VALUES AND STANDARDS

Established in 1698 in Faversham, Shepherd Neame is Britain's oldest brewer.

We are proud of our rich heritage yet we are always looking for new, and better, ways of doing things. Innovation, tradition, sustainable development, individuality and a sense of community are qualities we hold dear.

 

Marketplace

Shepherd Neame believes strongly in a responsible approach to the consumption and retailing of alcohol.

All our licensees are required to sign the Company’s Social Responsibility Charter.

In 2006 we won the National Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility, followed by the Kent Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in 2008.

We promote the Challenge 21 initiative to help reduce underage sales. We also support the Portman Group, the Drinkaware Trust, Pubwatch, Pub is the Hub, the BII and other industry initiatives to promote responsible drinking.

We forge business partnerships with Kent suppliers to bring Shepherd Neame customers the choicest fare the county has to offer.

We benefit the local environment and the local economy and our pub restaurants serve the freshest, best quality produce from the finest fisheries, farms, and orchards in the Garden of England.
Our commitment to responsible retailing extends to the global community as Fairtrade coffee and tea is served in all our pubs.

Environment

As long-standing manufacturers, we believe it is essential to protect the environment.

We hold the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development and are the only UK brewery to be accredited with ISO14001 for Environmental Best Practice.

We have invested heavily to reduce energy usage and our level of water consumption is one of the lowest in the industry. All the water used in our brewing is classified as natural mineral water.

More than 90% of the raw materials we are using in brewing are recycled and we are reviewing ways to process our by-products more effectively.

We have mapped our carbon footprint in the brewery and created a strategy to reduce consumption over the next five years.

Workplace

Shepherd Neame brings employment to more than 300 people at its Faversham headquarters.

We believe in maintaining good working relationships with our employees. We aim to provide an active, healthy and supportive working environment.

Through the provision of free bicycles to staff wishing to cycle to work and by offering group membership to a local gym, we encourage a healthy lifestyle.  We also run an active sports and social club for our employees.

We offer back to work training programmes for the long term sick and a confidential stress counselling service.

Investment in people is important to us and we have pioneered a new national training scheme in licensed hospitality and helped brewery production staff achieve NVQ certificates in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Council.

We believe in working in partnership with our pub tenants, trusting in their judgment, while helping them to develop their potential through investments and initiatives like Master of Beer, our in-house beer excellence training scheme to ensure that every pint of beer is of a consistently high quality.

Brewery staff and licensees are rewarded for longevity of service – generations of the same families have worked both in our brewery and our pubs - and we continue to support our pensioners in their retirement with an annual events programme.

We encourage share ownership and more than 50% of our employees hold shares in the company.
Community

Shepherd Neame plays an active role with our stakeholders and our community. On an annual basis, the Company supports a variety of activities:

The Kent Charity Walk in association with the Kent Messenger supports the Hospices of Kent and has raised £800,000 over 11 years

Faversham community events – The Hop Festival; Hop Blessing Service and Flavours of Faversham Food and Drink Festival

We raise money through a variety of initiatives associated with the Spitfire brand for the RAFBF Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and other service charities, including the Help for Heroes campaign.

We conduct our business with passion and innovation but also with a sense of responsibility to the wider community.