Being a responsible business has been at the core of our values and how we operate since our inception.

In fact, our family business purpose is to grow in ways that are profitable and sustainable for the benefit of our colleagues, customers and the communities in which we serve.

We categorise these efforts into three main areas:

• Community

• Environmental Sustainability

• Our People Plan 

Our efforts in these areas have won us industry recognition and many awards – including two national Business in the Community Big Tick awards.

Our community work focuses on our Branching Out education programme, which aims to help primary and secondary school students bridge the gap between education and employment; our Community Volunteering programme, which encourages employees to get involved in practical regeneration projects, mentoring, study tours and employability workshops; and finally charitable giving via the company’s charitable trust, the Blakemore Foundation, which supports good causes with monetary and in-kind donations.

During 2020/21, the Blakemore Foundation awarded donations worth £313,257 to good causes.

The impact that we and our wider supply chains have on the environment has never been such an important topic. To reduce our impact and help both our customers and suppliers to do the same, we have four workstreams in play: what we sell, how we deliver it, how we communicate it and how we enable our teams to be sustainable through our business culture.

As a family business we are able to develop long-term strategies to ensure that the impact we have on the environment sits at the heart of our business decisions. We understand the importance of working in partnership with both customers and suppliers to work towards a circular economy.

For our people, we want to provide careers, not just jobs, and have diverse teams that are reflective of the communities in which we operate. Therefore our People Plan incorporates both the development of our teams and the culture and environment we provide.