Booths Heads to Germany to Represent the Sustainability of Britain
It has been announced that North West retailer Booths has been selected as one of only ten British businesses to be awarded Ruban d'Honneur status in the prestigious European Business Awards* and will now head to Germany to compete to be crowned Britain's most environmental and sustainable business.
Booths met stiff competition to be chosen as a Ruban d'Honneur recipient in 'The Millicom Award for Environmental and Corporate Sustainability' category, having successfully passed through three gruelling stages in the awards process.
Booths has been picked for their business accomplishments in relation to three core principles; innovation, business excellence and sustainability.
This announcement follows the release of record sales results from Booths for the Christmas trading period, defying the downturn with like for like sales rising to +3.48% compared with the same period in 2012.
We hope that Booths’ encouraging results, twinned with today's award success, will set a standard in retailing and emphasise to other businesses the viability of achieving successful commercial results whilst acting responsibly and positively affecting the social environment we operate in.
We are exceptionally proud of the progress we’ve made in making our business more sustainable and are honoured to be recognised for our achievements. Our unique sourcing policy sees that over 25% of our produce is sourced locally from the regions we operate, including 85% of the meat we sell. Not only are we committed to reducing carbon emissions from air freight and transport, we also strive to ensure the sustainability of British agriculture by supporting local farmers and producers and ensuring they receive a fair price for their produce.
Edwin Booth, Chairman of Booths
Booths, which has 29 modern food stores across the North West, was the first UK supermarket to make publicly available a comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the supply chains of its entire product range.
Booths considers GHG emissions when making product sourcing decisions, including cutting out almost all air freighted Californian cherries, stretching the UK asparagus season and processing most of its prepared fruit in the UK rather than adopting the industry norm of doing this overseas, reducing the need for air freight.
The thorough and transparent approach to sourcing sustainably has set a benchmark within retail as other businesses begin to consider their carbon emissions.
Booths is amongst 100 companies from 28 countries across Europe that has achieved the coveted Ruban d'Honneur status in this internationally recognised awards programme and will gather in Dusseldorf on 19th February to present the business to an esteemed panel of judges.
Edwin Booth is also the Chair of Business in the Community's North West Advisory Board, a business-led charity focused on promoting responsible business practice.
The European Business Awards recognises and rewards excellence, best practice and innovation in companies across the European Union. The competition is free to enter and open to organisations of all sizes and from any industry sector.
*The European Business Awards programme serves three purposes for the European business community: -
- It provides examples for the business community to aspire to
- It celebrates and endorses individual’s and organisation’s success
- It provides case studies and content for learning from these exceptional organizations