Food waste firm expands, creating 50 jobs
A Yorkshire firm which is the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus food and household products is set to create up to 50 jobs with the opening of a new superstore in St Helens.
Company Shop, which is head-quartered in Tankersley in South Yorkshire, is set to open a new 10,000 sq ft store in Sutton Fold in January 2018, which will be the organisation’s fifth store. Lloyds Bank has backed the project with a £900,000 finance package.
The new store, located on Lancots Lane Industrial Estate, will see Company Shop expand its redistribution network across the wider Liverpool City Region, servicing the North West and North Wales.
The superstore will operate on a membership basis, with eligible customers including employees from the food manufacturing industry, alongside those working in the emergency services and NHS.
Members will be able to benefit from discounts of up to 70% on a range of branded products and items sourced from the UK’s food supply chain, that may otherwise have gone to waste.
Company Shop has been in operation for over 40 years. With the help of its social enterprise, Community Shop, the Group works with leading retailers, manufactures and brands across the United Kingdom to stop more than 50 million items of good food and household products from going to waste each year.
John Marren, founder and chairman of Company Shop, said: “The opening of our new Company Shop store in St Helens is a key part of our plans to further expand our successful model in the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Lloyds Bank has been an invaluable partner in helping us to get to this point.
“We have big ambitions to continue to expand on a national scale and stop even more good food from going to waste.”
Mark Butterworth, relationship director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Company Shop plays an indispensable role in reducing the amount of waste in Britain’s food and household goods supply network.
“Supporting businesses like this is central to Lloyds Bank’s mission of helping Britain prosper. The financial support will help Company Shop to complete the next step in its growth across the North West, and increase the number of markets it can access and service across the region.”
