Honoured with a Queen’s Award

For many years the Queen’s Awards have been acknowledged as the country’s most prestigious business awards – and we’re thrilled that our family business just been honoured with a 2017 Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development, recognising our work to build a sustainable tea and coffee supply chain.

Our family business has long been committed to trading responsibly, but over the last few years we’ve transformed the way we work with our suppliers and growers, helping them become more sustainable in the face of ever-increasing challenges such as climate change and rural poverty.

Central to this is what we call ‘Taylors Approach to Sourcing’ which puts our values at the heart of how we buy. In practice, this means collaborating with our key suppliers to identify and address sustainability challenges; establishing long-term contracts that provide suppliers with security; and working together on quality and continuous improvement.

At the same time, we’ve been influential at an industry leadership level. Through active participation in the Ethical Tea Partnership, World Coffee Research, Rainforest Alliance and other industry bodies, we’ve been able to bring insight, knowledge and investment to our suppliers – often leading collaborative projects that address our supply chain’s sustainability needs.

While there will always be more to do, the award recognises the progress we’ve made over the last five years and the positive impact we’ve had on people and communities around the world.