Ready meal provider with a Morpeth base receives fourth royal honour

Regarded as the UK’s highest business accolade, it is the fourth time Wiltshire Farm Foods has received the royal honour – having previously won three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise accolades.

The company’s closed-loop recycling scheme involves customers returning food trays back to drivers, where 100 per cent of them are subsequently recycled into new trays.

This groundbreaking project has seen a total of 25 million trays be recycled as part of the initiative to date, an achievement which gained considerable recognition from the award body and helped to secure this prestigious win.

The award also recognises parent company apetito’s commitment to doing business in a way that positively impacts on the environment.

Its ambition to reach net zero by 2040 and its dedication to meet challenging short-term targets for carbon reduction has demonstrated how the company is committed to supporting industry efforts in relation to climate change.

Speaking on behalf of Wiltshire Farm Foods, CEO Paul Freeston said he was delighted with the award win and added: “We are proud and honoured to have been recognised in the King’s Awards for Enterprise: Sustainable Development 2024.

“It epitomises the hard work, dedication and vision of our entire team.

“All of us at apetito and Wiltshire Farm Foods 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. Put simply, we believe it’s the right way to do business.”

The branch recently welcomed a visit from Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery to discuss the importance of companies adopting an innovative approach to how they handle their plastic waste.

Mr Lavery was shown crates of plastic trays that Wiltshire Farm Foods has collected from customers – which under its trailblazing recycling scheme are sent for recycling into completely new trays, containing a minimum of 80 per cent recycled plastic.