Betty & Taylors Case Study: Sustainable Supply Chains

The model that has emerged integrates sustainability ambitions directly into supply chain relationships. Their work seeks to esnure a future proofed environmentally and socially resilient supply base to guarantee a long-term supply of quality tea and coffee.

Rather than traditional buyer-led relationships, the business collaborates with its key suppliers to build contracts, improve quality and find solutions to sustainabilty challenges. Long-term contracts – typically three to five years – provide a degree of security for producers, allowing longer term planning, and supporting investment and continuous improvement.

In all cases, the tea and coffee Bettys and Taylors buys is certified, ensuring there’s a strong baseline of environmental and labour standards. Regular visits to origin support genuine partnerships. And by working collaboratively with suppliers and industry bodies, the business is able to build projects that will have a significant impact of supply chain communities.

An example of this work is Bettys & Taylors ambitious project to plant a million trees across tea farms in Taylors’ supplier heartland in the foothills of Mt. Kenya. Working directly with smallholder tea farmers, the community reforestation scheme is part of the business’s commitment to a carbon neutral tea and coffee supply chain by 2020.

Beyond receiving ongoing payments for the carbon their trees absorb, the farmers are encouraged to grow trees that provide other benefits such as cash crops, fodder for cattle, shade and soil nutrients. As part of the scheme, farmers are receiving traning on conservation farming and agro-forestry techniques. The business is now looking towards a second phase that will address similar issues in its coffee supply chain.

In 2017, Bettys and Taylors won a Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development in recognition of its work.

View Ambition 2025 Progress Report 2017.