Social Enterprise UK

Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) is the leading global authority on social enterprise. In 2016, SEUK created the world's largest commitment to social procurement when it launched the Buy Social Corporate Challenge.

The Buy Social Corporate Challenge

In 2019, we became the first company in the food and drink sector to join the Buy Social Corporate Challenge. This ground-breaking initiative sees high-profile businesses use their everyday spend to transform lives. The Challenge brings together corporate partners from a broad range of industries with a collective ambition to spend £1 billion with social enterprises.

When we decide to buy social, we’re helping to build a better world. Since joining the Challenge, we’ve spent over £3.5 million with over 20 different social enterprises. We have also set our sights on achieving a £5million spend target with UK social enterprises that are giving back to communities and tackling wider social issues. 

As part of the Challenge, we’ve also made a number of commitments:

• Amending our sourcing standards with the aim of striving for at least one social enterprise per food and drink category
• Using our scale and leverage to identify suitable routes to market for social enterprises
• Raising awareness of social enterprise amongst our people, suppliers and clients
• Offering our expertise to social enterprises to help navigate the world of foodservice
• Measuring our impact of buying social
• Working with our team internationally to identify global opportunities for social enterprises

Working with social enterprises

Social enterprises are businesses that trade for a social purpose. We work with over 20 different social enterprise providers including Change Please – an award-winning social enterprise coffee company that is empowering homeless communities in six different countries by training them to be baristas. We work with Toast Ale, who turns unwanted bread into a ‘planet-saving beer’, Life Water who opens wells in third world countries and Miss Macaroons who work with long-term unemployed young people to build their confidence and skills to become work-ready.

We truly believe social enterprises are the future of business. We’re really proud to be using our procurement spend and influence to embed social value across the globe.

Our social impact