in which we operate we encourage our businesses to become involved in local initiatives and support good causes.

Good Neighbour Awards

Through our Good Neighbour Awards we encourage our sites to support local causes and initiatives in the communities in which they operate. We find though that they need little or no encouragement from us!

For example, in 2008 our Isleport Foods site in Somerset funded the local stroke club, the lymphoedema clinic, benches for a local school and jackets for NHS volunteer bike riders (Freewheelers).

Another of our sites, Bourne Salads in Lincolnshire, runs a work related learning experience programme for students of a local grammar school. It also organises and funds an annual family fun day for the town and donates prepared salads and fruit to local schools.

The Awards are given out each spring at the annual Group European Forum (GEF) to sites that have made positive impacts in their local communities and successfully recognised neighbourhood issues as part of their business plans. The prize money is re-invested in local community or site projects. This year the Awards went to Isleport Foods and Wingland Foods.

At the GEF we also award the Group Environmental Award to a site that has introduced or engaged successfully in key environmental initiatives such as reducing energy usage, water or waste. This year’s Environmental Award went to Isleport Foods.

Other sponsorships

We continue to sponsor other projects and initiatives across the Group. In Iceland where our head office is based we continue to sponsor entrepreneurial studies at the University of Iceland and the University of Reykjavík, alongside other charities, sports and educational projects.

We also continued to support the UK charity Action Medical Research (AMR) in 2008. As an Action Partner we supported the charity financially as well as encouraged employees to raise funds and take part in AMR events and initiatives, both at site and Group level. For example, we sponsored ten employees from various sites to take on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. Our group of ten did extremely well, raising over £35,000 for the AMR´s Touching Tiny Lives campaign. We have continued to financially support this charity in 2009.