Running a business in a manner that prioritises both the environment and local communities is no mean feat. However, it’s a challenge that Wells & Co. agreed to tackle head-on through a corporate commitment to protecting the planet.
Established in 1876, Wells & Co. is an independent, family-owned pub management business based in the heart of Bedfordshire. Overseeing around 30 managed establishments across the UK – from neighbourhood hangouts and countryside taverns, to friendly city centre stops – the company is headquartered at Brewpoint – a £14m state-of-the-art brewery specialising in small-run speciality ales and lagers.
Following a period of reflection during the pandemic, Wells & Co. decided to shake up operations and embrace a completely new approach that prioritises both the company’s impact on both the natural environment and the communities surrounding it. This shift required a complete evolution of the business, but one that the team wholeheartedly supported.
Alongside renegotiating energy contracts to ensure that every establishment in the group was powered by 100% renewable energy, Wells & Co. partnered with Osprey Energy to roll-out fast charging points at a number of major sites nationwide. A dedicated auditing team was also introduced, with the responsibility of analysing energy efficiency across the group, setting baselines and making strategic changes to minimise consumption.
Elsewhere, three hives with 25,000 honeybees were introduced to the Brewpoint site, with honey now on sale in the shop and also added to a new wheat lager brew. A partnership with Too Good To Go was also struck up, which saw pubs across the group offer low-cost meals to app users rather than seeing excess wasted.
However, one of the biggest moves was collaborating with ReFood – the UK’s leading food waste recycler – to take plate scrapings, kitchen scraps and out of date produce from the company’s 30 sites nationwide, in a bid to eradicate food waste to landfill. With extensive experience working with leading names from across the supply chain, ReFood implemented a bespoke service which has since helped Wells & Co. to revolutionise its green credentials.
Changing the future
With three anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities in Widnes, Doncaster and Dagenham, ReFood collects 480,000 tonnes of food and drink waste each year and recycles it to generate renewable energy and sustainable biofertiliser.
With its own fleet of collection vehicles, ReFood offers an end-to-end bespoke service to suit exacting business needs. Unique in the marketplace, its ‘bin swap’ solution sees full bins collected and switched for empty, sanitised replacements. This allows food waste bins to be used directly in kitchen areas and helps businesses to separate at source.
Ed Robinson, sustainability manager at Wells & Co., commented: “During the pandemic, we decided to evaluate our existing approach. From this, it became clear that we wanted to be more proactive in our commitment to sustainability across all areas of the company.
“Like most hospitality businesses, food waste is a frustrating – but hard to eliminate – part of our day-to-day operations. Alongside numerous initiatives to decarbonise operations and accelerate our corporate transition towards net zero, embracing a food waste recycling service seemed like a necessity to further reduce our impact on the environment.
“Our partnership with ReFood has already had a significant impact across the business. Rather than just a service provider, we see the team as a partner. They’re committed to making recycling food waste as simple as possible for us, working around the many schedules of our partners and restaurants.”
Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, added: “Our closed-loop service offers the perfect solution to tackle unavoidable food waste at any hospitality business. We work with countless pubs, restaurants, bars and ‘food to go’ establishments across the UK to reduce reliance on landfill.
“One of the most important aspects of our service, however, is the opportunity to reduce costs. Indeed, compared to paying for commercial waste disposal, our food waste recycling service avoids landfill tax rates. This means that many businesses can expect to achieve savings of around 50% when working with us – a win for the environment and a boost for the bottom line.
“As demonstrated by Wells & Co., the ReFood service is easy to integrate into existing operations and can have an immediate business impact. What’s more, staff need minimal training and the impacts can be measured almost immediately.”
