Trowbridge employer, apetito, has been honoured with the UK’s highest business accolade, The King’s Awards for Enterprise in Sustainable Development.

The company employs 1,900 people and is the UK’s leading food producer to the health, social care, care homes and education sectors. It also owns home meals delivery company Wiltshire Farm Foods.

It is one of an elite number of companies which over the past two decades have won multiple Enterprise Awards in both Innovation and Sustainable Development. 

This year sees the company’s fourth Royal’ honour, having previously won three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise - two for Innovation in 2005 and 2016, and one in 2019 for Sustainable Development. 

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It is one of 252 organisations nationally this year to be awarded a prestigious King’s Awards for Enterprise, with 29 businesses being recognised for their work in Sustainable Development.   

Paul Freeston, CEO and chair of apetito UK & North America, said: “We are proud, honoured and delighted to have been recognised in The King’s Awards for Enterprise: Sustainable Development 2024.  It epitomises the collective hard work, dedication, and vision of our entire team. 

“All of us at apetito are passionate about ‘making a real difference’ to people’s lives and we believe our commitment to sustainable development reflects this.

“Sustainability informs not just the way we work, but how we treat people, the impact on the environment and our contribution to the economy. Leading from the top, we’ve worked to embed this belief into the fabric of the whole business.  Put simply, we believe it’s the right way to do business.”

The award recognises apetito’s commitment to conducting business in a way that impacts positively on the environment, society, and economy. 

In particular it celebrates apetito’s commitment to sustainability, its ambition to reach Net Zero by 2040, and its work in taking concrete actions to meet challenging short-term targets for carbon reduction and supporting climate change – targets which are validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI). 

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At the heart of this recognition lies ‘Project Boomerang,’ a pioneering sustainability initiative, launched through Wiltshire Farm Foods. 

The ground-breaking project focuses on the company’s ready-meal deliveries to the homes of the elderly and vulnerable and features the world’s first closed-loop recycling systems for plastic meal trays on an industrial scale.  

Not only does the awards recognise apetito’s sector leading achievement of closed-loop production it also referenced the company’s pivotal role in shaping Government policy and driving advancements in recycling practices.