Speciality food wholesaler Cotswold Fayre has been shortlisted for The Purpose Beyond Profit Award at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards 2026, taking its place among the finalists announced in July ahead of the ceremony at Grosvenor House, London, on 10 November.
The company was launched in 1999 after founder Paul Hargreaves became aware of how difficult independent retailers were finding it to source the growing variety of British speciality food for their stores. His answer was a one order, one delivery, one invoice service that significantly reduced the administrative burden on these growing shops and enabled them to stock a much wider range of interesting artisanal food products. The model also proved to be massively carbon reducing, the business says, and that benefit is now a much larger part of a company plan aiming for net zero by 2030.
An early British B Corp
Cotswold Fayre reports that it was one of the first B Corps to be certified in the UK, in 2015, and that by size it now sits in the top 2 per cent of UK B Corps. The company is listed in B Lab’s official directory of certified B Corporations. Since certifying, it has actively encouraged its suppliers to become more environmentally and socially responsible, and as of March 2026 more than 90 of them had achieved B Corp certification of their own, according to the business.
The wholesaler believes its impact and influence on suppliers have started to change the face of the wider food and drink sector. According to its awards entry, it supplies most of the best food stores in the UK and attracts many of the best brands as partners, and it argues that, partly as a result, consumers across the country are buying and eating better quality food than when it was founded, food that is better for them and better for the planet than 25 years ago. Its speciality and fine food wholesale website describes a business supplying independent retailers throughout the UK.
From wholesale into retail and hospitality
After more than two decades of supplying retailers, Cotswold Fayre opened its first retail and hospitality site, Flourish, situated between Bristol and Bath, in 2021. The company describes the venue as a huge asset, both for the gravitas it brings with customers and because running a consumer-facing operation has helped it develop its culture in a more tangible way. A second site, also in Somerset, opened in November 2024, and the business plans to grow its estate to five retail sites by 2030, by which time it expects to reach £100 million in revenue.
Cotswold Fayre now awaits the judges’ decision in The Purpose Beyond Profit Award, at this year’s British Business Excellence Awards, with the winners due to be revealed on 10 November 2026.
