Campaigning takes centre stage at Jamie Oliver group
Campaigning is set to take centre stage at the Jamie Oliver group following the collapse of his UK restaurant portfolio earlier this year.
In a group-wide Social Impact Report, published today, the chef stressed his commitment to his 2030 project to halve childhood obesity in a decade, saying he believed it "will be my legacy".
The report details how each arm of the chef's business – publishing, licensing, restaurant franchises and broadcasting – will work to improve its social credentials with the celebrity chef acknowledging currently it "is not perfect".
The attention coincides with the business' bid to gain B Corp certification, which is granted to companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. It is awarded by non-profit institution B Lab.
Globally almost 3,000 businesses have gained the accreditation across 150 industries.
In the Social Impact Report, Oliver outlined his efforts to meet the 2030 goal, including his #AdEnough campaign against targeted marketing of food high in fat, salt and sugar to children and his efforts to restrict the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, which has been taken on by several national retailers.
He also cites his partnerships with Shell and Tesco as well as the company's Ministry of Food cooking programmes, which teach people to prepare healthy meals.
The business has pledged to reduce its environmental footprint further with measures outlined including tackling food waste, reducing single-use plastic use and making sure products are sourced ethically.
Oliver's UK restaurants fell into administration in May, resulting in approximately 1,000 redundancies.
The administrators had been able to save three sites and around 250 jobs with the sale of Jamie Oliver's Diner, Jamie's Italian and Jamie's Coffee Lounge, all at Gatwick Airport, to travel caterer the SSP Group.
Fifteen Cornwall, which operates under a franchise agreement, was unaffected by the administration.
