COMPANY HISTORY
Better Food Company in a nutshell
The Better Food Company is the brain-child of enigmatic Managing Director Phil Haughton, who started selling organic food in the late 1980s, like all good businesses, at home from the kitchen table.
Having learned about organic farming as a young adult on a community shared with his large family in Scotland, he moved to Bristol and became involved with Windmill Hill City Farm in the early 1980s.
In 1985 he opened his first organic shop, Real Food Supplies on Bristol’s Gloucester Road. His goal was ‘to provide a link between demand for organic food and the farmers and growers producing it’ – very much the aim of the Better Food Company today. He later also opened an organic butcher's shop in the same vicinity.
The Better Food Company moved to an industrial unit in St Werburghs in the 1990s, and ran as a delivery only service for several years.A huge upheaval and a calculated risk saw the company change tack in 2002 and open as the retail outfit we know today. The last few years have been spent consolidating BFC's various activities, and, of course, looking to the future. Today BFC has five parts to its business:
Our shop stocks a huge range of local fresh foods, 90% organic, as well as environmentally friendly household products, wine, books, gifts and health and beauty products.
Our cafe is the backdrop to this bustling shop, and serves colourful, fresh, seasonal dishes to help reflect our passion for food and hospitality.
Our box scheme delivers great value 100% organic fresh produce, much of which is grown by us.
Our wholesale arm deliver to shops, restaurants, schools and fellow box schemes.
We grow on 25 acres of prime organic land in Chew Magna, 8 miles from our Bristol base. This is in many ways at the heart of all we do in business.
We have an honest straightforward approach to merchandising and marketing, with prices to make it accessible to as many as possible. Our shop is in inner city Bristol, an area with great cultural diversity, which forms the core of our customer base.
BFC build long term relationships with suppliers and customers for responsible sustainable community-based trade.
Phil's belief, vision and passion have not abated over the intervening years. As well as growing the business to its current incarnation as the largest organic outlet in the South West, he is also a passionate grower, and a vociferous spokesperson who is often asked to speak publicly about his beliefs and experiences.