Our B Corp Journey

It’s B Corp month, a chance to celebrate everything it means to be a B Corp Certified Business and a part of a like-minded community of brands all working together to be a force for good.

We’re incredibly chuffed to have been awarded B Corp status in 2021 as result of the actions we’ve taken which have helped make a positive impact to our people and planet.

Before we take on our journey behind the ‘B’, let us explain a little more about how brands become B Corp certified.

Accreditation isn’t an easy feat for a business, and rightfully so! To achieve certification, businesses must demonstrate high standards across key impact areas such as our impact on consumers, community, workers, and environment. After rigorous assessments in each area, performance is reviewed and if it meets or surpasses certain standards, you are then awarded B Corp status.

This month, B Corp have been running lots of exciting activities, including the launch of the first-ever B Corp Store – ‘Good News’ – in London. We’re thrilled to have been included, with Higgidy pies and quiches sitting on the shelves alongside other incredible B Corp brands such as Divine, Jude’s, Dash and Alpro.

Here’s a sneak peek at what else we’ve been up to….

Workers

One area which is important to us is our team. We’ve always made it a priority to make Higgidy HQ a happy and healthy place to work with plenty of opportunities for development and growth.

That’s why this year we launched RISE, a twelve-month mentoring scheme which connects those in senior positions at Higgidy to those looking to develop and gain knowledge, experience, and support in a new area, on a one-on-one basis.

In addition to development opportunities, we also want to support members of our team who want to make a positive impact independently. We do this by allowing the whole team to take two paid days a year to volunteer at a charity of their choice.

Something else that we’re particularly proud of, is being a Living Wage Foundation Employer. This means that from day one we pay every member of our team a minimum salary that reflects the real costs of living.

Community

You may already know about our work with local charities, such as our Higgidy Helping Hand Project which began at the start of the first UK lockdown in March 2020. This was a way of helping those in need within the local community by teaming up with 11 charity networks. We also continually support Fareshare Sussex and UKHarvest with deliveries of surplus stock.

In 2021, we ran our ‘Seeds of Joy’ competition which saw us campaign for community gardens across the UK. After shortlisting our favourites, the great British public voted for the three gardens that they thought deserved a £5,000 cash prize to help develop and nurture their projects. One year on and all three projects have made excellent progress. You can find more about how they’re getting on today, here.

Environment

Our environmental impact is something we’ve always been passionate about. We’re particularly keen to make big changes to reduce our overall impact on the planet and are currently gaining a good understanding of Higgidy’s carbon footprint – something we’ll be reporting on as part of our first-ever Impact Report, due to be published this summer.

Another area we’ve been working on is reducing our use of plastic. As you may be aware, we’ve made transition to using paper cases for our Little Quiches and foil trays for our Tortillas. We’re also now very pleased to share that our range of Sharing Quiches have moved to paper cases too. This switch will help us save 50 tonnes of plastic!

Last month, our team took on ‘The Great Higgidy Hustle’. A challenge set across the whole business to complete as many hours of exercise as possible. In addition to the physical and mental benefits of exercise, we pledged to plant one tree for every hour of hustling completed by our team. We’re delighted to say that our team have completed an incredible 1,338 hours of exercise which means we’ll be planting 1,338 trees locally to us in Sussex!

Food Waste Action Week was a big focus for us this year as we helped to highlight the many ways that we can all reduce food waste and made a positive impact on the planet. Our internal Green Beans Team, a group committed to championing sustainability within Higgidy, hosted a meal at the HQ which was created using any unwanted or unloved ingredients from team members’ homes that might have otherwise gone to waste. Find out how our talented Food Team worked their magic to turn those ingredients into a delicious feast, here.

Customers

We always have and always will appreciate feedback on our recipes. The comments we receive from you helps us to make positive changes to ensure that our products are the best that they can be. Recently, we received feedback that we should increase the filling within our Cheddar & Onion Chutney Rolls and as a result, we did just that!

As a thank you to those who took the time to share their thoughts and recommendations with us, we sent them our new and improved recipe before anyone else, and we’re thrilled with the responses:

“I would just like to let you know what a pleasant experience it was trying the new cheddar and onion chutney rolls , they were absolutely delicious and very flavorful. 5*”

“We had them for lunch and they were delicious! Great flavour and filling – great job! Brilliant work by the brand.”

“Delicious. Much improved filling/ pastry ratio than previously. V good ‘savoury sensation’ in the middle with a pleasant tang of onion chutney to lift and then to tickle the taste buds. These were straight from the packet.”

We hope that this has given you a little bit of insight into how we’ve been busy making steps to improve and continue to develop as a business acting as a force for good. We certainly don’t intend to stop making positive changes and we know we have a lot further to go. Be sure to keep updated by visiting our website.