Ready & Abel
For thirty years Abel & Cole have been delivering fresh, organic fruit and vegetables direct to doorsteps around the country. We chatted to David Balmer, Director of all things technology and development to see how the company is trying to do things better
Essential Journal: Hi David, please introduce A&C to our readers…
David Balmer: A lot of people don’t realise how long we’ve been around. We’re 30 years old this year and started off selling veg door to door in London. We’ve developed from just selling veg to a business that sells over 1500 organic products. Anything from fresh fruit and veg, which is still the core, to a vast range of cuts of organic meat, Marine Conservation Society-accredited fish, a fantastic range of organic wines, beers, spirits and all your country store cupboard ingredients. We’re trying to cover not the full weekly shop but the vast majority of customer’s essentials.
As a whole, how does Abel & Cole as a company, make sure that it is sustainable?
Our mission in life is quite simple. Getting everyone into organic, that’s our primary mission. Underpinning that is to become the UK’s most trusted ethical organic community. We talk about community a lot because we believe wherever we operate in a community, we should be a force for good.
What are examples of the projects that A&C do on the side?
We probably undersell what we do. We recently raised over £5000 with a marmalade that was bespoke for the Hands Up For Syria Foundation which supports people who are displaced by the war in Syria. A lot of our team regularly go and cook at some of the local charity places around South Wimbledon, Tooting and Earlsfield. We also give our staff time off to go and support charities. We’ve got a green team within the business, a collective group of people that guide us on up and coming issues. They inspired us into getting beehives at our London HQ. It’s about recognizing bees as pollinators that are absolutely fundamental to the organic farming ethos.
Are the people that work at A&C key to this?
As a business we employ a lot of people who are hugely values driven. I think that by doing good, you then attract more people who positively contribute and it’s not just about coming to work and taking a paycheck, it’s about contributing in a much broader sense.
You’ve always been big on trying to cut down on plastic too.
There’s a big fuss over the last 12 to 18 months about plastic. We’ve been using returnable and recycled cardboard boxes for thirty years. We’ve been working out figures recently and reckon that over the last 13 years alone we’ve saved the equivalent of 60 million plastic bags. We collect the boxes the following week and actually, we can collect more of our customer’s recycling if they’re struggling to get it through their local councils. We’re always looking to continuously evolve and improve. We’ve recently signed up in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society which monitors the sustainability and environmental impact of the fish that we sell. The other keyword, 2018 and beyond, is collaboration. I think it’s important to find people who you can collaborate with.
You were also ahead of the curve when it came to ‘wonky veg’, right?
Over the last few years there’s been a huge trend to wonky veg and we’ve been working with our growers for a long time, taking all that they can supply us with. We don’t just look for that perfect round apple. That’s embedded in our ethos. We work with our growers to take as much of their crop as we physically can. We also have full transparency of our supply chain. If you go and click on any of the products on our website, you’ll be able to see who the producer is, where it’s come from and quite often, we name the families that we deal with.
How do you think perceptions of ‘organic’ have changed?
I think if you go back to just before the recession of 2008 a lot of it was seen as expensive, for the rich and not very good quality. I think where you’ve seen organic get most penetration is brands like Neo Valley. Organic milk is almost like a default for families now because they’ve made it so accessible. Price is obviously a key part in anything because families have budgets. 14 percent of the carrots sold in the UK are organic and organic is just over one and a half percent of the grocery sector. Price comparison is minimal there. It’s about making products accessible.
Finally, tell us about your British organic wine. It’s having a bit of a moment right now?
We sell a range of over 80 organic wines and within that we have a selection of British wines. We have seen over the last 18-24 months a trend to stock more British organic wines and we have some amazing producers. One of our producers is called Vintage Roots. They were started nearly 30 years ago by three guys who had a passion for organic, biodynamic and natural wines. They’re based down outside Reading.
It was a horrible season last year for English wine production and that has meant significantly reduced volumes that we’ve got access to this year and elevated prices. The British wines are amongst some of my personal and customers’ favourites. We do some from Albury State outside Guildford, they do a Rose and also a Sparkling. We’ve got another vineyard called Davenport, who do an exceptional dry White. Outside of Waitrose, there’s not too many people getting behind it. So it’s something we’d ultimately like to champion and talk more about.
Words by Davey BRETT
