Houston & Hawkes becomes UK’s first contract catering B Corp

Independent foodservice caterer Houston & Hawkes has become the first contract catering business in the UK to become B Corp certified.

By becoming a certified B Corp, and with a score of 110.6, Houston & Hawkes commits to using business as a force for good to benefit all people, communities, and the planet through a continuous improvement process.

B Corp is an incredibly demanding certification and assesses an organisation’s social and environmental performance with more than 300 questions across five key pillars: governance; workers; customers; communities; and the environment to measure, understand and improve its social and environmental impact.

Dave Hawkes, co-director of Houston & Hawkes, said: “Since starting Houston & Hawkes in 2019, we have worked hard to build our business around a set of key guiding sustainability and social principles. The B Corp assessment has been an extremely demanding yet rewarding process to have gone through and we are a better, more sustainably focused and socially aware organisation as a result.

"After nearly two years of rigorous assessments, we are delighted and incredibly proud to have achieved B Corp certification and we look forward to continually challenging ourselves to further enhance our social and environmental impact and bring increased value to our clients, customers, supply partners, and our teams.”

Houston & Hawkes was founded by Simon Houston and Dave Hawkes in 2019 and provides catering and hospitality services to business and industry clients across London and the South East of England.

The company recently announced a one-year partnership with chef Sally Abé, consultant chef of the Pem at the Conrad London St James hotel, to enhance its food and service experiences.

The Exclusive Collection became the first hotel group in the UK to achieve B Corp certification last year.