Sustainability

Delivering a better tomorrow

Committed to a brighter future for our employees, customers, planet and community.

As a fifth-generation family business, we have long been guided by the ethics of honesty, fairness and doing the right thing. It’s our duty to deliver profit for the business while looking after people, places and the planet.

Our Delivering a Better Tomorrow initiative covers all aspects of our corporate social responsibility, including reducing our carbon emissions, giving back to the community and making sure our employees are happy and healthy at work.

Our main sustainability focus areas for the near future are to carry on reducing our carbon emissions with the help of Climate Partner, raising funds for our chosen charity partners, and adding to our already excellent employee welfare programme.

Reducing our Carbon Footprint

We are serious about reducing our carbon emissions. In the last five years, we have installed 388 solar panels on our roof, introduced over 20 electric vehicles to our fleet, and have been certified as a nil to landfill site. Thanks to these actions, we reduced our carbon emissions by a huge 46% between 2019 and 2022. We reduced our emissions by a further 16% between 2022 and 2023. These reductions were verified by our specialist environmental partner, Climate Partner. We are now in communication with our local Chamber of Commerce Low Carbon Team. Using their expertise, we will develop a plan to further reduce our carbon emissions in the coming years.

Lancashire Mind Partnership

Lancashire Mind is Birchall Foodservice’s chosen charity partner for 2024 and 2025. We’re working together to raise vital funds for the people of Lancashire who may be experiencing poor mental health and the barriers this can bring. Our first fundraising event was a charity golf day in September 2023, which raised £1,500 for the cause. Throughout our partnership, we’ll support and participate in Lancashire Mind’s fundraising activities and host a number of fundraising events of our own, including more charity golf days, fun days, raffles, quiz nights, and more.

Down Town Kitchen & Cafe

The Down Town Kitchen and Cafe in Burnley is a strategic partnership of local charities and businesses that supports people and families affected by the cost of living crisis and other issues. It is made up of a community grocery, pre-loved shop, cookery school, cafe, and support centre. We support this fantastic community hub by donating damaged and short-dated stock, providing equipment for the kitchen, and offering our time to support their events. We also donate all leftover stock and samples from our trade shows and training days to the cafe.

Natasha Allergy Research Foundation

The Country Range Group has entered a three-year partnership with The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation to help drive the delivery of its charitable objectives, such as the Natasha Clinical Trial (more info below). As well as becoming the Country Range Group’s chosen annual charity for the next three years, the partnership will see CRG and its members (of which we are one) work alongside the charity to raise compassion, understanding and, crucially, vital funds, to help make food allergy history. The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation is the only charity in the UK dedicated to scientific and medical research into allergies. What is the Natasha Clinical Trial? This trial focuses on children and young people with milk and peanut allergies in a ground-breaking £2.5m oral immunotherapy trial. If it’s successful, the trial will empower the NHS to provide cost-effective treatments, and the more cost-effective they are, the greater the opportunity to treat more people in the country with food allergies.