Cook specialises in premium home-delivered frozen meals and its mantra is "we only ever use tools and techniques that we would use at home".
Based in Kent, the company has grown rapidly since it first launched 12 years ago. As well as its kitchen in Sittingbourne and its home delivery service, which operates right across the UK, the number of company owned shops is 33, mainly in the south east with eight franchises, the furthest north of which is currently Harrogate, the furthest west is Guernsey and they are about to open another in Edinburgh.
"In the last four or five years we have seen massive growth," says Cook technical manager Richard Pike. In fact the company, which now turns over £19 million a year, employs more than 200 staff. Because of the growth of the business, Cook faces increasingly challenging environmental issues. The company does not yet qualify for the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, the new cap and trade scheme designed to improve
the energy efficiency of "low energy-intensive‟ UK organisations, but it is fully expecting it will in the next year or two. Meanwhile, its kitchen produces five to six tonnes of food waste a week, which translates into a rather large waste to landfill bill – something it has to address more urgently.
"I joined in July 2007 and, in September 2007, we moved into our new kitchen in Sittingbourne and spent the next 18 months chasing our tails a bit, but we were increasingly aware of a gap on the environmental front that we needed to tackle," recounts Pike, who as well as environmental responsibilities is in charge of food safety and legal issues at Cook.
Raising environmental awareness
The first action Pike took was to call in the experts, Carbon Trust, to conduct a free carbon survey. There then followed the appointment of environmental consultants Carbon Control, which is helping Cook conserve energy (for example, the company is trialling some energy saving devices on its freezer equipment). But Pike was also keen to raise awareness among the company‟s management and staff about environmental issues, and waste awareness came top of the list of priorities.
Pike says a chance conversation with his Business Link advisor informed him about the Enviroskills programme. The scheme helps small to medium-sized businesses in the South East find environmental training and subsidises the costs. It works with course providers to create short, reasonably priced training courses accredited at Level Three or Level of Four of the National Vocational Qualifications.
The training programme, which is devised by specialist Enviroskills advisors, offers
courses such as 'Environmental Awareness', 'Environmental Management Systems' and 'Waste Management'. But it also enables companies to talk through their thinking with an Enviroskills advisor in order to develop a training programme that meets their business plan.
Bespoke training package
In the case of Cook, Enviroskills devised a bespoke package that included a half-day presentation to Cook's board of directors to highlight the waste issues at the kitchen, followed by a one-day 'Waste Awareness' course for all department heads at the company. The course providers were Southampton-based Olive Consultancy.
Pike describes the course as "very reasonably priced" and "dead easy" to take part in.
"Having made initial contact to find out what was available, the delivery was good and everything went according to plan," he says.
Moreover, eligibility to the course is based on the individual, which means a company such as Cook can potentially send every member of its staff on a subsidised training course.
Pike says he is now looking to extend the Enviroskills waste awareness course to the kitchen‟s porters and cleaners.
And that is not all. Cook is investigating anaerobic digestion as a means of disposing of its food waste something that will require new ways of working at the company. The good news for Cook is that Enviroskills gives businesses the opportunity to influence and develop new courses if they don't already exist.
"It's all about getting the staff on board environmental issues. I think it‟s quite likely we will be working with Enviroskills again," says Pike.
The Enviroskills programme is co-financed by SEEDA and the European Social Fund.