Social Value

Using our purchasing power to change lives and create positive social impact

As a leading group procurement organisation, we 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.

We work with over 35 different social enterprises and 17 non-profit suppliers

A social enterprise is a business that is changing the world for the better. We work with a number of social enterprise providers including Change Please  – an award-winning social enterprise coffee company who are empowering homeless by training them to be baristas. So far we’ve supported 75 people out of homelessness.

We also work with Toast Ale, turning surplus bread into a ‘planet-saving beer’, Life Water building wells in third world countries and Miss Macaroon who work with unemployed young people to build confidence and skills to become work ready.

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Definition of a Social Enterprise

Just like traditional businesses, social enterprises sell goods or services. They also aim to make a profit. However, it’s what they do with their profit that sets them apart, reinvesting them back into a particular social mission.

There are now over 100,000 social enterprises in the UK, employing two million people and contributing £60bn to the UK economy. These numbers are growing fast and a large proportion of them operate in the business-to-business space.

Buy Social Corporate Challenge

In 2019, we became the first company in the food and drink sector to join the Buy Social Corporate Challenge. The Challenge brings together corporate partners from a broad range of industries with a collective ambition to spend £1 billion with social enterprises. 

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Our commitment to spend £5 million with social enterprises

We’re proud to have made a commitment to spend £5 million with UK social enterprises to incubate and support small suppliers who are giving back to communities and tackling wider social and environmental issues.

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Change Please
Cemal Ezel, Founder and CEO

“We are very proud to be working with Foodbuy. We believe that if we can supply an improved quality product, with the price being neutral but using 100% of the profits to help people out of homelessness, this offers a win-win opportunity for the client, catering partner and also the lives of people across our country who are sleeping homeless.”

Rubies in the Rubbles
Alicia Lawson, Commercial Director

“We love working with Foodbuy. Not just because we've rescued a ton of apples (or to be more precise, nearly a million!) But also because of the amazing reaction we've had from customers. People love to see big businesses collaborating with small, to make such a positive environmental impact. It's a win-win situation for us both, and most importantly, for the planet too.”

Toast Ale
Rob Wilson, Chief Toaster

“We couldn’t be more proud to be working with Foodbuy and Compass Group in both the UK and USA. We are collecting some of the surplus bread from their supply chain that would otherwise go to waste and brewing it into our award-winning range of Toast beers. These beers are then sold back into the Foodbuy network to be served to their clients, creating a wonderful example of the circular economy in action.”