BUY SOCIAL IN LONDON! DIVINE CHOCOLATE BRINGS TOGETHER A HOST OF EXCITING LONDON SOCIAL ENTERPRISES TO CELEBRATE SOCIAL SATURDAY
Award winning social enterprise Divine Chocolate, the farmer-owned chocolate company, has gathered together some of London’s exciting social businesses for a fair to celebrate Social Saturday on Saturday 10th October 2015.
Hosted by the popular indie venue the Lexi Cinema, the Fair, featuring a variety of independent food, drink and fashion companies, will run from 1.00pm-6.00pm. There will be an opportunity to meet a cocoa farmer from the co-op in Ghana that owns Divine, and the afternoon will also feature a short film about the social enterprises taking part and a clip from the new digital project by Chocolate Films, “1000 Londoners”, a unique insight into how people identify with the London they call home.
Along with Divine Chocolate, the Fair will feature Liberation Nuts, Papi's Pickles, Old Spike Roastery, Fikay Fashion, Good Beans Coffee, Grow Up Urban Farms, SOAK Shakes, and Big Issue. The Fair itself is free, tickets for the “1000 Londoners” film will be £2.50 available in advance. The Lexi Cinema is in Kensal Green at 194b Chamberlayne Road, London NW10 3JU.
Divine’s Marketing Director Charlotte Green says: “Social Saturday is a great opportunity to highlight and celebrate all the great companies around the UK who are proving it doesn’t have to be ‘business as usual’. Social enterprise is booming in London and this Social Saturday Fair is the chance to come and meet and sample some of the exciting social businesses in the capital today.”
Green adds: “Consumers and local governments are responding positively to buying from companies that put more back into society – and the desire to create new social business models is driving some of the more innovative and creative ideas in business today.”
Divine Chocolate was named Social Enterprise of the Year 2014 and is a leading example of social enterprise succeeding in a mainstream market, with products in supermarkets and independent stores here in UK and around the world. The company recently merged its UK and USA businesses and is 44% owned by the farmers who supply its cocoa, giving them status and a share of the profits, as well as additional Fairtrade premium for their crop.
Social enterprises are business that trade to meet a social or environmental mission. They make a profit like any other business but they reinvest or donate their profits to create a positive social impact. This could be creating opportunities for people marginalised from the job market, supporting development projects around the globe or strengthening local economies at home. There are around 70,000 social enterprises in the UK which employ two million people and contribute £20 billion to the UK economy.
Social Saturday is part of Social Enterprise UK’s Buy Social Campaign which urges consumers, the public and private sectors to use their purchasing power to create positive social and environmental impact. It raises awareness about the options for everyday consumers who can utilise social savings and social investment opportunities which allow money to be invested into businesses whose social mission they support.
Peter Holbrook CBE, CEO of Social Enterprise UK, said: “Social enterprises are redefining how business gets done. When you buy from them, society profits. What’s more they are outperforming regular businesses on growth and impact. Social Saturday is all about celebrating and raising awareness about our growing movement. This year we want to really put social enterprise on the map through a range of events across the country. When you buy from social enterprises your money goes so much further, I encourage you to go out there and buy social today.”
Minster for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, said: “Social Saturday is a great opportunity for people across the country to buy social and explore the breadth of this vibrant and growing sector. We want to help social enterprises thrive, which is why we are making it easier for people to invest in the social enterprises they support the most, helping us to build a truly compassionate society.”
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For more information please contact Lisa Storey on lisa@divinechocolate.com or Charlotte Borger on charlotte@divinechocolate.com