Eco business boost for Lisburn’s visionary tea makers
Lisburn’s Suki Tea Makers, Northern Ireland’s multi-award winning producer of
premium loose-leaf teas and a variety of infusions, has achieved a major business
award for its longstanding focus on environmental sustainability.
The locally-owned company, a FoodNI member, has been certified as a B
Corporation business which means it meets high global standards of social and
environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Other FoodNI
members of achieve B Corp certification are Boatyard Distillery in Enniskillen and
Dei Lites in Warrenpoint.
The internationally respected accreditation comes from the B Labs operation, a non-
profit organisation founded in 2006 in Pennsylvania in the US to promote
sustainability worldwide and to create value for society. It is now a coveted
accreditation by companies to grow awareness worldwide among clients and
customers.
The B in B Corp stands for “Benefit for All’ in that all certified businesses endeavour
to benefit all stakeholders. Businesses that become B Corps have seen great
results: committed and motivated employees, increased customer loyalty, higher
levels of innovation, and market leadership.
Recent research shows that companies with B Corps out-perform their UK peers
across several business metrics. Compared to data from surveys of UK SMEs, it was
found that B Corp small and medium sized enterprises have, on average:
Faster growth in turnover and employee headcount and higher expectations
about future growth
Greater levels of employee retention, engagement and diversity
More robust governance processes
Greater focus on civic and community engagement
Higher levels of innovation
The same likelihood of success at securing external finance
There are now over 1,000 B Corp companies in the United Kingdom and over 60,000
worldwide. Suki is now among a very small but growing B Corp network in Northern
Ireland that also includes smaller and artisan enterprises such as Boatyard Distillery
in Enniskillen.
“We’re thrilled to announce that Suki Tea is now a Certified B
Corporation enterprise,” says Oscar Woolley, who founded the hugely successful
smaller beverage business with Anne Irwin in 2005. “This milestone reflects our
commitment to sustainability, ethical sourcing, and fairtrade,” adds Oscar.
“When customers choose our award-winning blends, they are supporting tea-
growing communities and helping us build a fairer, more sustainable world. This is
just the beginning! We’re excited to collaborate with other B Corps and B LabsUK to
drive innovation and use business as a force for good.”
Suki Tea Makers, which celebrates its 20 th birthday later this year, has invested
extensively in best environmental practice, leading the way, for example, in
sustainable packaging, including the removal of plastics, over the past decade and
more.
Suki has also won a string of UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann awards for
quality products with outstanding taste. It has grown from an initial artisan tea stall at
St George’s Market in Belfast to be a leading loose leaf tea brand supplying
thousands of hotels, cafes and delis across the UK, Ireland and further afield.
The small company, among the most successful and respected globally focused
enterprises here, now operates from a leading-edge 9000, sq ft factory in Lisburn
that is 100 percent powered by solar and renewable energy. It was previously based
in three small units in a business centre in west Belfast.
Investing in and switching to a purpose-built factory outside LIsburn has allowed the
entrepreneurial business to make its production processes and logistics more
efficient, expand its product offering and create new jobs.
The unique ‘Tea Factory’ enabled the company to immediately double its
manufacturing and warehousing capacity, bolstering distribution and allowing for
continued growth and expansion into 30 global markets.
The new factory, according to Oscar, “provides the perfect creative space for
innovation in blending and recipe creation, and a dedicated tea-rista training room for
all customers”.
“The new factory is also assisting us in achieving our goals for net zero carbon,
leading the way for a cleaner future for our business,” he continues. “In line with our
mission to be an ethical and sustainable organisation, the new factory has allowed
us to reduce our Scope 2 emissions from electricity, for instance, down to zero,
superseding our environmental target to reduce the business’ emissions by 50
percent by 2030.”
The new facility, which was built in collaboration with a team of sustainability and
heating experts, is powered by renewable energy sources including a 10kW Solar
PV system. LED sensor lighting and PIR controls have installed throughout, along
with large windows for maximised used of daylight and recycling of key waste
streams.
A long-term supporter of Fairtrade and a committed Real Living Wage Employer, it is
important to Suki that it continues to operate as a business in as ethical and
sustainable a way as possible.
